Posted: 4/5/05
Anaerobic digesters get sales pitch at meeting
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Township officers heard about a source of renewable energy that may also solve manure storage problems at their annual meeting on March 28.
Anaerobic digesters produce methane and electricity from animal waste, so they can be both a source of energy and a solution to manure-related problems for big dairy farmers.
Thatís according to Neil Kinnebeck, director of planning services for Dairyland Power Cooperative. Tri-County Electric, which serves much of Houston County, is a member of Dairyland Cooperative.
Dairyland, which has electric cooperatives in four states, is presently bringing five digesters on line now, Kinnebeck said. There are none in Houston County, although some large local farmers are inquiring about them.
About 900 cows are needed to make a digester economically feasible, according to Jesse Singerhouse of Microgy, a company that builds digesters.
Two large farms within a mile of each other and close to an electric substation could finance and use an anaerobic digester, Singerhouse said.
ìBut weíve got to get the farmers to agree to agree,î Kinnebeck said.
Kinnebeck said he wasnít in favor of bigger farms, but they are becoming a fact of life due to what he called ìeconomics of scale.î Family farms with 40-100 cow herds are vanishing at the rate of two per day in Wisconsin, Kinnebeck said. ìThat is a demographic thatís going to continue.î
Anaerobic digesters give dairy farmers a waste management tool, Kinnebeck said. Big dairy operations can create problems with odor from manure, and from nutrients like phosphorous and nitrates leaching into the ground.
Digesters are built above the ground, which lessens the risk of water contamination, Kinnebeck added.
Dairyland gets involved by agreeing to buy biogas from the farmers who own the digester. The investment can pay for itself in 12 years, Kinnebeck estimated, through the sale of the biogas.
One big plus for Dairyland is that when electricity is generated locally, shorter transmission distances follow, with less loss of energy. Dairyland Power owns the generator and other equipment necessary for generating electricity.
Hauling manure to the digester can cost about $1 per minute, according to the executive summary of a proposed anaerobic digester in Dunn County Wisconsin.
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