9/24/02

By MARK POWELL

If New Hampshire-based Environmental Power Corp. has its way, about 10 Frederick County, Md., dairy farmers may be producing “green” electricity — enough to power 4,000 homes.
Dan Eastman of the corporation’s subsidiary Microgy Cogeneration Systems Inc. spoke with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association last week in Washington, D.C., about a similar project with six dairy farmers in Green Bay, Wis.
In a telephone interview, Eastman said a group of dairy farms in a 10-mile radius of New Midway, Md., could have in place three anaerobic digesters which would turn methane from cow manure into 10 megawatts of electricity.
“We’re in negotiations with electric buyers,” Eastman said.
Officials from the Maryland Department of Agriculture met with a Massachusetts consultant to explore the potential for such a facility in Frederick County. More than half of the state’s dairy cows are within 10 miles of New Midway. The consulting firm, including former U.S. assistant secretary of agriculture Gus Schumacher, sees a lot of potential in the project. Eastman said the farmers could help cover their costs of manure management and meet state and federal nutrient management obligations.
“We’ve had problems finding a buyer for the electricity,” Schumacher told the Maryland Agricultural Commission in a presentation earlier this month.
Eastman explained that the deregulation of the electricity industry means that electric utilities purchase electricity from a variety of suppliers. Long-term contracts for so-called “green power” — referring to the fact it is good for the environment — are hard to come by, he said. And, because of concerns with investment in the energy market after Enron’s failure, it is more difficult to gain financing for such facilities such as are being proposed in Frederick County.
Eastman is looking for a 10- to 15-year contract for electricity from the farms.
“It could be very valuable strategically,” he said, adding that because the power would be produced on a reliable basis from the dairy manure, it could be patched into the electrical grid during times of peak demand and short supply.
According to the federal Energy Information Administration, electrical generation demands are expected to increase through 2020 in the United States. Renewable fuels — “green power” — are expected to meet some of that growing demand as existing fossil fuel and nuclear power plants go into retirement.
In addition to the dairy farm project in Frederick County, three companies are seeking government approval to build “wind farms” with giant turbines off of Ocean City, in the mountains of Garrett County and on Big Savage Mountain in Allegany County.
Maryland Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Brad Powers said there is no timetable for the methane digester project. However, he is hopeful for its future. After the methane is used from the high-tech digesters — which are more advanced than older models in use in the region on a limited basis — the farmers will be left with a dry, corn-silage scented product that can be bagged and sold as garden fertilizer.