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Green power from manure flows on Ohio lines


September 15, 2008  by  Marg Land

dairycow01NEWS HIGHLIGHT

Green power from manure flows on Ohio lines

A herd of 3,900 dairy cows in northern Ohio is producing milk and
renewable energy in the state’s first-ever project to capture methane
from manure for generation of electricity.

September 12, 2008, Montpelier, OH – A herd of 3,900 dairy cows in northern Ohio is producing milk and renewable energy in the state’s first-ever project to capture methane from manure for generation of electricity.

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dairycow01Bridgewater Dairy in Williams County recently fired up two generators at its new anaerobic biodigester facility and began flowing green power to Buckeye Power, Inc. and Ohio’s rural electric cooperatives.

Buckeye Power Inc. has a contract with Bridgewater Dairy to purchase all of the electricity and use it to provide green energy to the state’s 24 electric cooperatives. North Western Electric Cooperative in Bryan, Ohio, provided the grid interconnection via a three-phase circuit on its 12.4-kilovolt system.

Generation has started at the 400-kilowatt level but should steadily increase. Normal operation will produce enough electricity to supply an estimated 400 homes.

For the owners of Bridgewater Dairy, the biodigester generation system provides revenue from the sale of electricity but also solves the problem of what to do with animal waste.

A second biodigester generation system – this one using waste from a poultry farm – is expected to come on line soon.

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