BIODIESEL, BIOMASS, WIND, AND SOLAR
On-farm energy is a hot topic these days in Vermont due to the high cost of fuel, the growing concern about climate change, and the desire for new markets to enhance farm profitability. On-farm energy production provides an opportunity for Vermont farmers to wean themselves off of fossil fuel imports. We'll always need to import some of our food just as we'll need to import energy and fuel, but our dependency on them must be cut. And besides, you can't outsource manure, wood, wind, water or the sun. But you can grow corn, canola, sunflowers, flax, hemp, mustard and soybeans on Vermont farms for energy use.
Vern Grubinger and Heather Darby of the University of Vermont Extension Service have calculated that the average Vermont farm spends between $10,000 and $16,000 per year on energy. Many farmers are experimenting with renewable energy sources to help lessen these fuel costs. Farming like other industries may be forced by necessity to go local rather than global. Those strawberries, which travel across the country in huge refrigerated trucks, may not be as plentiful one day due to high energy costs.
Practical field studies on the energy potential of corn, willow, woodchips, soybeans, switchgrass, canola, and sunflowers as well as wind, solar and hydro are happening on many farms in Vermont, the greater Northeast, and throughout the country.
The Vermont Biofuels Association is working with a number of farmers throughout the state. Cedar Creek Farm in East Thetford, Vermont is now heating its greenhouse with used vegetable oil. Ekolatt Farm has 3 acres of sunflowers and five acres of soybeans to use as feedstock for biodiesel.
One farmer in Massachusetts is growing a special variety of corn for heating his greenhouses. Another is experimenting with sunflower oil production. Each state and each region have advantages for growing certain crops. We are just on the cutting edge of energy production "down on the farm."
GLOBAL WARMING AND MAPLE SYRUP
You can't get more local in Vermont than maple syrup but global warming and the high cost of fuel may change all that. When you think about the Green Mountain state, you have images of a sugarhouse in Spring boiling sap from wood-fired boilers and steam rising from the chimney along with the sweet, subtle aroma of sugarsap in the air. This may all end sooner than we think as the planet continues to warm up.
Most people, whether they're farmers or not, know that global warming is affecting the planet. No one understands this better than the Vermont maple sugar producer. Each spring, Burr Morse of East Montpelier taps 3,000 maple trees in his sugarbush. Morse said that for the past five years, he has been forced to tap his maple trees in the middle of February to avoid missing the best sap flow. Many sugarmakers are tapping earlier and for less time because of warmer and shorter winters. It used to be that sugaring began in early March.
(Maple sap runs best when there are freezing nights and warm days. New technologies in the past few years have made it possible to lessen the decline in maple production. Using tubing instead of buckets and setting higher vacuum levels puts more pressure in the tubing, producing more sap and allowing the sugarmaker to tap longer.)
Vermont went from producing an average of 1 million gallons a year in the early part of the century to 500,000 gallons a year from 1970 to 1999. Many years ago, almost every farm had a small maple operation. For the past 4 years, the state has produced between 400,000 and 500,000 gallons. Vermont remains the #1 maple producer in the U.S.
The increase in temperature due to global warming is the main factor in determining production levels. Output per tap is going down, along with dieback in the maple forests with longer regeneration periods. Warmer levels could one day signal the end of sugarmaking. According to the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, from 1970 to 2000, the average winter temperature in the Northeast increased by 4.4 degrees. The economic loss of $164 million in maple sales from the state's 4,600 maple producers would be a blow to the agricultural economy.
Where Maple Sap Meets Soybeans: Vermont sugarmakers are experimenting with new fuels for their evaporators. Glenn and Ruth Goodrich of Cabot collect maple sap from 20,000 trees and use fuel derived from petroleum oil and soybeans to boil their sap into maple syrup. Most sugarmakers use wood to heat the sap to remove water and produce the sweet, sticky syrup. About a third of Vermont sugarmakers are using oil-evaporators to save time and labor. The Goodriches' evaporator is fueled by 20 percent biofuel and 80 percent petroleum. The plant-based fuel costs about a dollar more than a gallon than oil. Funding from the Calkins Fuel Company and a small grant from the Vermont Biodiesel Project, which receives funding from U.S. Department of Energy, covered the difference in price.
