California Cow Power: Poop Pays

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 Southern California 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.

Green Wombat