The Climate Trust is recruiting dairy farms and project developers interested in developing anaerobic biodigesters in the Pacific Northwest for Smart Energy, a new partnership with Northwest Natural.
Interested dairy farms or project developers should contact Peter Weisberg for more information.
What is Smart Energy?
The Climate Trust is proud to partner with NW Natural to launch Smart Energy. Under this program, NW Natural customers can offset the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their use of natural gas. NW Natural will also offset the greenhouse gas emissions that result from heating its facilities.
For as little as $6 a month, NW Natural customers can support innovative environmental projects in the Western United States. The Climate Trust will invest Smart Energy dollars in projects that prevent the release of greenhouse gases. By making a project financially viable, customers get credit for greenhouse gases removed or kept out of the atmosphere - equal to the amount of carbon dioxide created by their natural gas use.
While many types of projects benefit the environment, NW Natural is interested in supporting ventures that create a future for renewable natural gas. To meet this goal, The Climate Trust is recruiting a biodigester project.
What are biodigesters?
Biodigesters turn the waste of America’s dairy farms into a renewable, natural gas substitute. Currently manure is stored in lagoons where it releases methane into the atmosphere. Biodigesters capture this methane and turn it into biogas.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 23 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. By preventing methane from entering the atmosphere, biodigesters significantly reduce dairy farms’ greenhouse gas emissions. NW Natural and its customers will buy these avoided methane emissions as greenhouse gas offsets.
The biogas created by the digester can be combusted to produce renewable electricity or, in some cases, pumped directly into natural gas distribution pipelines. Smart Energy is NW Natural’s innovative first step towards renewable natural gas.
What is The Climate Trust doing?
NW Natural has contracted with The Climate Trust to administer the acquisition and management of greenhouse gas offsets for the Smart Energy program.
The Climate Trust will use its expertise in the offset market to acquire greenhouse gas reduction projects for Smart Energy, quantify the emission reductions, and monitor the results to ensure the projected reductions occur.
Information for potential farms or project developers:
Farm Type: The Climate Trust is particularly interested in working with dairy farms with liquid manure management systems. This includes semi-solid, slurry and liquid management systems that store manure in anaerobic lagoons or storage ponds. Dry manure management systems, like those that scrape or vacuum manure into a dry storage pile, do not produce sufficient amounts of methane for greenhouse gas offset projects.
Funding: NW Natural and The Climate Trust anticipate that funding will be available in 2009.
