Piggy Bank or Guinea Pig?
June 20, 2008
Pig farmers considering setting up a poo-eating anaerobic digester might want to reconsider their motives. It could be an attractive proposition to generate your own heat and power at the moment, with energy prices what they are, you’d be investing in something that could save you cash in the future, a bit like an enormous piggy bank.
But the cost of a reasonably small-scale AD plant is pretty steep, and may take a long time to pay back. There is another option, which is becoming more attractive to a certain farmer of my acquaintance. That is to look at a larger digester which takes “feedstock” (what you put into the digester) from other sources, and turns the digester into a pig-poo-powered money generator (or “guinea-pig” as I call it).
One of these sources could be food waste, diverting grotty smelly stuff away from landfill sites and turning it into energy. Our farmers could then not just cover their own heat and energy costs, but make that tantalizing transition from food producer to electricity generator.
