Cow manure makes its way into "clean" technology

Synergy Dairy owner John Noble has will not only be selling milk to local cheese factories this year, but has also incorporated cow manure as an added opportunity venture. Noble’s farm, Synergy Dairy, teamed up with the renewable energy company CH4 Biogas, which built on his property the largest on-farm biogas power plant in New York. The plant’s innovative technology blends cow manure with cheese whey, school lunch leftovers and other food waste to make methane, and turns that into electricity in GE’s clean-burning Jenbacher engine. Unlike wind or solar plants, the electricity generated by the methane-fired Jenbacher is so stable and reliable that it can be fed directly to the grid. This power source aims to demonstrate a more effective and greener technology for electricity usage.