photo originally uploaded by ukidlucas
The California Energy Commission has released a report on a program that transforms cow manure into power by extracting methane – a potent greenhouse gas – from bovine poop and using it to fuel electricity-generating turbines. The conclusion: Cow power can make money for dairies and make them energy self-sufficient as well as provide electricity to the grid. But – there’s always a but – the Byzantine regulatory structure that favors entrenched utilities is frustrating the widespread adoption of bovine biogas.
Cow power is an alternative energy fuel that should be the perfect solution to a host of environmental problems. It takes cow manure, a widespread source of global warming – there are a couple million cows in California alone – and an environmental waste that costs farms millions of dollars a year to dispose of, and turns it into a clean, green source of electricity. As Green Wombat wrote about Vermont’s use of cow power, there are also other environmental and financial benefits.
The California Energy Commission report shows that there’s cash in cow crap. For instance, the 9,900-cow Hilarides Dairy outside Tulare in the Central Valley has installed a state-subsidized methane digester system that could provide all its electricity from cow manure. In November, the dairy saved $15,547 in electricity costs. But as was the case with other dairies reviewed by the report, the Tulare farm has been reluctant to fully ramp up cower power. Why? For one thing, there’s no system in place that lets dairies sell excess power they generate to Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and other California utilities. That discourages dairy owners from spending the money to operate methane digesters. Second, the state’s "net metering" law – which credits dairies for excess electricity they generate – is so convoluted and stacked in the utilities favor as to make investments in cow power a risky bet.
The bottom line: If you’re going to invest in alternative energy like cow power, you need to make an equal, if not greater investment, in making sure there’s a level regulatory playing field. When it comes to energy, there’s no such thing as a free market.
Green Wombat 
Yes, the equation is simple: Poop = Energy. My day job is to design systems powered by human poo, at WWTPs. However, in some of the literature I’ve seen, it can be even more cost effective dealing w/ animal poo just based on higher density of waste generators. Pork, chickens, and cows all have great poo for energy generation.
One of the issues though, is the anaerobic digestion, the process which produces the methane, alone does not provide enough treatment to discharge the effluent directly into a receiving stream. There must be additionally treatment, often in lagoons, which complicates operation and makes the system less cost effective.
But none of this means…well shit…if we don’t have good net metering laws IN EVERY STATE! If you can’t bring the excess electricity to market, what the point….
Tulare is NOT in Southern California. It is in the Central Valley of California, south of Fresno.
If this technology seems interesting, you should check out Dynamotive…..
just put the poop in the gas tank
Rural India has been using cow power for decades!
He said poo.
For almost 30 years now Rural and some parts of urban India has been sucessfully using Bio Gas produced from Cow shit. In fact in these 3 decades the technology has really developed very well and the west should stop reinventing known technologies and look at adopting the robust low cost methods already in existence.
If you are interested in this type of stuff check out Intrepid at: http://www.intrepid21.com/
Their approach is a little different in that they are capturing the gas to be sold right back to gas supply companies. I believe Intermountain Gas Co. has agreed to buy from them and they just got a $7 million plus bond or something to that effect.
The issue in my experiences, is that biogas is not as pure, from an energy standpoint, as NG. Therefore most utilities are only open to accepting it into their distribution system if it is scrubbed and purified, which is expensive and requires quite a bit of energy.
|| Om Sai Ram ||
WORLD COW RESOURCE CENTER®
Science, Medicine & Generation Research
Group Website: http://www.gcpdworldwide.com
http://www.worldcowwealth.com
Ref: WCRC \ mail \ 011\ 07- Date:7th Jan. ’07
Dear Sirs \ Madam,
We take this opportunity to introduce WCRC (World Cow Resource Center) a NGO working in the field of Cow Utility, Agriculture and its associated projects referred below. WCRC works on issues related to Cow Utility aiming at non-lactating cows are put to better use, rather then forcing them to be sold to slaughter house or abandoned.
Some of the major issue’s WCRC deals in saving around half million (5, 00,000), mainly non-lactating cows in the (Mumbai-Financial Capital of India) State of Maharashtra, alone by the year 2010, as well spear heading the following projects, to be executed in immediate future:
1. Biogas 2. Cow Dung Fertilizer
3. Cow Urk Medicine 4. Bio-Diesel
5. Medicinal Herb Cultivation 6. Rural Women Empowerment.
7. Cow Utility 8. Waste Land Development.
9. Power Generation.
The above Project would be spread in an area of 5000 (Five Thousand) Acres of Waste Land (site already located), to be developed by WCRC in Maharashtra, as pilot project and expected to provide a rural & agricultural employment for around 25,000 (twenty five thousand) people as well create new model village.
We are looking for Technical and Financial collaborators across the Globe on all the above referred projects under WCRC; hence this appeal. Tentative Project cost has been estimated at Indian Rupees 1Crores (=US$2,22,000) per acre. WCRC will raise locally 20% of the Project cost.
WCRC is a wing of Dr. Kedia Charitable Trust (DKCT) and promoted by the undersigned.
In case, you need more information on this project, please feel free to call on us, we shall be please to furnish the details at our earliest.
Thanking you,
Yours Truly,
Dr. P. M. KEDIA
Chairman – WCRC
What California Cow Power has need to be spread around in Asia; we are willing to partner with you to bring in your technology into India’s main stream.
“Two is a company” for Future of India’s Alternative and Renewable Power Generation.
Thanks,
WCRC
Mumbai, India.
Having worked in the electric utility industry in California for 30 years, I would like to respond to those calling for a “level regulatory playing field”.
The regulations do not favor utilities. Every time a special interest group wants to enter the generation industry they ask for “special treatment”. The biomass, wind, geothermal, and cogenerators are all examples. Each time they received tax breaks, mandatory contracts, were allowed to connect and transmit on facilities constructed and maintained by the utilities. And the reulations got more complicated.
The regulations have been modified dramatically to allow other players into the game, have you forgotten the de-regulation debacle already? That little leveling of the playing field drove the State of California next to bankruptcy.
There are already systems in place for small cogenerators to sell thier power to the grid, but grid pricing dynamics are indeed very complicated, for the simple reason that you cannot store electricity, it must be used at the time it is generated. So scheduling becomes an issue. You cannot expect to get a simple “price/KWH” contract for shipping your methane produced power to the public, they have a right to the most cost effective means of generation, which, for all it’s “green” benefits, your cow power is not.
A level playing field should apply to ALL power generators, including the utilities, and not penalize the companies that created the infrastructure and developed most of the technology for transmitting and protecting the system for the benefit of a new group and at the expense of the people of California.