Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff this week helped unveil a new anaerobic manure digester at Brubaker Farms in Lancaster County which generates more than 4,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per day, or enough to power more than 150 homes.

Brubaker Farms used state and federal grants and low-interest loans to help pay for the installation of the digester. Secretary Wolff said the digester, which runs on manure from the 700 cow dairy farm, is a good investment in the state's future.

"This manure digester is helping produce power for the community in a way that is good for the environment," said Secretary Wolff. "The farm only uses about five percent of the power generated by the digester, so the rest is sold to the power grid for neighboring communities. By using the digester to process the farm's manure, they are also reducing their impact on air and water quality."

The farm estimates that the equivalent of 47,300 pounds of carbon dioxide is reduced per day through the digester. The solid waste of the digester is used instead of sawdust for animal bedding and is sold as mulch.

NewsClip: Dairy Farm Runs on Cow Power

4/18/2008