On the Web
The University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center
BIODIESEL
In the U.S., most biodiesel comes from soybeans, which are processed into high protein feed, leaving behind their oil, which is turned into commercial fuel in multi-million gallon biodiesel plants. This process is just becoming a reality on a large scale in Vermont and the Northeast.
* See information below on BioCartel in Swanton, Vermont.
There are many small-scale alternatives being tried on Vermont farms. What's needed are community-scale biodiesel systems that minimize infrastructure costs and transportation requirements that use raw products and that can be grown by local farmers and provide a fair return. Some of these initiatives, like processing oil-seed production and on-farm production from local waste oil and others, are described below.
(Oil seed crops include canola, flax, mustard, soybeans, and sunflowers. These can be grown in the Northeast, although yields are variable. One challenge is to obtain affordable equipment like combines, seed cleaners, presses, and processors.)
The Fiske Farm and the Energy Crisis of 2008
Wayne and Nancy Fiske hope that the 15 acres of canola seeds they planted in the spring of 2008 will provide biodiesel fuel on their farm where they milk 125 Holsteins. Biodiesel costs have more than doubled in the last year. After pressing the seeds for oil, the leftovers could be used as high protein feed for their cows and the stubble in the field as animal bedding. Fiske obtained a UVM Extension research grant of $2,900 for a Chinese-made oil seed press.
Canola, or rapeseed, is a variety of the brassica family, which also includes broccoli, cabbage, and the mustards. Canola is 40 percent oil that has become a common source of food-grade salad oil. Earlier trials on another Vermont farm produced one and a half tons per acre or 80-120 gallons of canola oil.
For canola to come into wide use, Vermont would need to build the infrastructure to press and refine the oil and a system to connect farmers with processors. Many farmers who might be interested in growing the crop would not want the added work of processing the seeds. Also, once the seeds are pressed into oil, further processing is necessary to remove glycerin before it can be used for vehicle use. A Vermont biodiesel company in Winooski, Green Technologies, can perform this task.
Cate Farm: Some farmers are already using biodiesel as a fuel for greenhouse heat, tractors and on-farm vehicles. Richard Wiswell is a vegetable farmer who runs Cate Farm in Plainfield. He has one of many operations using biodiesel extensively, running his diesel tractors and cars, and heating the greenhouse on biodiesel fuel.
He collects vegetable oils (grease) in large plastic containers from local restaurants and makes biofuels in his farm shop. The oil comes from deep fryers. (The best type of oils are non-hydrogenated oils, such as canola. The worst oil is animal tallow or oil that is not changed regularly.) Wiswell estimates his biodiesel costs him about $0.50 per gallon, not including the cost of labor. That's not bad when you consider the current price of gas averaged around $4.00 in the summer of 2008.
Biodiesel is a cleaner and renewable source of energy and there are other benefits. If you've ever run a diesel tractor out in the fields, you know how polluting and noxious the diesel smell is to the farmer and to the environment. Wiswell told me that as a farmer out on a tractor for hours, it's great to know you aren't harming the air or breathing in those smelly fumes.
* Biodiesel is the end product of a reaction between waste vegetable oil (grease), methanol, and lye. Biodiesel is made through "transesterification," a chemical process in which glycerin is separated from fat or vegetable oil, creating two products: alkyl esters, the generic chemical name for biodiesel, and glycerin, a byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products. Biodiesel can be made from soybean, sunflower or canola oil and vegetable oils, which Richard Wiswell does at Cate Farm.
This low-emission fuel can be used to power diesel engines and oil-fired furnaces. Biodiesel blends can be run with any diesel engine without modification, with less biodiesel used during the winter months to prevent the fuel from congealing. Compared with petroleum-based diesel, B20 has 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent conventional diesel and has 12 to 20 percent fewer emissions. The fuel however, creates 1 to 2 percent more nitrogen oxide, a pollutant. B5 is a 5 percent biodiesel fuel with 95 percent conventional diesel.
