Digesters for Managing Animal Waste Workshop

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Digesters for Managing Animal WasteWorkshop

• August 21, 2002
• Bill Johnson, Alliant Energy

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Alliant 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

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Generation diversity

• Coal
• Natural Gas
• Renewable energy sources
• Distributed resources

Reliability
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Why 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

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Food processing industry environmental challenge
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Seneca Bio-digesterMontgomery, Minn.
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Alliant 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)

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10 Megawatts ?

• 50,000 tons of coal each year
• 500 coal cars
• 5 unit trains
• Electricity for 11,000 homes

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Pilot Project Objectives

• Access digester technologies
• Access generation technologies
• Remove technology barriers
• Evaluate utility barriers
• Access market potential
• Increase demand for green energy

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Deere Ridge Farm, Anaerobic Digester, Amherst,
Wis.
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Double S Dairy, Alto, WI

• Flush system
• Plug flow
• Hess gen-set
• Separated solids for bedding and sale

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Topdeck HolsteinsWestgate, IA
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Microturbine
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Engine Monitoring and Switchgear
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Reciprocating Engine
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Heat 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

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Biomass Lessons Challenges and Opportunities
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Lessons 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!

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Barriers 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

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Economic 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

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Social 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

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Institutional 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

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Market 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

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Biomass 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

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Opportunities

• 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

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Public 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

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Philosophies

• Be a price maker not a price taker.
• --Loren Kruse
• Grow what you can sell, dont sell what you can
  grow.
• --Duane Acker

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William A. Johnson

• Manager, Agriculture Customer Services
• Alliant Energy
• 2777 Columbia Dr.
• Portage, WI 53901
• [phone]
• billjohnson_at_alliantenergy.com