The Iconoclast Investor

I want to talk about innovation in the Green sector for a bit. The New York Times published a special section called the Business of Green this week, and I urge you to check it out if you’re interested in the Green sector.

The story I wanted to share with you was about how some dairy farms are producing more than just milk and cow manure. Some dairy farms are generating electricity.

Surprising, yes, but that’s exactly what’s happening in Vermont and other states as people push for more Green energy solutions.

Central Vermont Public Service is one of the first utilities in the country to draw electricity from cow manure on dairy farms. It currently has four farms producing electricity and expects to have two more online before the end of the year.

Residents and businesses that get their electricity from the program will pay four cents per kilowatt hour more than the typical rate of 12.5 cents per kilowatt hour. About 4,000 customers have agreed to participate in the program and pay the extra money, most of which goes back to the farmers who are paying for the equipment needed to convert the methane from the manure into electricity.

The New York Times explains one of farm’s conversions this way:

“The Rowells’ cows live in a barn where a mechanical scraper sweeps the animals’ waste into a large drain. The waste is then pumped into a huge sealed concrete tank known as a digester, which holds 21 days’ worth of waste and is kept at a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Anaerobic bacteria break down the organic matter in the waste, producing a mix of methane and other gases, known as bio-gas. The gas is burned in an engine that runs an electrical generator.

The cow waste produces 250 to 300 kilowatts of electricity daily, enough to power 300 to 350 homes, according to the utility.”

It’s pretty amazing stuff and demonstrates the innovative ways people are searching each day for Green solutions to the energy problem. As J. Royden Ward pointed out in yesterday’s issue of Cabot Wealth Advisory, there has been no serious attempt to create an energy policy by our government. In this case, the solution likely will not come from the government, but from creative minds of business people, scientists and even farmers.