Great Idea!
Dairies convert waste into biogas for PG&E
By Janis Mara, BUSINESS WRITER
Article Launched: 11/06/2007 02:39:58 AM PST
ON A PETALUMA dairy farm underneath a dark gray tarpaulin, cow manure is producing one of California's newest sources of renewable energy — biogas.
Wind turbines, solar panels, ocean waves, even orange peels and sawgrass have been tapped as alternative forms of energy in recent years. But biogas is the real scoop and the straight poop, literally, when it comes to renewable electricity.
California will get up to 16,000 cubic feet of renewable natural gas a day, enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 150,000 California homes over ten years in two separate biogas deals announced in mid-October.
Bakersfield-based BioEnergy Solutions and New Hampshire's Microgy will capture the gas at dairy farms, clean it and deliver it to Pacific Gas & Electric.
A PG&E manager noted that it's not a big stink yet, however.
"The actual big numbers (for biogas) aren't going to start until 2009 and later," said Rod Boschee, manager of business development for PG&E. Under a mandate from the state of California, the utility must get 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.
While the party is just getting started with regard to biogas, the potential for energy saving is great. There are about 1,900 dairies and 1.7 million dairy cows in California, Boschee said.
