USDA gives dairies money for methane digesters

GERVAIS, Ore. (AP) ?” Two Oregon dairies will get federal money to help build power plants that run on manure.

Jer-Osa Organic Dairy in Gervais will get $80,000 from a program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. A second grant for $80,000 went to a project in Tillamook County.

The plant, called a methane digester, uses methane from cow manure to produce power. Electricity generated goes directly into the grid.

Jerome Rosa of Jer-Osa Organic Dairy has been working on the project for the past two years, hoping to join a growing number of farmers that are turning animal waste into energy. Rosa hopes to have the digester completed before 2008.

More than 100 digesters are in operation around the country. Most of them are at dairy farms in the Midwest, California, New York and Pennsylvania.

Rosa’s project benefits from a successful pilot project at Cal-Gon Farm north of West Salem. There, at Bernie Faber’s dairy farm, the digester puts out about 50 kilowatts of electricity per hour, enough to power between 40 and 45 homes.

Besides generating power, the machine substantially cuts odors. It also reduces methane emissions, which are 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, according to Portland General Electric, which funded the project on Faber’s farm.

“This is something that can literally generate electricity and reduce greenhouse gas simultaneously,” said Mark Fryburg of Portland General Electric. “We are glad people are paying attention to new sources of energy.”

Rosa, the vice president of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, said money is the major barrier to more digesters. He has amassed $175,000 in grants for the $600,000 to $800,000 digester project.

“For me to go in and mortgage the farm to do this wouldn’t be responsible,” he said.