CVPS Cow Power wins energy award
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By Bruce Edwards Rutland Herald - Published: January 30, 2007
A highly touted renewable energy program created by Central Vermont Public Service Corp. was honored Monday with the Vermont Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence.
CVPS Cow Power, which turns manure into energy, and Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport were the recipients of the state's highest environmental award. The award recognized Cow Power's benefits of improved air and water quality, reduced greenhouse gases and generating renewable energy.
The award was presented by Gov. James Douglas to Cow Power coordinator David Dunn and Marie Audet of Blue Spruce Farm, the first dairy farm in CV's service territory to produce electricity from manure.
"Through their partnership, the Audet family and Central Vermont Public Service have given new economic hope to many of our Vermont farms while providing customers a fully renewable energy choice," Douglas said in presenting the award at a Statehouse ceremony. "In creating CVPS Cow Power, the company built an entirely new economic and environmental model for manure management, and the Audets were brave enough to become pioneers and prove that it would work."
CVPS created the program in 2004 to provide farmers with a new source of income. It also gives customers an option to buy a portion of their power from renewable energy. Customers pay a premium of 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, which goes to participating farm-producers, to purchase renewable energy credits when enough farm energy isn't available, or to the CVPS Renewable Development Fund.
The fund provides grants to farm owners to develop on-site generation. Farm-producers are also paid 95 percent of the market price for the energy sold to CVPS.
"We are honored to receive this award as an affirmation of the commitment throughout our farming community to manage the waste we produce in an environmentally responsible way," Marie Audet said in a statement. "We are also humbled by the thousands of people paying a little extra each month, making a statement that they not only support renewable energy, but agriculture in Vermont."
Cow Power represents only a small percentage of the utility's electric load. By the end of the year, when several more farms come online, the renewable energy program will account for roughly one percent of the company's power supply, CVPS spokesman Stephen Costello said.
But Costello said the environmental benefits of turning manure into electricity are significant.
"You're removing the methane from the air, which is about 20 times worse than CO2 at trapping greenhouse gases," Costello said.
There are more than 3,700 customers who have enrolled in the CVPS program, among them Newbury Village Store.
Costello said Newbury Village Store receives half its annual electric usage of 50,000 kwh from Cow Power. He said that's the equivalent of removing 146 metric tons of CO2 from the air each year.
"Even a small customer can have a pretty significant impact," Costello said.
The process also removes the offensive manure odor.
"Drive by one of these farms on the Fourth of July and you wouldn't be able to go outside for the family picnic," he said.
There are other benefits as well. Waste heat generated from the process is used to heat hot water, which in the case of Blue Spruce Farm saves $10,000 a year on propane, Costello said.
The dried out manure solids are used for cow bedding, saving thousand of dollars a year on the purchase of sawdust.
The Cow Power process works like this: Manure is held in a sealed concrete tank. Bacteria then digest the compounds, creating methane while at the same time killing pathogens and weed seeds. The methane powers a generator with the energy put onto the power grid.
The processed farm waste can be separated into solids and liquid. The solids can be dried and used as cow bedding or composted for home and garden use, while the liquid, which is nearly odorless, can be spread as fertilizer.
Pleasant Valley Farm in Berkshire recently joined Blue Spruce Farm as a Cow Power producer. Green Mountain Dairy in Sheldon, Montagne Farms in St. Albans, Newmont Farms in Fairlee and Deer Flat Farms in Pawlet are expected online this year.
Contact Bruce Edwards at bruce.edwards@rutlandherald.com.
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