Photo: Skepsis

Manure from the 5,000 cows at a Fresno County dairy will soon help light the homes of some 50,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers with clean energy, PG&E said today. No bull!

BioEnergy Solutions of Bakersfield will generate as much as 3 billion cubic feet of methane for PG&E annually starting in early 2008, courtesy of these and other hardworking California cows. The electricity will power homes in Northern and Central California.

The cows of Fresno County’s Vintage Dairy, the first project in the deal, will provide enough methane to provide 1,200 homes as part of the project’s initial stages. And, in what clearly qualifies as the real scoop and the straight poop, here’s how it’s done:

Manure from the farm’s 5,000 dairy cows will be flushed into covered lagoons that will trap the methane gas produced as the manure decomposes. 

The methane will be cleaned to remove carbon dioxide and corrosive materials (not to mention the product’s signature, um, aroma) to meet environmental standards for power plants, then delivered to PG&E through the utility’s pipeline.  PG&E will convert the natural gas to electricity for its customers in central and northern California.   

The utility is under a state mandate to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy by 2010, known as the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Currently, PG&E gets 12 percent of its energy from such sources.

Traditionally, utilities have gotten their energy from sources such as coal-burning plants, but coal-fired energy generation spews toxic and greenhouse gas emissions including mercury and lead into the air, according to the California Energy Commission.