Puget Sound Energy and Farm Power Northwest Team to Produce Electric Power from Manure

April 28, 2008 – Vol.13 No.6

Puget Sound Energy and Farm Power Northwest Team to Produce Electric Power from Manure.

In a signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), the companies will develop a dairy digester facility that holds the promise of both an environmentally friendly energy source and a benefit to local dairy farmers and Skagit County, the home of Farm Power Northwest.

PSE, in conjunction with Farm Power founders Kevin and Daryl Maas, signed the agreement as a first step toward generation of up to 1.5 megawatts (MW) of electric power – enough to meet the needs of 1,000 households. Under the agreement, PSE will purchase electricity generated by Farm Power as well as the associated renewable energy credits resulting from the renewable energy source.

The manure will be used in the generation of power by warming it in the digester to spur microbes to produce methane gas. The methane then fuels electrical generators, with the excess heat being used to warm additional manure and continue the electrical generation cycle.

A dairy digester practically eliminates greenhouse-gas emissions from manure storage, while reducing manure-handling expenses and compensating each participating farm for supplying manure.

In addition to electricity generated, byproducts will include sanitary bedding for use with dairy cattle and a more environmentally compatible liquid fertilizer to be stored in the farms’ holding lagoons. Compared with unprocessed manure, the nitrogen in this liquid is easier for plants to absorb and is less likely to mix with rain runoff.

Puget Sound Energy is Washington state’s oldest and largest energy utility, with a 6,000-square-mile service area stretching across 11 counties, PSE serves more than 1 million electric customers and nearly 729,000 natural gas customers.

Farm Power, of Skagit County, Washington, was founded to protect farmers and farmland by producing energy from cow manure. The company uses commercialized technology to harvest methane gas that is burned to generate electricity. The processed manure back to the farmers as an organic fertilizer now free of pathogens and odor. (4/24/08)

Links:

Puget Sound Energy
http://www.pse.com

Farm Power
http://www.farmpower.com

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Puget Sound Energy (PSE) Buys 50 MW of Wind Power from PPM Energy.

Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: No