NEW ENERGY ON THE FARM

Town and country, boardroom and pastureland, New Energy is turning up everywhere.

Green energy is here
Cindy Snyder, March 2, 2007 (Ag Weekly)
- Idaho may not be on the national map when it comes to producing clean energy, but some producers are quietly finding ways to reduce their dependence on petroleum-based fuels and, they hope, improve their bottom line.

- Jared Grover learned first-hand how valuable wind power can be…his total power costs would jump to $60,000 in a four- to five-year time frame…That’s when he started looking at wind power and found a new commodity. Grover and a family member have invested in two wind facilities near Hagerman that generate 30 megawatts of electricity… - …wind could be even more important in helping the nation meet the 25 x 25 initiative, which seeks to have 25 percent of the nation’s energy generated by renewable sources by 2025…Idaho will need to generate 3,000 megawatts of electricity annually from wind…just a little under what Idaho Power generates today.
- “Wind is the least-cost solution, right now,” [Grover] said.
- …landowners who can harness the wind can also harvest decent profits…Grover estimates he receives $5,000 per acre for the land for the turbine and roads to get to the turbine. Averaged over the entire 300-acre farm, that works out to $150 per acre…“What can you grow that nets one-hundred-fifty dollars an acre?” Grover asked…
- The key to making wind power affordable is to develop sites that are near existing transmission lines…
- Economics is also pushing a Rupert-area dairy into the gas business…For Whitesides Dairy, investing in a methane gas digester allowed the owners to expand their herd and operate three milking parlors at the same location. The Whitesides have two open-lot dairies with a milking capacity of 2,000. About half the manure from those open lots…[and all the manure from a] 2,500-head, free-stall dairy…through the digester[s]…

- Reducing the amount of solid manure that must be handled is one benefit…For the last two years, the dairy has been running a two-tank digester system and producing enough natural gas to run a water heater that warms the manure…The farm is in the process of installing the next 10 tanks…Whitesides expects to produce 20,000 cubic feet of gas per head per year that can be sold in the natural-gas market. Even though the digester cost about $1,000 per cow, Whitesides expects to see a return on that investment before he turns the farm over to the next generation.
- Revenue from the sale of gas, compost and carbon credits is attractive, he admits, but manure management is priceless…