Californians turn to cow power

US energy giant Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has begun running 50,000 homes on cow power.

This week, the company began collecting methane from the manure of 5,000 cattle at Fresno County-based Vintage Farms as part of a deal with Californian firm BioEnergy Solutions. The deal gives PCG&E 3bn cubic feet of methane per year under a long-term contract approved by the California Public Utilities Commission last May.

Manure from cows at the farm is flushed into a three-storey lagoon the size of five football pitches. Methane from the covered lagoon is treated to comply with Californian standards, producing natural gas that is 99 per cent pure biomethane. The pressurised gas is then delivered by pipeline to the utility.

"All of the infrasatructure is installed at the expense of BioEnergy Solutions, so the farmer saves money at the front end," said BioEnergy spokesman Steve Duchesne, who added that the company will begin piping methane from a neighbouring farm to its Vintage Farm treatment plant in six months. "Then on the back side, BioEnergy will share proceeds from the sale of gas and the resulting emissions credits with the farmers."

Duchesne said that although this is the first active project for BioEnergy Solutions the company is poised for expansion with 40 analyses for other plants in the pipeline. The company hopes to have 150 plants running across California "in the next few years", with multiple farms attached to each plant, he added.

The project is also the latest in a line of green energy initiatives from PG &E, which generated 12 per cent of its energy from renewable sources in 2006, rising to 14 per cent in 2007.

Although this is the first cattle methane project for PG&E, two per cent of its renewable energy in 2006 came from landfill gas and similar projects with some small non-dairy producers.

The utility also began a project in January to encourage the production of bio methane from other sources including construction and wood waste. Phase 2 of the project's request for information takes place on March 21.