SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — New York’s 4,300 dairy farms could easily support a tenfold increase in anaerobic digesters, yielding a variety of environmental benefits through the production of renewable natural gas.
The challenge is establishing a business model that makes such efforts attractive to farmers, investors and the consumers that would use such fuel.
More than 100 stakeholders from these sectors, plus state officials, discussed such issues during a Nov. 19 workshop, “The Power of Organic Waste: Opportunities for Renewable Natural Gas in New York,” at Skidmore College.
“New York is a virtual goldmine for organics,” said Joanna D. Underwood, founder of New York City-based Energy Vision, an environmental research organization, which organized the event. “It’s the perfect place to produce not just milk, but biogas.”
Anaerobic digesters convert manure to methane gas. Currently, the systems are found at 28 upstate New York farms. Most farms use the electricity generated by digesters to power their operations, which reduces utility costs. Or, they can obtain energy credits by putting electricity back on the grid.
But to date, the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, hasn’t recognized the environmental benefits of methane-produced electricity the same as it has wind and solar power, said Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, a state Assembly Agriculture Committee member. So there isn’t as much financial incentive to invest in this type of renewable energy, she said.
Woerner, Underwood and other panelists including Peter Wright, of Cornell University’s Dairy Environmental Systems Program, say using digesters to produce renewable natural gas, instead of electricity, could yield much greater profits, especially if complemented by other organics such as food waste.
At present, much of the methane generated at landfills is flared off, when it could be used to fuel vehicles.
Manure from farms combined with organic waste from urban areas provides an almost unlimited supply of material to produce renewable natural gas.
“New York is the fourth largest waste producing state in the country,” Underwood said. “You get a tremendous bang for your buck when you convert a fleet of trucks or buses to renewable natural gas. Then you create a market for the guy who wants to buy an anaerobic digester.”
Renewable natural gas could displace millions of gallons of dirty, potentially harmful diesel.
“It’s clean burning,” Underwood said. “When you refine biogas it’s almost zero emissions in terms of health-threatening emissions such as nitrogen oxide, which damage the lungs, and particulates. It’s a very clean fuel.”
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