Scenic View Dairy II

» See our response to public comments on this project

Scenic View Dairy II (Freeport) is the third digester project in the state of Michigan and sister project to Scenic View I. The project benefits climate change strategies by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced in dairy operations, as well as reducing the greenhouse gases from the public electricity grid, by substituting fossil fuel based power with clean renewable power.

Currently, the manure on this 3,000 cow facility is directed to open lagoons where manure decomposes anaerobically and results in large amounts of methane. Methane is a harmful greenhouse gas. When the project begins operations, manure will be fed into three large tanks where the methane will be captured and used for energy production.

The project is under construction and is expected to begin operations in April 2008.

TerraPass funds would help ensure an adequate financial return for the project and satisfy the project developers’ expectation that the voluntary carbon market would support the project. TerraPass would be the first entity to purchase any credits from the facility and is planning to purchase them under a long-term contract.

The project is purposely oversized and the developers are hopeful that eventually it can accept waste from a dairy across the street.

This project will be third-party validated and then verified according to the Voluntary Carbon Standard 2007. The United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism calculation protocol for agricultural methane - “ACM0010” will be used to quantify the carbon credits.

Project details

The “Scenic View II: Methane Recovery & Electricity generation” (hereafter, “Project” or “SVD II”) is a complete mix mesophilic anaerobic digestion treatment facility used to recover methane gas, produce electricity from this gas, and demonstrate and develop innovative treatment technologies for the reduction of the nutrient content of the waste stream from animal feeding operations through the use of a nutrient recovery system.

The project treats raw manure and wastewater from 3,000 dairy cows by anaerobic digestion, replacing the farm’s anaerobic lagoons for manure management.

A flushing system automatically delivers manure from the main barns to a manure collection pit. The manure pit is constantly agitated and a piston pump delivers the manure to three above ground digester tanks.

Three insulated digester tanks with multiple agitators are lined with a dual impermeable membrane that isolates the system from oxygen and captures the biogas. A hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 28 days is expected.

The biogas from the digester will then be used for the production of electricity for both on-farm use and export. Waste heat from the generators will heat the digesters to mesophilic temperatures.

The nutrient recovery system is modeled on the design at Geerlings Hillside Farms swine facility in Overisel.

The facility anticipates fully switching its bedding material from purchased sand to digested solids with project implementation. As of Nov 2007, they had made the switch to 85% solids using excess material from Scenic View I.

Total installed generating capacity is 1.6 MW and is expected to cover current annual farm on-site usage of about 1,800 MWh per year replacing purchases of electricity from the local utility and allowing sales of any excess electricity to the local utility.

An open flare has been installed to combust any excess methane gas not used by the generators. An effluent pond is used for digester effluent, which is seasonally field applied on the farm’s own crops.

Development of the Project reduces greenhouse gas emissions produced by the release of methane from the open anaerobic lagoons, and further reduces greenhouse gas emissions by displacing local grid electricity used onsite with renewable electricity generated onsite.

Project location

The project is located in Freeport, MI. Freeport is in Barry County, in southwest lower Michigan, about 30 miles southeast of Grand Rapids.

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
• Reduction in sand harvesting as solids from the digester replace sand as the primary bedding source

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 one of the first digesters in the state of Michigan.
• The facility is located across the street from another dairy and the tanks are oversized with the hope that manure from both facilities will be channeled into the digester

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

The management of Scenic View Dairy II manages manure much like many other dairies in the US - manure is scraped daily from the barns into large lined lagoons where it slowly decomposes. 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 21 times as damaging as CO2. Below, we’ve illustrated how manure management is changing at the farm.

Before: Scrape system feeds manure pit that flows to 15M Gallon Lagoon.	After: Manure flows to three sealed digester tanks

Additionality

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

US-based anaerobic digester based projects are widely accepted as additional by analysis of their aggregate economics and adoption profiles. As of the November 2007, there were approximately 88 dairy digesters in operation in the USA, out of a total of about 92,000 dairies.¹

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 will be validated and then verified against the Voluntary Carbon Standard 2007, following the Clean Development Mechanism’s ACM0010 as the approved methodology

Barriers to Implementation. This project is one of the first digesters 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 any reasons that continuing operations would face any regulatory barriers.

Impact of TerraPass funds. A review of the project’s draft economic modeling prior to operation shows clear expectations of carbon offset revenues. The magnitude of carbon offset revenues significantly contributes to making the project economically feasible to the facility owner compared with other investment alternatives.

However, the power purchase agreement is not yet finalized, so the final economics of the project are still uncertain. As a part of formal third party validation, the final economics will be presented and the impact of carbon offset revenues ensured.

The project is not yet operational, but the long term contract contemplated by TerraPass delivers the expectation of carbon revenues. The TerraPass contract would be the first carbon revenue contract for the project.

Better than most. TerraPass seeks projects where the operations have shown good practices and avoided substantial negative impacts. Scenic View II is a well-run dairy with good community relations, and an innovative use of bio-solid bedding. The oversized tanks show a hope of improving conditions at a farm across the street show the potential of even greater reductions and the leadership facilities like Scenic View II can provide in America’s farming communities.

Footnotes

1. Installed systems from AgStar Anaerobic Digester Database. Total facilities from Climate Leaders Draft Offset Protocol, October 2006.