SHORTAGE OF ELECTRICITY IN CALIFORNIA

The state of California has 32 million people and is the largest producer of dairy products in the U.S. Their population and numbers of dairy cattle have increased dramatically in the last ten years. Now California is facing a real shortage of electricity. Power companies have been forced to turn off the electricity for several hours each day to prevent running out of electricity. This procedure is called BROWN OUTS or ROLLING BLACKOUTS.

I visited with several California dairymen that told me they planned to use their own generator for eight hours each day. State and national governments are rapidly trying to solve the problem. California dairymen united farm groups with others to put pressure on their state government. The government finally passed an energy conservation bill. This bill included $10 million in grants for the purpose of encouraging the development of manure-methane power production projects on California dairy farms. The technology for turning manure into methane has existed for nearly 50 years. The problem is that the costs to build and operate these biogas production units have been prohibitive. The current California energy crisis has changed the economics of manure-methane production. Now with the increase in the price of electricity and grants from the state, dairymen may be able to operate manure-methane production units and recover their costs.

The process of producing electricity from manure is not complicated. The basic steps are: 1) manure is mixed with water and flows into a digestor, 2) solids are digested by anaerobic bacteria present in manure, 3) the digestion process produces methane, 4) methane gas is collected and burned in a gas powered electrical generator.

There are several other benefits from anaerobic digestion of manure. Ammonia is removed. This reduces the odor and the digested manure is a more desirable fertilizer for gardens or farm land. The digestion process involves lack of oxygen plus heating and this kills most of the harmful bacteria in manure.

Many of the major dairy states in the U.S. have a current program or are developing programs to subsidize dairy farms for production of electricity from cow manure. The state of Colorado has a partnership agreement with a power company and six large dairy farms. Power company officials say that 1500 cows will produce enough manure to generate electricity for 500 to 700 residences. The electricity that is produced from dairy cattle waste must be marketed at competitive rates. Wastage management on large dairy farms in the U.S. and much of the world continues to be a major and expensive problem. The state of California has nearly stopped issuing permits for new dairies. Environment groups are strongly opposed to any large concentration of animals. These groups file lawsuits against many dairymen that apply for new dairy permits. The lawsuits generally involve charges of contamination of the local water supply and contamination of air quality. These lawsuits make obtaining a permit expensive and time consuming. Many dairymen either give up or try to find another location to start their dairy.

The good news is that the development of manure-methane digestors will become more common. This would probably stop much of the opposition from environmental groups against large dairy farms. I certainly hope that methane-generated electricity will some day be cost effective and maybe not need government support. My judgment is that it will take 10 or more years to make significant progress in this area. I am thankful that we are off to a great start.

(Part of this article was published in Western Dairy Business, June, 2001, page C28.)