State funds 5 Central Valley “dairy digester” projects

SACRAMENTO

July 13, 2015 12:46pm

•  To cut methane emissions and generate revenue

•  “This is definitely a win-win for agriculture”

Five projects to implement digester technology on California dairy operations will share a total of about $11.1 million in grants, the California Department of Food and Agriculture says.

The money for the installation of dairy digesters comes from the state’s cap-and-trade program for combating climate change.

Recipients of the CDFA grants will provide an estimated $18.9 million in matching funds for the development of the digester facilities.

Getting the grants are:

• Philip Verwey Farms, in Hanford -- $3 million for a new covered lagoon digester that will be used to produce approx. 7.6 million kWh of renewable electricity per year

• Open Sky Ranch Inc. in Riverdale -- $973,430 for a covered lagoon digester to produce approx. 6.4 million kWh of renewable electricity per year

• Philip Verwey Farms in Madera -- $2.261.091 for a new covered lagoon digester to produce approx. 4.8 million kWh renewable electricity per year

• AgPower Visalia LLC in Visalia -- $3 million for a mixed-plug flow digester to be used to produce approx. 6 million kWh renewable electricity per year

• ABEC #2 LLC dba West-Star North Dairy Biogas in Buttonwillow -- $1,837,005 for a covered lagoon digester project. This project will capture biogas from two covered lagoons at the dairy. Biogas from the digester will produce 7.6 million kWh of renewable electricity per year. Additional biogas will be stored

under flexible covers installed on the lagoons.

“These projects demonstrate a commitment by California to support efforts by dairy farmers to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gases from the agriculture sector,” says CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “This is definitely a win-win for agriculture: cutting methane emissions and improving the environment while also generating revenue from renewable bioenergy.”

Dairy manure produces methane when it decomposes. Dairy digesters collect manure in tanks or lagoons for decomposition in an oxygen-free environment and then capture the methane produced so none escapes into the atmosphere. That methane can then be used as a biofuel to power generators that produce electricity or fuel natural gas vehicles.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping more than 80 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide over a short-term (20-year) period.

CDFA conducted a multi-stage review of all applications, including administrative, financial and technical reviews, to verify applicants’ GHG reduction calculations and assess the feasibility of digester technologies. Final scoring and review was conducted by the multi-agency Dairy Digester Research and Development Program’s Technical Advisory Committee, a subset of the California Federal Dairy Digester Working Group.

The projects also fulfill the requirements of SB 535 (De Leon, 2014) that at least 25 percent of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants benefit disadvantaged communities, as identified by the California Environmental Protection Agency. Disadvantaged communities in the Central Valley will benefit from improved air and water quality protections, as well as job creation. Additionally, Central Valley dairy farmers will have revenue-generation potential by converting agricultural waste into renewable bioenergy.

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=28669