Energy From Swine Waste Effort Stalls
By Pork news source
| Thursday, July 15, 2010
(AP) - A North Carolina program to turn pig waste into power has failed to produce results.
The problems with the program may mean the state will not meet a requirement that electric power companies generate nearly 0.1 percent of North Carolina's total retail electricity sales from swine waste.
In the three years since a voluntary, pilot program started, no registered swine farms have produced any electricity. Some farmers are reluctant to spend the money on the generators needed.
North Carolina has nearly as many pigs as people and swine waste has been a recurring issue.
North Carolina swine generate about 13 million pounds of manure and urine a day. The waste is normally flushed from barns into open-air lagoons, after which it is sprayed on fields as fertilizer.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
