TerraPass project tour: biomass

Mmmm, farm-fresh cow power

One of the cool project areas Greener Miles supports is called biomass. Energy from biomass is produced by capturing methane from sources like cow manure and burning it.

This generator is powered by methane extracted from cow manure.

Biomass methane has several advantages over fossil fuels as an energy source. To begin with, it's renewable, which means much less net carbon dioxide is put into the air. Furthermore, the process prevents methane from entering the atmosphere – and methane is about 22 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

For the Greener Miles program, TerraPass funds clean energy produced at the Haubenschild dairy farm near Princeton, Minnesota. Now under its third generation of family ownership, the Haubenschild farm installed a methane digester in 1999 as part of its drive to promote sustainable agriculture.

• The digester processes 20,000 gallons of manure every day.
• The methane provides electricity for the dairy and 70 neighboring households.
• The farm produces enough carbon credits to offset 50 tons of coal each month.

As the Haubenschilds likes to boast, they use energy that took 21 days to produce, not 21 million years.

TerraPass has bought 800 tons of carbon credits from Haubenschild to date. Learn more about the farm's operations from this fun slide show, or read a short case study about the project.