P G & E Fights Threat From Bovine Electricity

I Make Electricity



No Shit Man!!!


What could be more renewable than electricity from cow shit? The technology is here now and in use but according to this SF Gate article California's P G & E is throwing up roadblocks to stop it.

Durham, Butte County -- California is the nation's biggest dairy state, with 2,000 dairies supporting 1.2 million cows. And all those contented bovines produce more than milk. They also generate millions of tons of manure, which foul air, land and water.

Some farmers see that mountain of ordure as more than a stinking heap: It's a gold mine, they say, that could be used to generate electricity from methane gas, reducing the state's reliance on foreign oil and providing power for hundreds of thousands of California homes.

But dairy farmers say there's a problem: Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

Rather than encouraging methane-powered electrical generators as other state utilities are doing, critics say, Northern California's largest utility is actively undermining adoption of the technology by burdening farmers with excessive expenses and endless paperwork; that, they say, makes it impossible to get a methane system online in a timely and economical fashion.

According to the SF Gate article other utilities are encouraging this form of "co-generation":

In other areas of the state, said Mark Moser -- whose East Bay company, RCM Digesters, builds methane digesters for large farms -- utilities are promoting the technology. "The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is actively recruiting farmers to build digesters," said Moser. "Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric are supporting it. These utilities see methane as one part of the solution to California's power needs."

So even after being driven into bankruptcy by Enron, PG&E still dosen't get it.