Calif. sees energy savings in tonnes of cow manure
Date: 21-May-01
Country: USA
Author: Spencer Swartz
"A lot of dairy farmers are renting generators and trying to see how they can conserve, but more farmers are looking at using cow manure to produce electricity...it's turning a waste product into a positive," said Bob Krauter, a spokesman at the California Farm Bureau.
Clean-burning, environmentally friendly cow dung, which is already used by some California farmers to produce power, is also receiving attention from the state as well.
A group of state agencies on Friday is putting on a one-day energy forum in Tulare County, the cow-capital of the U.S., south of Fresno, and home to nearly 340,000 cows that produce almost $1 billion in dairy products a year, Krauter said.
"Conservation and dairy digester systems are two of the big topics at today's forum," Steve Lyle, a spokesman at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, one of the agencies putting on today's energy forum.
Gov. Gray Davis has also signed a bill that allocates $10 million to defray the costs of costly so-called dairy digester systems that churn out electricity.
The Western United Dairymen, an industry group, said the bill will pay farmers 25 percent of the cost of installing the systems, according to the Farm Bureau web page.
Some of the nearly 300 dairy farms in Tulare have been discussing ways to pool their manure at a collection site, where cow dung would be mixed and heated with water and turned into the methane gas used to fire electric turbines, the Farm Bureau's Krauter said.
He cited estimates that dairies with 1,500 cows could produce up to one megawatt of electricity, enough to power 1,000 homes.
OTHER STATES
The need for creative energy alternatives has also become acute farther north in hydro electric-dependent Washington state, which is looking to tap its cow population to ease a looming power shortage brought on by a severe drought and dwindling reservoirs.
The Pacific Northwest, which relies on hydro power for up to 70 percent of its electricity during normal rainfall years, has seen one of the driest winters since the mid-1970s.
State groups have increasingly looked at cow dung as just the "green" fuel needed to fill the growing hydro-electric gap.
According to a recent study cited by the Washington state Dairy Federation, waste from dairy cattle in just one county could generate up to 10 megawatts of electricity, enough to light up 8,000 homes.
The Dairy Federation said Portland General Electric began building a tiny biogas facility in March on a dairy farm near Salem, Oregon, relying on the farm's 500 cows for fuel.
The plant is expected to generate 100 kilowatts of power, enough for around 65 homes, by July, the group said.
