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Obama Invests $5 Million In Bullshit Energy
Just when we thought we had seen the epic failure of every single possible "alternative energy" project by this administration, along comes the announcement that the USDA is investing $5 million in a "biogas anaerobic digester" that will use "cow manure to heat an ethanol plant and create 15 permanent jobs." Which for anyone confused, is roughly exactly what it sounds like. Perhaps if "Hope and Change" is a little passe now, a far more appropriate slogan for the 2012 Campaign will be "From Bullshit to Jobs, and Back Again."
From the Washington Examiner:
Western Plains Energy, LLC, a Kansas company, will use the money to "utilize waste energy resources from a local cattle feedlot to replace almost 90 percent of the fossil fuels currently used" at the plant.
"Projects such as this are a key part of the Obama Administration's all-of-the-above approach to American energy that is supporting the development and usage of renewable energy, revitalizing rural economies and creating an America built to last," USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement touting this project as an example of the policies that cut dependence on foreign oil.
"Animal waste from a local feedlot will be the primary feedstock that Western Plains will use for the digester," USDA added. "Support for renewable energy projects such as these is an example of the many ways USDA is helping revitalize rural economies."
USDA expects the project to create 15 permanent jobs and 100 temporary construction jobs.
So how many shit shovelers does it take to run a "biogas anaerobic digester"? Apparently 15. At $333,333 a poop, pardon pop.
Sorry folks. We only wish this was a joke.
h/t Ralph
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sounds like a Homer Simpson scheme.
kato,
MMMMMM BULLLSHITTTT.
You know it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.
...and I am long horse shit. Figures.
The investment should be in Ben Shit Energy. There is no end to it.
Ben Shitter Bernanke: a tool who shits Benjamins to imply that the status quo works.
I don't even mind the word “manure.” You know, it's, it's “nure,” which is good. and a “ma” in front of it. MA-NURE. When you consider the other choices, “manure” is actually pretty refreshing.
Bullshit...
"How should we use this stuff? Energy? Mushrooms? Feed it to the sheeple?" It was a tough call but that's what leadership is about!
Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. The global warming from the cow flatulence (methane) will cancel out any positive effects from burning the cow shit. Zero sum game, my friends.
Guaranteed this money is going to pad some ex-MFG client somewhere to keep quiet.
The current solar cycle is going to make a monkey out of the carbon credit environmentalist BO President. Did you see the sunspot number today? Have a nice time freezing to death in the coming years.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
Modify the digester to use what comes out of Obama's mouth and we'd really be in business.
Did you mean, "The carbon tax environmentalist BO President"? Thank God his CCX scam failed too.
The.Best.Post.Ever!
Hey Tylers,
this should be on top of your front page for awhile.
For 15 days, Bitchez!
We're going brown now.....clearly green was the wrong path.
We'll make a fortune off the crap tax credits.
Boom.......WINNING!!!!!
Yep, Brown is the New Green.
Actually biogas works. Extremely cost-effective. Very low set-up costs. No danger. No smell. Less run-off into waters.
Only benefits all around, jokes aside.
On a net-net basis, it beats thorium hands down.
ori
the-curse-of-free-energy/
Absolutely right, ORI. It is quite common in Germany and is getting very popular among farmers. Seen one facility and was quite impressed. But this is Germany. We have sworn to live without nuclear energy and we have to come up with every possible idea.
See, we invested heavily in Solar technology when it wasn't produced cheaply in China. Now all these companies go bankrupt because they cannot compete with the Chinese anymore. A country like Germany with very few sunshine hours per day invested heavily into solar technology. But also Wind and Water. Using the elements to survive. Not bad at all. I am not a fan of nuclear energy myself, but I am not sure we can achieve that goal (to live without it).
At least, let us try. We've been inventive in the past. We'll find a solution.
It's the same here in India in many regards PY.
Even after seeing all the troubles of centralized mega power projects, the destruction of rivers by dams, the crazy situatiion with a thing like a grid and the great Tech-no-logical Indian mind....
