New project: Green Valley Dairy up for public comment

Peter Freed | June 20, 2008

We hit double digits with a tenth project open for review.

The TerraPass project team is excited to bring you our tenth project for public comment. The Green Valley Dairy in Wisconsin is using an anaerobic digester to turn farm waste into a renewable source of electricity and heat.

Prior to the project, the manure on this farm was stored in open lagoons and seasonally applied to fields as fertilizer. In open lagoons, manure decomposes anaerobically, creating large amounts of methane emissions. By working with TerraPass to sell carbon offsets the farm is able to guarantee the financial feasibility of the project. We’re excited to be able to support this type of positive work and remain committed to supporting other farms in their efforts to mitigate the environmental effects of their operations.

Please check out the project details and send us any comments or questions.

And don’t forget: the comment period on the Upper Rock Island landfill gas-to-energy project ends soon.

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Comments

1. By Anonymous on June 25, 2008 8:46 AM

Sounds good to me, but how about using a Capstone microturbine to generate the electricity and capture the waste heat?

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2. By Question on June 25, 2008 9:20 AM

There is something that I have never understood about this type of project: maybe you folks can enlighten me. You are generating energy (and not putting methane into the atmosphere), which is good, but are you not also failing to fertilize the fields that used to be fertilized from this waste lagoon? If so, are you then forced to buy (natural gas based) synthetic fertilizer to do this job?
Please help me figure this one out...

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3. By Tom Arnold on June 25, 2008 9:26 AM

@Question: Good question. The main nutrients you want to field apply are still available after digestion. Additionally, because digester projects solve storage problems, farmers can better time the application of nutrients so it can be applied at times that are optimal for plant growth. Finally, the separated solids also supply a kind of peat-moss substitute product that can be used on other farms (e.g., apple farms in Michigan, etc). Good question, though and we'll add it to the write up on public comments.

@Anon: we've seen a few turbines, but most folks are happy with the engines and the trials we have seen with turbines show they are both expensive and have reliability issues with biogas. But I agree its an exciting technology to bring to the farm.

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4. By Question on June 25, 2008 10:02 AM

Tom:
Thanks for the reply - the project sounds like a win-win. Keep up the good work, and I'll keep up my TerraPass subscription :)

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