RIVERDALE, California. - Imagine a vat of liquid cow manure
covering the area of five football fields and 33 feet deep. Meet California's
most alternative new energy.
On a dairy farm in the Golden State's agricultural heartland,
utility PG&E Corp began on Tuesday producing natural gas derived from manure, in
what it hopes will be a new way to power homes with renewable, if not entirely
clean, energy.
The Vintage Dairy Biogas Project, the brainchild of life-
long dairyman David Albers, aims to provide the natural gas needed to power
1,200 homes a day, Albers said at the facility's inauguration ceremony.
"When most people see a pile of manure, they see a pile of
manure. We saw it as an opportunity for farmers, for utilities, and for
California," Albers said.
In addition to being a partner in the 5,000-head Vintage
Dairy, Albers is also president of BioEnergy Solutions, the company that funded
and built the facility which cost millions of dollars. PG&E is simply a customer
and the companies declined to give details of project finances.
As cow manure decomposes, it produces methane, a greenhouse
gas more potent than carbon dioxide. Scientists say controlling methane
emissions from animals such as cows would be a major step in addressing climate
change.
Enter the Vintage Dairy project. As luck would have it,
methane can be captured and treated to produce renewable gas, and California
regulators have directed PG&E and other utilities to make renewable energy at
least 20 percent of their electricity supplies by 2010.
PG&E expects to reach 14 percent this year, thanks in small part at least to
its partnership with BioEnergy Solutions.