Still, everyone is made to hunger for that power that flows from powerlines.
By the way, bio gas is excellent cooking gas.
Distributed everything is clearly the way to go, let's see, eh?
ori
If it is such a great idea, then why does it need $5 million of our tax dollars? I smell B....oh never mind.
oh sure...let's whine about 5 million.
ReaganBushDebt.org Calculation DetailsAccording to http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm, the debt at the end of the 1980 fiscal year, on September 30th, 1980, was $907,701,000,000. On September 30th, 1981, it was $997,855,000,000. Averaging it out over the year gives a debt of $246,997,260.27 per day.
Reagan took office 112 days later on January 20th, 1981. The debt on that date could be estimated as $907,701,000,000 plus 112 x $246,997,260.27, or $935,364,693,151.
Bill Clinton was the first president to slow the rate of the accrual of debt after the current out-of-control spending began with the Borrow and Spend Republicans in 1981.
The final amount of the senior Bush debt was $4,174,218,594,232.91 (according to http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np), and Clinton became president on January 20th, 1993. Bill Clinton saw $1,553,558,144,071.73 added to the national debt during the eight years of his presidency.
However, from the start of fiscal year 1994 (7 months after Clinton became president), until the start of fiscal year 2002 (7 months after Bush took office), the amount of money paid toward interest on the existing Federal debt was $2,767,282,794,374.59 (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm).
Therefore, no amount of the national debt is attributable to Bill Clinton - his policies of higher taxes and reduced spending actually simultaneously reduced the debt and brought about the strongest economy since World War II, despite the fiscal disaster left in the wake of Reagan and the first Bush.
The debt was at $5,727,776,738,304.64 on January 19th, 2001, the last business day before George W. Bush took the office of president. The debt was at $10,628,881,485,510.23 on January 16th, 2009, the last business day before Barack H. Obama became president.
During his administration, George W. Bush
increased the national debt by $4,901,104,747,205.59
and personally approved of the creation of 46% of the entire national debt,
in only 8 years.
Starting in 2003, George W. Bush destroyed the world economy by encouraging U.S. banks to make loans to those who could not afford them, through schemes such as the "American Dream Downpayment Initiative", and through the destruction of oversight, such as lawsuits to prevent state securities laws from being enforced on Bush's watch. Once Bush's policies led to their inevitable result of economic collapse, the United States found itself in a situation where it had to take on debt in order to restore the economy.
This means that all of the money spent to restore the economy, until it is restored, is also attributable to George W. Bush.
Further, with our interest payments on the current debt at almost half a trillion dollars per year, that amount will be attributed to Borrow-And-Spend Republicanism as well.
That means that Ronald Wilson Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George Walker Bush's borrow-and-spend Republican administrations oversaw, approved, or caused to be spent, almost all of the national debt, except for as much as $935,364,693,151.00.
The current calculation on the site is based on the U.S. Treasury's published Total Public Debt Outstanding as of Friday, April 06, 2012, when the debt was $15,618,640,279,582.90. On Tuesday, September 04, 2007, the debt was $8,995,145,905,720.62.
This means that with the current national debt around $15,634,720,284,792.50, we're adding $3,951,965,616.86 per day, or $45,740.34 per second.
You can also find more information at the U.S. National Debt Clock.
Or other sites: http://www.reagandebt.com/, http://www.robertreich.org/reich/20050126.asp
No amount of debt is attributable to Bill Clinton? Seriously? You must mean except for the $1.395975 Trillion of debt he added to the US from 1993 to the end of his fiscal budget in 2001? (source: http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16)
People like you are the problem! Throw blame everywhere instead of fixing the problem step by step. Why whine about 5 million? Ever try to go out and make five million in cash? It aint so easy jackass!
I agree. It's one thing setting up some time-limited tax incentives to cajole a private company to set up projects like this but entirely another to actually pay for it out of the public pocket. Even if 5 mil is pretty much chump change these days, particularly for an energy project.
