Title: Digesters for Managing Animal Waste Workshop
1Digesters for Managing Animal WasteWorkshop
- August 21, 2002
- Bill Johnson, Alliant Energy
2Alliant Energy
- We serve approximately 53,000 ag customers in a
four-state territory. - Alliant Energy Resources, Inc., our non-utility
business, has operations in Australia, Brazil,
China, Mexico and New Zealand - 6,000 employees in U.S. and internationally
3Generation diversity
- Coal
- Natural Gas
- Renewable energy sources
- Distributed resources
Reliability
4Why Alliant Energy ?
- 53,000 farm accounts, large rural utility
- Believe in removing economic barriers
- Rural economic development
- Believe in distributive generation
- Strong environmental ethic
- Tradition of working with the development of ag.
energy technologies
5Food processing industry environmental challenge
6Seneca Bio-digesterMontgomery, Minn.
7Alliant Energys - Wisconsin Biogas Project
- 10 MW generation
- Farm, food processor, landfill sewage treatment
sources - 3-year project
- 5-year contracts
- 6 cent/kWh (customer owned)
-
810 Megawatts ?
- 50,000 tons of coal each year
- 500 coal cars
- 5 unit trains
- Electricity for 11,000 homes
9Pilot Project Objectives
- Access digester technologies
- Access generation technologies
- Remove technology barriers
- Evaluate utility barriers
- Access market potential
- Increase demand for green energy
10Deere Ridge Farm, Anaerobic Digester, Amherst,
Wis.
11Double S Dairy, Alto, WI
- Flush system
- Plug flow
- Hess gen-set
- Separated solids for bedding and sale
-
12Topdeck HolsteinsWestgate, IA
13Microturbine
14Engine Monitoring and Switchgear
15Reciprocating Engine
16Heat Recovery System
- Utilize heat from exhaust of engine or
microturbine - Heat digester
- Heat buildings
- Heat hot water heater
- Heat anything else that needs hot water
- Refrigeration
17Biomass Lessons Challenges and Opportunities
18Lessons Learned
- Digester designs
- Corrosion
- Pre-heating costs
- Soft vs. hard top
- Local labor and skills
- Gen-set OM costs
- Dewatering
- Customer expectations
- Bedding requirements
- Niche market opportunities
- BUYER BEWARE, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
19Barriers to Development of Renewable Energy
- Technology
- Technology must be solution for the customer and
add value to their business - High-risk technologies for customer and utility
investment - Utilities have an obligation to energy cost and
reliability - Few dominant companies, largely a cottage
industry, except for wind
20Economic Barriers
- Utilities must satisfy many stakeholders
customers, shareowners, regulators, interest
groups - Must weigh price is everything vs. environment
is everything, must blend needs - Marketplace drives price, there must be greater
demand - Risk management, need rewards for investment risks
21Social Political Barriers
- NIMBYism
- big is bad attitudes
- Should societal benefits be paid for by society
or by utility owners and their customers? - Many political uncertaintiesDOE, USDA, EPA,
State/Local Regulations
22Institutional Barriers
- Uniform interconnection standards across utility
and state jurisdictions - Net metering
- Insurance requirements
- Some utilities charge high access and/or
interconnection fees - Lack of renewable energy credits
- Difficulty with customer aggregation
23Market Barriers
- Dependency on local utility
- Access to transmission system can be expensive
and complex - Limited green power program participation
- Smaller generators have market disadvantages
- Risk, purchasing power from inexperienced energy
provider
24Biomass Project Success Requires
- Favorable power purchase agreements
- Partnership development
- Predictable cash flow
- Market for secondary products
- Tradable green qualities
- Incentives de-coupled from cost of fossil fuels
- Access to financing
25Opportunities
- Utilities and customers partnering in addressing
environmental and energy challenges - Monies from commodity purchase stays in local
communities - May allow delaying or avoidance of utility
infrastructure investment - Convert environmental liability into economic
assets - r
26Public Policy
- We have only scratched the surface of
developing farm-based sources of renewable
energyethanol, biodiesel, biomass, wind,
methane, hydrogen. Agriculture is not just about
food and fiber. Anything we can produce from a
barrel of oil, we can also produce on our farms. - -- Sen. Tom Harkin, IA, Senate Agriculture
Committee, June 28, 2001
27Philosophies
- Be a price maker not a price taker.
- --Loren Kruse
- Grow what you can sell, dont sell what you can
grow. - --Duane Acker
28William A. Johnson
- Manager, Agriculture Customer Services
- Alliant Energy
- 2777 Columbia Dr.
- Portage, WI 53901
- (608) 742-0824
- billjohnson_at_alliantenergy.com