Town To Run Entirely On Biogas – Poo Power!

This morning I see Treeehugger is reporting that the German town of Lünen will become the first in the world to have its own dedicated biogas network – something for our Transition Towns to think about?

“The 6.8 MW power plant at the heart of the network with take cow and horse manure, as well as other agricultural waste and spoiled crops from surrounding farms, and process it all into biogas, which will be used to generate both heat and electricity. When completed it will generate enough power to supply about 26,000 homes.

About 30-40% of the town’s heat and electricity will be provided through the biogas network.”

ALSO in the US…

The University of New Hampshire (UNH)- Campaigning For Change – is getting 85% of its power from landfill gas.

“The project just completed is known as EcoLine and uses purified methane gas from a nearby landfill. Nothing particularly new in that, but the big deal is that UNH’s five million square foot campus will get 85% of its electricity and heat from the project. This means that UNH has become the first university in the nation to use landfill gas as its primary energy source.

The whole thing (including construction of a pipeline to get the gas from the landfill to the school) cost $49 million, with an expected payback time of 10 years. Any excess electricity produced by the system will be fed back in to the electric grid.

It’s estimated that this project will reduce UNH’s carbon emissions to 57% below 1990 levels.”

Change WILL come from grassroots effort won’t it?