On the plus side, and I ain't sticking up for the Kenyan here... it is an example of the general kind of thing that should have been started 10 or more years ago, if governments were actually rational about energy policy and not merely tools of big oil.
No-one who's ever done a bit of research into alternative sources of energy thinks there's a single replacement for oil anywhere on the near horizon, of course, but there are a whole bunch of ways to replace some of it, which buys us time while we think up ways to replace the rest. Trouble is, we should have started in on that years ago and thrown money at it while the paper still had some perceived value.
Your post is itself deserving of a Federal grant, based on the amount of BS it contains. It's not so much what you said but what you left unsaid.
To address but one small paragraph, you wrote "Bill Clinton was the first president to slow the rate of the accrual of debt after the current out-of-control spending began with the Borrow and Spend Republicans in 1981. "
Read the Constitution and understand how the government works. Spending does not originate with the president - or at least not pre-2009. Spending originates in Congress. In 1981, the year Reagan took office, the Republicans controlled the Senate but the House, under Tip O'Neill, was solidly Democratic. Reagan wanted to reduce taxes and spending, if I recall correctly. Tip agreed, taxes were cut, but spending continued to rise, and not just on military rebuilding after the Carter fiasco. In other words, Tip refused to carry through on his promise.
Fast forward to 1995, when the Republicans took control of Congress. Newt Gingrich, then the Speaker, started talking about balancing the budget. I remember any number of instances where Clinton was caught on camera saying "We can't balance the budget in seven years", or "We can't balance the budget in nine years." Consummate politician that he was, he triangulated himself into a hero for balancing the budget although he fought it vociferously.
I won't even begin trying to defend either Bush, as both were fiscal disasters. Bush 1 did, of course, have to deal with a totally Democratic Congress. Bush 2 kept bringing people like Ted Kennedy in to help craft domestic policies, but the Republican Congress had been in DC long enough to go soft on the Contract With America principles and they were tossed aside in the 2006 elections. One should observe that the Pelosi-Reid duo took control of Congress in 2007 and within a year we were on the brink of disaster.
Who controls Congress used to be more important than who was president. Obama doesn't seem to care about listening to Congress, so perhaps it now is only important who is president.
ruggero santilli invented a method for safely neutralising nuclear waste,
and also a process for waste free nuclear fusion. not surprisingly he received numerous
threats and was forced to abandon his research.
http://www.nuclearwasterecycling.com/
http://akiomatsumura.com/2012/04/682.html
http://www.abodia.com/f/Free-Energy-Devices.htm
USSA needs bullshit man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4ab7F1FQrtA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ96KrAI4xk
Its worse than that... once US gets as addicted to manure as it is to oil, it'll start breeding more cows and perpetuating the problem... not just zero sum... tail spin.
The cows are going to shit either way.
And right about this time is when she mentioned she had a boyfriend?
So China and India are ramping up to build Thorium reactors, and we are building Cow Shit Reactors? Really? I'm starting to think I'm trapped in some personal version of The Truman Show. This administration is so bizarre it cannot be real. Think I'll go warm up my coffee by taking a shit in it. Wonder if I can get a loan?
Yeah you really do sometimes just have to sit back and laugh at some (most) of humanity these days,
You won't be laughing when GM comes out with a version of the Volt powered by sh*t. At least cowshit doesn't spontaneously ignite, at least not that I've ever heard of. The thing I wonder is if Obama will force suburban towns to alter the zoning to allow raising cows on one's property. I guess that would be ok with him as long as the cow owner didn't try giving raw milk to his neighbors. That would bring in the FDA swat team.
It's not bizarre if you remember WHY they're doing what they do...to steal taxpayer money...to get rich. Then it's simple to understand.
Yeah, there seems to be an oversupply of that in Washington DC, and very little demand. Perhaps a bailout is in order?
