Pig Poop: Generating Electricity.

There's power in that waste

11/10/2011 - A Yadkin County farm has found a good use for pig poop: generating electricity.

The effort, developed in conjunction with Duke University, Duke Energy and Google, shows again that state laws requiring alternative sources of energy production bode well for both the environment and the state's economy.

The Charlotte Observer recently reported that the farm captures the methane gas produced by its hog waste. That gas then powers a waste-processing system and provides the electricity for some of the farm's other operations.

While the process developed at Loyd Ray Farms is not ready for mass development and marketing to other farms, it shows that there is a way out of the hog-waste morass that North Carolina has faced for more than two decades now, a dangerous combination of huge environmental risk and horrible odors that permeate many farm communities.

State laws enacted over the past several years have mandated both phase-outs of open-air waste pits and development of alternative-energy production. The phase-outs are needed because hog-waste lagoons pose a huge threat to groundwater and surface waters. Alternative-energy sources are needed to stem release of climate-changing gases. read more>>>