Other Vermont Biodiesel Projects: A collaborative effort is taking place between the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Funds, the Vermont Biofuels Association (VBA), and the Vermont Department of Public Service. The goal is to increase in-state biodiesel production capacity to 450,000 gallons in the next few years. VBA anticipates that the state could produce 5 percent of its current diesel needs by 2020 using crops grown in Vermont.
Seed Power
John Williamson is a farmer from Shaftsbury who is planting seeds for biodiesel production. With the help of grants and the support of the staff at the University of Vermont Extension Service and the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Williamson is pioneering a small-scale system for brewing biodiesel from sunflower seeds grown on his farm. Williamson of State Line Farm started making his first batch of fuel in February 2008 from sunflower oil from sunflower seeds grown on his farm in 2007. He's also experimenting with biodiesel from canola seeds where he uses a special commercial seed press from Sweden.
As he put it, "It squeezes the bejeezus right out of the seeds." With 7,000 pounds of canola he grew on about five acres, he's producing his own oil for biodiesel. He says, "It gives you quite a sense of security to be growing your own fuels. You don't care when you go down to the gas station or how much a gallon costs. And your money stays right here. It's not going to Saudi Arabia ... "
On a Grand Scale: Biocartel Vermont Inc.
Biocardel Vermont was formed by Biocardel Inc. and Guilmax Inc., two Montreal firms. The Canadian companies are building several operations in Canada and the Eastern U.S. to produce biodiesel fuel.
Biocartel is producing biodiesel from Canadian soybean oil. A Canadian firm is putting a $1.6 million investment into the Swanton, Vermont plant -- a 3,600 square foot facility. This is the first phase of the project. Swanton is located in northwestern Vermont, close to the Canadian border. There is a rail line connected to the plant. The goal is to produce 8 million gallons of 100 percent biodiesel annually. This will be one of largest plants in New England.
On the Road Again: Willie Nelson and three business partners recently formed Willie Nelson's Biodiesel, which is marketing biodiesel to truck stops. The product called Bio-Willie is made from vegetable oils, mainly from soybeans, and can be burned without modification to diesel engines. Nelson says, "There is really no need going around starting wars over oil. We have the fuels right here at home where the farmers can grow it." The fuel's average price in 2005 was $1.79 per gallon. Most biodiesel stations are in the Midwest with a few in other parts of the country. Biodiesel has to be stored in heated tanks to prevent gelling problems. Check out: www.biodiesel.org
* The word diesel comes from Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, a German inventor and engineer who demonstrated at the Paris Exposition of 1900 how his patented compression ignition engine could run on peanut oil. Diesel was born in Paris in 1858 and died in 1913.
BIOMASS:
Biomass is organic material that has stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy. It includes: wood, wood waste, willow, straw, switch grass, manure, sugar cane, and many byproducts from a variety of agricultural processes. When burned, the chemical energy is released as heat. If you have a woodstove or fireplace, the wood you burn is a biomass fuel.
Cow Power: Manure Digesters on Dairy Farms
You may have heard of late about "cow power." That's the idea behind dairy farmers producing electricity from manure. The manure is held in a sealed concrete container at 101 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a cow's stomach. Bacteria digest the volatile compounds of the manure, creating biogas, which is part methane. Energy is produced by an anaerobic process in which bacteria breaks down the cow manure in a digester, which releases carbon dioxide and methane gas. The methane gas fuels a generator, and energy is sent onto the power grid.
This type of manure treatment system produces energy as well as bio-solids that can be applied to the land as fertilizer. In addition, the digesters kill common pathogens, and eliminate odors and weed seeds. Air quality is improved through the reduction of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Less liquid manure will remain after "digestion" takes place, which will reduce run-off from farm fields into the nearby streams and lakes. Another benefit is that the solids that remain from the digestion can be used for bedding for the animals, reducing the need for sawdust, which is not cheap.