Mix with straw, add spores, wait, harvest. Turn that frown upside down! (may induce uncontrollable laughing)
Actually horse shit pays 2 to 1 over bull shit. For those keeping odds.
Hysterical! Best comment of the day award!
I hear that Kari Norgaard thought of the idea. She will be present to cut the ribbon on the first day of work.
They hired her for her immense set of choppers.
SilverFish,
You can't tell silicone implants when you see them?
The Other Dave in SF
just keep those chompers AWAY from my DICK!!!!
ahahaha! that avatar is pure gold.
cut the shit...all these jokes is just more racism from ZH
Yeah 'Green' is the new ugly and so to be against Green is to racist....or sexist,.,, or is it anti gay???
Sathington Willougby 2329991
You know it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.
Comment
Not true. People lie to themselves everyday. Let me give you an example: "I am Bernanke and I am God."
Quite frankly you could insert many names in that line beside Bernanke. Just about every politician, movie star, music star, athelete, etc.
It's called hubris and often involves narcism.
Sounds like udder bullshit!!!
Were these 15 permanent jobs including in the March jobs report?
Seasonal adjustments and the birth/death model made it +90015.
Shovel ready...Yeah!!!
"So how many shit shovelers does it take to run a "biogas anaerobic digester"? Apparently 15. At $333,333 a poop, pardon pop."
Well played. You can't make this shit up!!!
Everyone will want a piece of the pie.
Everyone will want a piece of the pile.
Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action'
I love the expressions on the cows' faces. Not even they can believe it.
Like a cow staring at a new gate! Yehaw.
kato
Sounds similar to methane tanks from the seventies. Manure is dropped into a tank and the Methane from breakdown is used to heat something like a barn.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/business/businessspecial2/24farmers.h...
Electricity From What Cows Leave BehindFOR years, the cows at Green Mountain Dairy here produced only milk and manure. But recently they have generated something else: electricity.
The farm is part of a growing alternative energy program that converts the methane gas from cow manure into electricity that is sold to the power utility’s grid.
Central Vermont Public Service, which supplies electricity to 158,000 customers around the state, was among the first utilities in the country to draw electricity from cow manure on dairy farms. About 4,000 utility customers participate by agreeing to pay a premium for the electricity.
“We realized we could help meet a customer demand for renewables, help solve a manure management problem and make these farmers more financially secure,” said Steve Costello, a spokesman for Central Vermont Public Service.
Four Vermont dairy farms are producing electricity for the utility, and two more are expected to be online by year’s end, Mr. Costello said. The utility hopes to add six more farms by 2010.
http://www.small-farm-permaculture-and-sustainable-living.com/methane_ge...
DIY Methane GeneratorHave you blown your puppet account's cover?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/obama-invests-5-million-bullshit-energy#co...
Sounds great! And maybe we could construct a large battle sphere where two men enter and one man leaves. Would Tina Turner make a good M.C.?
We don't need another hero! Thunderdome has arrived!
'Who runs Bartertown? I run Bartertown!'
The Other Dave in SF
Nah, just "shovel ready" jobs!
how much would i get paid as a shit shoveler?
Those shit shovelers will probably be illegals. Mexico should be grateful to Obama for helping to create jobs for its citizens.
How much shit could a shit shoveller shovel, if a shit shoveller could shovel shit?
a shit shoveller would shovel as much shit as a shit shoveller could, if a shit shoveller could shovel shit.
We're finally getting those "shovel ready" jobs we were promised ! Monedas 2012 Comedy Imitates Life
I accept this.
Only bullshit comes from this administration.
This project stinks!
Follow the money on this one Tyler and I'll bet my bottom $1 fiat note that this is yet another political "favor" (i.e. - much like a now bankrupt Solar company.)
Probably a company that makes genetically improved methane-producing cows.
methane for $5,000,000, Alex.
I see there is no information about Western Plains online. At least the last scam (SolarTrust of America) gave the appearance they were an actual business with a website and management bio section.
