 In Brief State
grant for manure-to-energy.
Three
western New York dairy farms will share a
$883,250 grant from the New York State Energy
Resource Development Authority (NYSERDA) to
install digesters and generators to process
manure into electricity, gas, and marketable
by-products.
The local Natural Resources
Conservation Service, the county Soil and
Water Conservation District, Cornell
Cooperative Extension, and the Town of Perry
are all collaborating.
The project was facilitated by the
work of a nearby grant-writing and consulting
firm. The
farms are in an intensive dairy area where
manure disposal is a growing problem. GHPs
largely ignored as green choice.
“With alarm bells sounding over
global warming and acid rain, groups are
beating the drums for renewable energy,”
says energy analyst Ken Silverstein.
“And consumers, regulator, and
utilities are beginning to listen.
Alternative energy forms are expected
to gain market share, although significant
hurdles stand in the way.” But
geothermal heat pumps are not getting the
attention they deserve as devices for
increasing the green content of today’s
electric energy mix.
Instead, egged on by federal tax
mandates, wind is getting most of the play.
Although wind does have its
detractors, who cite lack of reliability, and
visual and noise pollution, wind today is in
the ascendancy because of its high “vogue
value.”
According to one observer this is
something that GHPs do not enjoy mainly
because they’re generally not understood
and largely not considered as delivering
green energy to homes, schools, and
commercial buildings, despite the fact that
more than ¾ of the heat they provide is from
the earth. Prawn
production promising.
About 30 farmers in southern Illinois
have gone into fresh-water shrimp (prawn)
production.
The enterprises involve buying the
tiny critters from a hatchery, nursing them
in indoor tanks for a few weeks, then
transferring them to levee-type outdoor
ponds. Prawns
can’t withstand water temperatures below 60
degrees F, so must be harvested in the early
fall. They
can grow to large size and are processed in
local plants.
Feeding is accomplished by blowing a
special non-floating ration out over the
water. Oxygen
content is important; it can be controlled by
aerators, either electric or tractor driven.
Marketing is either direct to stores
and high-end restaurants, or through a
seafood co-op. Catfish
move north.
Until recently, outdoor catfish
farming hasn’t progressed much farther
north than Arkansas, but a new
state-subsidized fish co-op in southern
Illinois is expanding the territory.
While farms to the north of the new
plant must restrict activities as winter
approaches, those to the south may continue.
And the plant is close enough to
Arkansas to truck in fish from there during
the cold months to that the co-op can
continue to supply its customers all year.
Fish feeding is a growing market for
midwestern corn and soybeans.
Electric aerators maintain oxygen
content. The processing plant provides jobs for about
50 locals. Cellulose
fights cost perception.
Pushed by utilities, cellulose home
insulation gains acceptance but loses out
with some lower quality builders because it’s
perceived as too costly.
But proponents argue that the higher
initial cost is more than amortized by
cellulose’s higher R-value and zero air
leakage. |
