Scenic View Dairy I

» See our response to public comments on this project

Scenic View Dairy I (Fennville) is the first digester project in the state of Michigan and the first digester project in the US to generate both electricity and pipeline grade natural gas. The project benefits climate change strategies by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced in dairy operations, as well as reducing the greenhouse gasses from the public electricity grid, by substituting fossil fuel based power with clean renewable power.

Previously, the manure on this 2,200 cow facility was directed to open lagoons where manure decomposed anaerobically and resulted in large amounts of methane. Methane is a harmful greenhouse gas. Now, manure is fed into three large tanks where the methane is captured and used for energy production.

The project’s first came online on in June 2006, and the natural gas injection system came online in summer 2007.

TerraPass funds would help ensure an adequate financial return for the project and satisfy the expectation project developers had about the voluntary carbon market supporting the project. TerraPass is the first entity to purchase any credits from the facility and is purchasing them under a long term contract.

The project was path breaking in the region and has already led to follow on projects for the developer.

This project meets the Chicago Climate Exchange offset protocol standards; applicability of other offset standards is under review.

Project details

The “Scenic View I: Methane recovery, electricity generation and biogenic gas injection project” is a complete mix anaerobic digestion treatment facility designed to recover methane gas from animal manure and use it both to produce electricity and to insert into a public natural gas pipeline.

The project treats raw manure and wastewater from 2,200 dairy cows by anaerobic digestion. The system replaces the farm’s open anaerobic lagoons previously used for manure management. The project began operating in June, 2006.

A flushing system automatically delivers manure from the main barns to a manure collection pit. In addition, a barn housing 700 young stock is scraped daily and trucked approximately 2000 ft to the manure pit. The manure pit is constantly agitated and a piston pump delivers the manure to three above-ground digester tanks, shown above.

The biogas from the digester is then piped out of the tanks and treated for one of two purposes: some gas is fed into electric generators which produce power for the farm and for export to the grid; other gas is fed into the public natural gas pipeline and sold to a local distribution company for use by other customers. Waste heat from the generators warms the digesters to ideal temperatures. This is the first time in the US that a farm has delivered both electricity and pipeline grade natural gas.

Development of the project reduces greenhouse gas emissions - in this case, methane - which was otherwise released from the open anaerobic lagoons is destroyed by combustion in the generators or by users of the public gas supply. The project further reduces greenhouse gas emissions by replacing local grid energy previously used on the farm, with renewable energy produced onsite. Finally, the project replaces fossil fuel-based natural gas with renewably-produced natural gas for all gas injected into the public pipeline.

Project location

The project is located in Fennville, Michigan in the south west part of lower Michigan, about 45 miles from Grand Rapids. The satellite image below shows the farm from above.

Other environmental and social benefits

Environmental benefits

• Improvement in air quality (e.g., VOC reductions)
• Elimination of odor in surrounding areas, improving living standards both on the farm and in the neighboring communities
• Solids from the digester have replaced sand as the primary bedding source, preserving land from additional sand harvesting

Social benefits

• Local employment for construction related to the project, installation of equipment, and operation of the Project
• Increasing energy independence for the farming sector. This manifests itself both in longer term low energy costs (extending beyond the crediting period) as well as reduced exposure to price risks in energy markets.
• Continued operation of a family-owned dairy farm by improving its economic positioning.

Project’s ability to foster further greenhouse gas emissions reductions

• Development priming: this is the first digester in the state of Michigan, and the first digester to combine electricity generation with pipeline gas injection. Elements from this project are highly reproducible in the local community and early progress has already led to follow-on project development.

Discussion of appropriate use of TerraPass funds

The project is an ideal candidate for TerraPass funds as carbon revenues clearly were a decisive factor in helping a path breaking project that significantly and permanently reduces greenhouse emissions achieve a modest financial return. TerraPass considers many aspects of projects before deciding whether to fund them. Here is a summary of key considerations for this project.

Baseline conditions

Before the installation of a digester, the management of Scenic View Dairy managed manure much like many other diaries in the US - manure was scraped daily from the barns into large lined lagoons where it slowly decomposed. The soluble manure, or “volatile solids” in the lagoons decomposes under anaerobic conditions, which leads to large emissions of methane, a harmful greenhouse gas about 20 times as damaging than CO2. Below, we’ve illustrated how manure management changed at the farm:

Before the project: Manure flowed into a manure pit that flowed to lagoons that vented large amounts of methane into the atmosphere.	After the project: A piston pump feeds the manure into digester tanks that stabilize the manure, capture the methane and use it for energy production.

Additionality

No regulatory requirements. There are no state, federal, or local regulations requiring the diary to manage its manure in this manner.

U.S.-based anaerobic digester based projects are widely accepted as additional by analysis of their aggregate economics and adoption profiles. This project meets the eligibility criteria of all the following performance standard protocols: EPA Climate Leaders, California Climate Action Registry, and CCX Offset Protocol. The project has been verified against the standards of the CCX Offset Protocol. There are no federal, state or regional regulations that require the facility to manage manure in this manner. At the time of the project launch there were approximately 60 dairy digesters in operation in the USA, out of a total of about 92,000 dairies.₁

Barriers to Implementation. This project is the first digester in the US to undertake both electrical generation and pipeline gas grade injection; and the first digester in the state of Michigan, and as such faced early market and technology barriers. Other alternatives open to the facility, such as continuing operation of the lagoons, were not prevented by these barriers. We have not been made aware of, and a FOIA search did not yield any reasons that continuing operations would face any legal or permit barriers.

Impact of TerraPass funds. A review of the project’s economic modeling prior to operation showed clear expected carbon offset revenues at the time of launch, and the magnitude of carbon offset revenues significantly contributes to making the project economically feasible to the facility owner compared with other investment alternatives. The project owner chose not so sell the credits at that time, waiting for a market to further develop. The sale to TerraPass consummates the expectation of revenues.

Better than most. TerraPass seeks projects where the operations have shown good practices and avoided substantial negative impacts. Scenic View I is a well run dairy with good community relations, and an innovative use of bio-solid bedding. The project has been used as showroom for interested parties, and has led to follow on projects and neighboring dairies. In addition Scenic View has been a valuable contributor to ongoing energy policy dialogue in Michigan and an advocate for farm power.

Footnotes

1. Climate Leaders Draft Offset Protocol, October 2006.