How long before they blow through the $5mm? I say 4 months max
Oh yeah, alert the BLS to add 400 jobs to the April report (100 temporary jobs + 300 for seasonal adjustments)
Google much? http://www.wpellc.com/
Also, biogas anaerobic digesters are used all over the world. From what I've found, they usually cost from $500k-$900k depending on the size. They take extremely low maintenance once built though so I'm not sure why 15 people would be needed to run one. Typically the farmers build them and use the energy with no "energy" company involved.
The homemade version is a great addition for anyone serious about going offgrid longterm
http://www.ruralcostarica.com/biodigester.html
With this administration it's all about administration! One to shovel shit and 14 departments to administrate the shoveling of the shit before a shitty bankruptcy.
1) shit P.R.
2) shit security
3) anti-shit terrorist goon squad
4) shit accounts payable (shit! debit or credit?)
5) shit-tax auditor
6) environmental shit agency for oversight of effects of shit on "global warming"
7) shit-bus town hall meeting driver
8) shit-bus town hall meeting tele-prompter hooker-upper
9) jive shit talkin' (speechwriter) coach
10) Rahm Emmanuel (synonym)
11) economic shit advisor (insert former TBTF executive here)
12) aipac shit cronie / shit spy
13) bored as shit director
14) shit damage control analyst
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 | Cattle Believed To Contribute To Greenhouse Effect
Agricultural scientists and dairy farmers today made a joint statement saying that cows are the major polluters of the atmosphere and that they should all be fitted with catalytic converters before global warming gets out of control.
"Cows produce enough methane to provide a small Himilayan settlement with sufficient power to run a regular bus service to Katmandu and back for a week", said a Buddhist Transport advisor. " Especially the black and white ones"
Farmers have been angered by the comments saying that pigs and llamas are notorious for the amount of gas they emit.
"Put a match to a pig's bottom and it will go up like the Hindeburgh" reported a pork butcher. " Although the main reason for its flammability has to be blamed on the stiff hair on their backs"
The last pig explosion took place at a farm in the New Forest, Hampshire in the UK. Since then, the fire department has insisted on clearly marked fire exits on sty walls
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i17847
Yes, but these type of facilities reduce the greenhouse gases since burning it produces less methane than natural decomposition.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724064840.htm
They are going to blow the entire $5 million on kickbacks and trying to get an EPA permit.
Can we pipe it directly from Obama's mouth? And what is the ROI on this?
Ahhhhhhh...... BULLSHIT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx2V-D-Xdq8
Bullish!
The part of the Merril Lynch adds they did not show. Bullish on American energy.
bullish + t (time) => bullshit!
human fecal material, go long.
there's gold in them thar' arses.
umm...that's corn
preprocessed. the profits are on the margin,
it is called economy/ecology or visa versa.
Wow each permanent job only costs $333,333...what a bargain!
Alert the BLS , they need just the right amount of bullshit .
They already have it calculated - this project will create at least 12,500 seasonally-adjusted jobs. They'll probably include them as NFP, too.
who needs bullshit with all the shit coming out of the white house?
I sold my entire 2011 production of farts to the OA...
Shit....
v Someone tell that Little Prick over @ Forex Live / Sean Lee to stop selling his book!
Get a Job you douche bag! Sean is long still / gbp/aud! I can't stop laughing!
Ohh Ya. LNG storage was the question!
I consider Obama to be an expert in bullshit so this might be money well invested.
in early 1990, right out of the US Navy, I was job hunting and went to a cow manure plant in Brawley, Cali. The plant was offline more than online and caught on fire frequently. And ethanol is a political boondoggle taxpayers keep paying for to subsidize farm welfare.
All we want is life beyond... the Thunderdome (next to the pigshit biogas digester)...
the national embarrassment continues
Barry's cronies score again! And this bankruptcy will come after the November elections...
If I were to shit on Obama's face and charge a dollar for everyone who would watch, I could use the donated money to employ people to dig holes in random places which would create tens of millions of jobs.
