Ideas concerning the use of methane from cow manure as energy have been kicked around for years but often dismissed because they weren’t economical. However, as Congress lines up to potentially sign the new climate bill into a law, economics are coming in line and these systems that have a payback are looking very promising.
In Greeley, Colorado investors are lining up to support a new planned clean energy park that eventually will convert some of the methane gas released from the manure piles into power for a variety of industrial businesses. Several agricultural feedlots in the area have already begun experimenting and testing a new technology that heats the cattle excrement and turns it into energy.
The use of this technology, coupled with a market-based policy would come of great benefit to the agricultural industry. Industries would be able to sell credits, generated by reducing the green house gases they emit, in the new emissions-trading market the bill would create. This would also create an environmentally friendly shift towards renewable energies and away from methane, a green house gas that is twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide, and much more efficient “heat trapper” in terms of global warming effects.
I personally find this development in technology, in response to the potential policy making in Washington as a great signal of hope. I believe we need to save ourselves, and the world, from the environmental degradation that is every day ebbing closer to an irreversible tipping point. I believe we must use new technologies to develop and implement new ways of powering our country, homes and automobiles. The use of renewable energy, both measures on a massive scale, a smaller scale will come to our nation’s rescue. Additionally, by finding use of by-products, and waste products, and recognizing their value will be of great importance. Hopefully with the passing of the energy bill through congress, we will begin to see even more of these technologies being developed and implemented.
---- Kirsten Dobson
Are these manure piles coming from CAFOs? If so is it good to base an energy source off of a system that most environmentalists wouldn't support in the first place?
ReplyDeleteAnimal waste is only a big problem in areas where there are too many animals, otherwise the waste would just be used to fertilize the land there. While this waste-powered system does seem like a good idea, it might just be a band-aid for a problem that we should be getting to the root of, not building on.
I think it's a great idea, but how are they heating it? Storing it and passively heating it with windows and sunlight?
ReplyDeleteAlso I agree that it is part of a larger problem of commercial agriculture gone too far, but I wouldn't really say it's a band-aid. I would say that it is a good way to counter the negative impacts while trying to transition to more small scale or smart agricultural practices. But I think this will take a while... so why not control the methane emissions while we're waiting?
Cow manure may not be the most pleasant source of energy, but it would be unwise to just let it go to waste. There is a constant struggle on the finite nature of energy sources, causing multiple conflicts. The use of manure could help to lower the strain. Maure is about as renewable as you can get, the digestive system is cyclical and doesn't end until the organism dies. I feel that the energy bill should support the use of methane and have a new energy source come out of waste.
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