The Foster Brothers Farm in Middlebury has one of the oldest anaerobic digester systems in the country. They have been converting their manure waste to electricity and providing power to their farmstead for a number of years. A more recent example is Central Vermont Public Service's Cow Power Program. It is the nation's first direct farm-to-consumer renewable energy project that processes cow manure to generate electricity. The 1000 cows and 500 young stock at Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport, Vermont are generating electricity and lots of it. The cows make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk and about 35,000 gallons of manure a year.
Blue Spruce is producing enough electricity to power roughly 300 to 400 average households per year. According to Earl Audette, who owns the farm with his brothers, "The cows are producing two streams of income, a milk check and a power check." Audette says, "This is one more way to diversify the farm, improve the bottom line, and manage our manure responsibly."
The bottom line, given recent wholesale power prices, is more than $120,000 a year from electricity sales. When the Audettes add in other energy savings from the project, they expect their $1.2 million dollar investment in project equipment to pay for itself in about seven years.
The large size of the Audette farm makes it a good candidate for electricity generation. There are only a handful of farms of sufficient size in the Green Mountains now but digesters and other necessary equipment are being developed for smaller operations.
The Audette Farm received the first Vermont public service grant to build a farm-based methane generating system. In 2005, four more farms were awarded development grants totaling $666,000. The clean renewable energy generated from these farms will be enough to power 1,395 average homes with electricity each year. Three of the farms have more than 1,000 dairy cows and the fourth has 210 cows. And in 2006, Pleasant Valley Farm in Richford with 1500 cows began producing enough energy for an additional 600 homes.
The four Vermont farms that received the 2005 "Cow Power" grants are in St. Albans, Sheldon, Fairlee and West Paulet. Cathy Montagne, whose family's St. Albans farm is part of the program, is excited about getting started with "Cow Power" as it will help the Montagne Farm both economically and environmentally. Their 1,200 cows are expected to produce 1.7 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year.
Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) is the largest electric/power company in Vermont. CVPS charges a little more to those customers willing to pay a premium for the renewable energy that comes from the Audette Farm. The utility's goal is to have 12 farms providing "Cow Power" electricity to 10,000 customers by the end of 2010 . The power company allows customers to take 25, 50 or 100 percent of their electricity from the "Cow Power" program.
Thirty-five hundred CVPS customers are now paying a premium for electricity from alternative sources like "Cow Power." There are more "Cow Power" CVPS customers in Addison County where Blue Spruce Farm is located than in any other part of the state. When people see that electricity is being generated by the farmer down the road, they are more willing to support the farm community. About 600 utility companies around the country give customers the choice of paying a premium on their rates to support development of renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and hydroelectric dams.
* A good share of the funding for these biomass projects comes from the federal government.
"Cow Power" is also lighting the way for students at Green Mountain College in Poultney, some 35 miles from Blue Spruce Farm. The college will pay an extra $48,000 on its $250,000 electricity bill to support this alternative energy source. The Audette farm installed a second generator for the project.
Three Vermont dairy farms -- Nordic Farms in Charlotte, Foster Brothers in Middlebury and Jasper Hill in Greensboro -- have signed up with a new company, AgRefresh, to participate in another manure- to-electricity project. The firm, whose trademark is "Pure Farm Energy," is selling shares to companies interested in compensating for their own carbon footprint. By paying to help sustain manure-to-power projects on dairy farms, which account for about a third of methane emissions in the U.S., corporations can, in effect, offset the discharges from their own heating, cooling, and transportation systems.
Other farms around the country are adopting the digester model to make energy. Some are loading their digesters with other waste products. One farmer in the state of Washington is using tomato waste from a salsa factory to make energy.
In countries that have signed the Kyoto Accord to combat global warming, eco-changes are taking place at a rapid pace. There are 23,000 bio-digesters in Germany alone compared with 150 in the United States. Farmers and investors in some parts of Europe are building models that will hopefully be adopted in the U.S.