BULLSCHLITz.. your 45 comes in bags, bitchez.
some .45's come @ terminal velocity. shit bullets.
You guys should support this green energy endeavor. If they didn't convert the BS to energy they'd be putting it into our food, making twenty dollar bills out of it, and spreading it around newsrooms everywhere.
Ethanol is a complete waste of time, from a market perspective it is a zombie company/stock. Yes I once held some, realized the companies were zombie shells once goverment subsidies evaporate.
It's a conjob. Bets on Obama ends up lame duck (if he gets re-elected)
Who's gonna beat The O'bamabot, The Rombamabot?
Who cares.
Can't argue with that.
:)
Ron Paul bitchez!
Fantastic! Now we all know where Bartertown will be located!
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity (or Barry's); and I'm not sure about the universe. -Albert Einstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFCM6TZgTMI
Would someone please buy Obama a copy of "The Law" by Bastiat? I'm starting to feel embarassaed for the guy.
$5 million for 15 permanent jobs...that's pretty much the Royals line up, no?
We all caught Santelli TODAY!
The pukes avoided VIX!
mock not, once the oil runs out you'll be in need of a little BS...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/6483050/No-porkies-over-pig-manure-gas-for-power
Not to burst any body's bubble but there is a 3,000 cow barn down the street with a methane plant that works as good as advertised.
"Not to burst any body's bubble"
As in fart bubbles?
With or without free money? If these things are so profitable, why do they need free money? Why can't they attract investors? Something doesn't pass the smell test.
This. I figure it has to be one of three things:
1. they are under-capitalized
2. They are poorly managed
3. It is not an economical implementation without subsidies.
As shown previously from theoildrum.com corn ethanol has an EROI of around 6:1 at the farm, but declines to 1.4:1 at best once refined. If the cows are already there, and the corn is already there, and the methane in the manure is currently just floating into the atmosphere, and they are actually able to reduce ethanol refining oil inputs by 90 percent (a lot of IFS) they may be able to get corn ethanol up to an EROI of 5:1, about inline with SAGD tar sands production.
Hi oilman8864 - the punsters on this thread don't have a clue. Anaerobic digestion is a long-established cost-effective technology with thousands of fully functioning plants worldwide. There are fewer than a hundred AD plants in the US for some very basic reasons, but the technology is sound, as you point out. For all the juvenile snickers being displayed here what is really being displayed is pure ignorance. If any of the wise-guys on this thread really care about being infomed may I suggest that you search for keywords biogas electricity manure. No shit.
Oh - and using biogas to provide heat for ethanol production is a pretty good idea - except that ethanol is a pretty bad idea. But just because the application is stupid doesn't mean the technology is invalid. Simplistic thinking yields idiotic results.
I think ethanol is better than 110 dollar crude.
It could sound racist and may well be racist as well, but I would rather give anyone my fucking money over lunatic arabs with Gucci hovercrafts making sure their countrymen only eat dirt which they regurgitate into vaginas of the opressed women and believe in some religion whose barbarism harkens back to the fucking stone age. (in Saudi Arabia women can't drive but their OPEC ministers pretty much call the shots for our entire motherfucking economy-and stupid motherfuckers want to say Ethanol is a "bad idea"...not really the adjectival description I wanted. Are wars and ideological conflicts preferable? Do you want your economy beholden to some sheik strung out from a month in Paris (aka Ramamdan) banging call girls?) If Ethanol is a "bad idea" then even Poe would have great difficulty describing the macabre we know as oil.
the amount of oil needed to produce ethanol = the same ending. "The practices and practitioners of infinite growth model and the reality of finite resources are meeting their natural conclusion" - The Gooch.
the amount of oil needed to produce ethanol = the same ending. "The practices and practitioners of infinite growth model and the reality of finite resources are meeting their natural conclusion" - The Gooch.
I think conservation is better than either one.
