Cow Power.

Hey folks,

I love this story. You can read the whole story Here

Can some of our energy problems be solved this way? After all the research, could it be as simple as Cows? I’m still laughing.

According to the article, the Audet family's Blue Spruce Farm make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk a day and about 35,000 gallons of manure. That's a lot of manure. Obviously they wanted to figure out a way to make what they produce more of pay them. They did. Methane that comes form the manure can and DOES produce electricity.

With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets have devised a way to extract the methane from the manure and pipe it to a generator.

They make enough electricity to power 300 to 400 average Vermont homes. It's renewable energy, and they're not the only ones interested in it. Four other Vermont farms now have similar projects in the planning or early construction stages, power company officials said.

The Audets "deserve to be congratulated. They're the pioneers among Vermont farmers," said Dave Dunn, a senior energy consultant with CVPS who worked with them on the cow power project.

Elsewhere in the country, farmers are using similar technology to make energy, said Corey Brickl, project manager with Wisconsin-based GHD Inc., which built a device that the Audets use to harvest the methane.

One in Washington uses tomato waste from a salsa factory and waste from a fish stick plant as fuel, Brickl said.

For the Audets, the electricity has created an important new income stream at a time when low wholesale milk prices have squeezed their margin. The utility pays 95 percent of the going New England wholesale power price for electricity from the Audets' generator.

What I find so interesting about this, is that all these years so many people such as developers, businesses, and those that seek new golf courses and condos, have HATED the farmers. They have attempted to take their land, foreclose on their homes, and put them out of business, but now, it just may be those same Farmers that can help us with MAJOR energy problems. Talk about a renewable energy source.

I do not know why this strikes me as so funny. But Cow Power is here to stay.
Peter