Farm Power Digester - Van Wingerden Greenhouse Project
Ground Breaking Ceremony: June 28, 2010 View the Event Invitation View the Event Agenda
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Overview
On June 28th, 2010 ground was broken on a second manure digester in Whatcom County, but the groundwork for the project has been in progress for quite some time. Farm Power Northwest, a Skagit County based renewable energy company is building the digester at the Bob Hall Road site. The first digester, run by the Vanderhaak Dairy along the Canadian border in north Whatcom County got its start in 2004. Both projects demonstrate the potential for local farmers to participate in energy production through sustainable agriculture practices.
The new Farm Power digester will take the renewable energy concept to the next level through an innovative and symbiotic partnership with Van Wingerden Greenhouses. The digester will be situated on a 2 acre parcel north end of the greenhouse but it won’t fill the whole space. The digester's primary function will be to produce electricity that will be sold to Puget Sound Energy. Hot water, a by-product of the electricity generation process that normally goes to waste, will be used to heat the new VanWingerden greenhouse. Mike Van Wingerden said, "Our main facility is along I-5 at Portal Way in Blaine, but we've owned the auxilary glass greenhouse on Bob Hall Road for years. There was always the thought that we'd expand, but when the Maas brothers approached us about the partnership that solidified our plans for the special radiant heat flooring."
The new digester will be slightly larger than the Vanderhaak facility, but essentially the same design. The same engineer (GHD from Wisconsin) and builder (Andgar) will be used as in the Vanderhaak facility. The funding, which is often a digester project's greatest challenge, has all been secured. Farm Power has worked with a small group of individual investors, and they and have made use of both grant money and loans to make up the $4 million pricetag. Grants are from USDA (0.5 million) and WA State stimulus money (1 million). Bank financing is from WA based Shorebank Pacific, which has a history of lending to renewable energy projects.
About 50% of the annual heat needs of the greenhouse will be taken care of by the radiant heat, but the demand will fluctuate with the seasonal temperatures. “In the cold months like February Mike will need to use a boiler to supplement, but in summer the digester will cover the total heat needs," said Kevin Maas of Farm Power.
One piece that needs to be built in addition to the digester itself is about a 25,000 gallon hot water holding and storage tank.
How it Works
Anerobic digesters produce hot water, but it’s “low temperature hot water”. There are few potential rural partners who can make use of the digester water that is 175-180 degrees, but the greenhouse was a perfect fit. The water will actually need to be cooled to 100 degrees or a little less before it can be run through the ground pipes. If it gets below 85 degrees it’s not much use anymore.
Hot water pipes from the digester will feed into smaller pipes laid in tarped sand in the greenhouse floors. Flats of growing plants sit on top of the tarps. The greenhouse has a boiler for the supplemental heat that will be needed in winter and colder months. As an additional backup, natural gas powered heaters stand by in the event of a boiler failure. The greenhouse could be heated entirely by the boiler and air heaters but it would be significantly more expensive to do so.
A car engine is about 25% energy efficient with a lot of the energy being lost in heat. Anaerobic digesters are about 35-40% efficient, and with the addition of making use of the hot water for the greenhouse, this project will be about 70% energy efficient.
A Win-Win-Win Project
- A Win for the Environment
- Methane is captured: preventing methane from entering the atmosphere may have an impact on slowing down global warming.
- A "Free" Fuel: Manure digestion turns materials that had been an environmental liability into a valuable fuel source, potentially reducing our dependence on other sources of energy.
- Goodbye to Fecal Coliform: Dairy farms pose a problem for water quality because of fecal coliform bacteria in the manure. Digestion kills 99.9% of the bad bacteria, keeping it out of the watershed.
- A Win for the Dairy Farmer
- A healthier fertlizer by-product: Although dairy farmers with grass pastures for feed use their manure as a fertilizer source, processing that manure though the digester is still a win. The digested manure and water at the end of the process is better than undigested manure because it’s thinner (97% water instead of 90%) and easier to spread. Even better, 99.9% of fecal coliform bacteria are killed by the digestion process but other nutrients remain in high levels. For dairy farmers who face increasing pressure and regulation to reduce their impact on water quality, this is great news. "There is also evidence that the good nutrients that are left over are actually easier for plant roots to take up, which further reduces the risk of runoff into creeks and streams," Kevin Maas said.
- Bedding for cows: The fiber product that comes out of the digester can also be returned to the dairy farm and makes good bedding for the cows. Sawdust, a typical bedding material, has been increasing in price and limited in availability in recent years, so this is another financial win for the farmer.
- A Win for the Greenhouse
- An attractive utility bill: Annual heating bills will be greatly reduced for the greenhouse with little to no impact on operations.
While radiant heat for greenhouses is a good fit with the manure digester, there are other similar projects that showcase mutually beneficial partnerships. In Oregon Stahlbush Island Farms (http://www.stahlbush.com/energy.php ) is using fruit and vegetable by-products like corn husks and cobs to produce biogas. Their on-site power plant will provide enough electricity for approximately 1,100 homes, nearly twice what the farm and food processing plant uses in a year. Again, turning a liability (by-product waste) into a resource and a revenue stream.
What Farm Power and Farm Friends Want You to Know About Digesters
Kevin Maas of Farm Power Northwest: "We believe there is a future for Dairy farming here and that’s why we’re making a 30+ year investment here. We’re going to do our part to help make sure dairies stay in Whatcom County. Things are better all around when you keep animals in the food system. Dairies provide a steady year round economic base and they produce their own natural fertilizer. People's misconceptions aren’t so much about what we do at Farm Power but more about what the dairy farms do. We want people to know that a 500 cow dairy is not a factory farm. There is a benefit for everyone in this project. The digester may not solve every problem, but it does make things incrementally better for the environment, Mike’s business, and the Dairy farms.”
Henry Bierlink of Farm Friends: Our board has been excited to explore the opportunites around energy and agriculture. It's one of the best ways that farmers can offer an additional resource that we all benefit from. It's a product that provides needed revenue for the farmer, and the process brings the community together in a really positive way.
More about Farm Power Northwest
Farm Power Website: www.farmpower.com
Farm Power Blog: www.farmpower.blogspot.com
Farm Power on Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23928536584
Farm Power on Twitter: http://twitter.com/farmpower
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