Electric Cows

There was an interesting story on the Internet this morning being reported by the Associated Press. The Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport is generating electricity for Vermont’s largest utility by using the methane gas produced by their 1,500 cows.

The process appears to be simple. The manure is heated and the resulting methane gas is collected and used to power a generator, which then sends the electricity onto the power grid. Customers have signed up to pay about cents more per kilowatt-hour for their electricity to support the farmers.

Wow, everyone seems to benefit. The consumers have another source of renewable power. The farmers are able to turn manure into a cash flow. The cooking the manure gets rid of close to 90 percent of the smell and the depleted manure can be used for animal bedding or as compost. The farmers can offset their electricity costs and recover the cost of the processing equipment.

Hopefully the dairies of Oregon will pick up on the idea. Maybe the engineers will be able to tap this power support at it source and also be able to capture all the methane gas produced by the cows. Attaching small generation units shouldn’t be a problem. The only challenge I see is keeping the cables from getting tangled as the cows wander over the pasture.