I am going wacko here. Every tankful of ethenol starves another child somewhere in the world.
[due to higher food prices]
And the diesel to get said corn to them will come from?
What is oil above 100 costing?
Keep droppin' knowledge.
You make some good cigarettes, bro.
The government is not a bank dammit!!!
If he (Mr.McNinch) wants to do it, fine, pay for it out of his own pocket or find investors or get a loan. Only the government would pay $333,000 per person to shovel shit.
"...except that ethanol is a pretty bad idea."
He was on the ethanol bandwagon a couple years ago...see below...
am spir
It is not the technology being mocked here, re-read and contemplate, I'm certain you will eventually get the joke...and the anger...
3,000 cows gives you about 6,000,000 pounds of manure a year. If I recall, (it was in the newspaper here) the plant cost $2 million. I don't recall any susidy. But $2 million isn't much to a farmer these days. Tractors cost $350,000. Farms pay a lot of money for energy.
Perhaps so, but how much gumbint stimuli paid for it?
right on. anaerobic digesters transform barn manure into biogas about 60% combustible methane. biogas is used to fuel a combined heat and power unit which powers engines and generators. 30% of the available energy is turned into available electricity with the remainder used to warm farm houses and to keep the digester as an even 100 degrees Fahrenheit. the processed liquid and manure residue is diverted out of the digester for fertilizer. this process is also being applied to process unsold produce from the big box stores. there are presently about 170 anaerobic digesters in use in 257,000 animal feeding operations throughout the nation. however "only farms with 500 or more cows have been able to make a digester cost feasible" as biodigesting systems are prohibitively expensive (over $1 million!) However, Steve Reinford has made profitable enterprise of his biodigester. "each month he makes up to $1,300 selling digested solids as cow bedding and another $600 to $700 on renewable energy credits. Add the excess electricity he sells to the grid and Reinford estimates he's making a pretax profit of $200,000 a year. Reinford says he hasn't bought any fuel for the past two years for the house or the barn" not bad for cowshit, eh?
$1300 + $700 * 12 == $200k?!
Not unless he's somehow generating gigawatts with cowshit. Try again. A 130kW digester will not make anyone rich (the soil, on the other hand...).
So, he is saving an unknown amount (as we do not know his previous consumption of heating oil for the house and barns previously.
On top of that, he sells a product for $1300 a month, so `$15K per year, on a $1 million+ system. on its own, this system would likely need replacement before it paid for itself, not counting the unknown savings.
However, between various credits, subsidies, etc. for A) having the system and B) selling power to the grid at an unknown mark-up over the market price for electricity, he generates an additional $185K per year. He could be getting paid $0.80 per KwH in a market with $0.10 KwH residential rates.
That's fantastic, more power to them. But that's not the issue. The issue is they got 5 million Bernank bucks to do it.
Yes but its $5 million bernankes for 15 new (slightly soiled) jobs.
$333,333 per job ... yes we shit-can!
And you thought that the wind turbine NIMBY crowd was a tough bunch - how about this cowpie next door .... I'm guessing that the demonstrator unit isn't planned for the White House lawn - just thinking out loud here ...
the whitehouse already has a bullshit plant
Feces, BITCHEZ!
Going long on FECES tomorrow!
Slap one of these plants in D.C. - it would power the Eastern seaboard.
Biogas plants are used successfully in Vietnam, China, India and many other places around the world to provide cheap cooking fuel, liquid fertiliser, reduce emissions and generally improve the health and wealth of those who use this technology. Payback is usually ~5 years, with an internal rate of return of around 10-15%.
Just goes to show that an American can fuck up even the simplest of things.
;-)
Free Holstein Hotrods for everyone!
$5M for 15 jobs works out to $333K/job. At that rate, it would take $4.22 trillion to create jobs for the 12.67 million unemployed people in the US.
If it actually works, that is. How many jobs was Solyndra supposed to create again?
shit IS expensive afterall!
...and I thought I was working a shit job.