Another Local Biomass Sustainable Solution
Burlington Electric's McNeil Wood Burning Plant is located in the Intervale. The woodchips (scrap wood) come in on boxcars from forests in northern Vermont. The McNeil plant supports the logger, the railroad, the workers and the operation of the wood burning plant. The money and the energy are kept at home. The plant provides enough energy to meet the electrical needs of Burlington
-- a city of 40,000 people.
* 85 percent of electric power generation comes from fossil fuels.
Source:
The information on Biomass came from:
Cheryl Bruce, NOFA Notes, Summer 2005.
Side Notes:
Why hasn't hemp been mentioned in the discussion? It's three times more energy efficient than corn-made ethanol and much less destructive to the soil and the environment. We need to get over the illusion that hemp is the same as that illegal substance called marijuana. During World War II, Kentucky and Wisconsin were the two leading states in hemp production.
WIND, SOLAR AND MORE:
WIND: Farms at high elevations often experience significant levels of wind. Jack Lazor of Butterworks Farm in Westfield, Vermont and Ken Smith of Merck Farm and Forest in Rupert both decided to use their windy locations to their advantage by tapping into wind power.
The idea is to have wind speeds in the 15-20 mph range, those are the speeds that generate the most power. The blades start turning at about 6-7 mph, and shut off at speeds over 45 mph. The typical wind tower is 75 feet tall, with blades measuring 21-25 feet. Jack Lazor is able to use net metering with his surplus power, because he has a connection to the grid. He can send surplus power to the grid and pull electricity off the grid later when energy generation is lower.
Ken Smith does not have a grid connection on his farm. Instead, he relies on a battery bank to get him through periods with less wind. His system cost $60,000, and Jack's cost $100,000. Ken also has a photovoltaic solar system, which balances the stormy, windy days with sunny days.
SOLAR: Laini Fondiller is a cheese producer in Westfield who uses solar power. Twenty years ago when Laini purchased her farm, she had no electricity. It would have cost $15,000 to bring power to the farm. Today, she has 20 photovoltaic panels. The energy is stored in batteries and the system can run for two-three days without sun before relying on a generator. The solar system provides power to the house, milking machine, pasteurizer, cooling room, cheese ripening cave and chicken coop. Laini uses 150 kilowatts (kw) on her farm; the average household uses about 600 kilowatts.
ENERGY RESOURCES:
More Energy Resources "Down On The Farm"
For more information, check out www.climateandfarming.org or get in touch with Vern Grubinger at the Extension Service of the University of Vermont in Brattleboro. He is knowledgeable on the topics of global warming and alternative energy sources on the farm throughout Vermont and the northeast. Grubinger has written an article entitled "Climate Change and Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities for Outreach," in which he lists a number of important websites.
Vern Grubinger is the Small Fruits and Vegetable Specialist
at the University of Vermont Extension Service.
You can contact him at (802)-257-7967
157 Old Guilford Rd. Suite 4 Brattleboro, VT 05301
The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Funds (VSJF) provides on-farm energy grants to Vermont farmers. For more information go to their website: www.vsjf.org
VSJF
61 Elm Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
(802) 828-0398
Scott Sawyer of VSJF prepared a booklet, "On-Farm Energy Production: A Vermont Primer" in 2005.
Other Important Alternative Energy Websites:
--------------------------------------------
Energy Resources
Books:
"The Farm Energy Handbook" contains basic information for farmers on subjects ranging from energy efficiency to solar and wind power, types of ethanol, and geothermal heating and cooling.. The 65-page booklet was produced by the Vermont Environmental Consortium and Vermont Dairy Task Force, with support from Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. David Hecht, a principal author of the handbook, said it's meant to be less of a how-to-manual than an introductory guide that can give farmers ideas about the potential for renewable energy applications.
Other Books:
Alovert, M. Biodiesel Homebrew Guide
Tickel, J. From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank
A Quote from Al Gore: "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of this has to change."
