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INTELLIGENT ENERGY EQUATION
Local onsite energy solutions are transforming the way we approach today’s energy challenges. Click on our interactive energy map below to view key technologies that put schools, communities and cities in charge of their energy supply, giving them control of their energy future.
MAPPING AMERICA’S ENERGY FUTURE
All across America, universities, manufacturers, utilities and communities are realizing they have more control over how they manage their energy than they ever thought possible. Explore some of the new technologies that are redefining industry benchmarks in the U.S.
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My Neighbor Is My Utility
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Remoooable Energy Down
on the Farm
Hancock, Minnesota, is dairy farm country. The tiny Midwestern town, located about 160 miles northwest of Minneapolis, is home to tens of thousands of cows, vastly outnumbering the local population of 760 humans. Besides producing tons of milk, those bovines generate a whole lot of manure, too. Hancock’s District 45 Dairy LLP is putting the six million cubic feet of manure produced annually by its nearly 5,560 cows to smart, energy-efficient use. They’re using biogas—a renewable source yielded by accumulating and processing manure in an airtight, heated anaerobic digester—to fuel a combined heat and power (CHP) plant.
Driving the system is a trio of eight-ton engines supplied by Siemens that collectively provide 2.4 megawatts of electricity (MWe). The CHP plant produces clean power, heat and hot water—beneficial for dairy farms with a year-round demand.
WASTE NOT
Anaerobic digestion is the process by which organic matter, such as animal or food waste, is broken down to produce combustible biogas. As of 2016, there were
operating on livestock farms in the U.S.
COWADUNGA!
The average dairy cow weighs about 1,400 pounds and produces
of manure — AKA dung — per day. That’s nearly 15 tons a year!
WHAT A GAS!
Biogas is comprised primarily of methane (50%–70%) and carbon dioxide (30%–50%). Animal waste produces about
of renewable, combustible methane in the U.S. each year.
MEGA-WHAT?
A megawatt (MW) is one million watts, the basic unit for measuring power.
is enough electricity to power 420 homes.
COW TO CAR
100 cows can produce the energy equivalent of
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