Pooled manure may make electricity
Small dairy farms in Dane County would collaborate on making renewable electricity from cow manure under a proposal that has the backing of Gov. Jim Doyle and County Executive Kathleen Falk.
The proposal calls for construction of an $18 million anaerobic digester in the Waunakee area. The project would convert manure from five area farms into electricity. The project is envisioned as the first of at least two community “cow power” projects in Dane County, which is home to about 400 dairy farms.
But the project also would reduce the flow of phosphorus into the county’s streams and lakes that contributes to algae blooms on bodies of water such as Lake Mendota.
