Not Just A Load

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When slapped with an order to clean up the poop of 12,000 dairy cows, the Hefer Valley Cooperative Society built a manure-driven power station to solve their problems. The first of its kind in Israel, the plant was inaugurated this week and is expected to process 600 tons of manure a day and generate 2-2.4 megawatts per hour (MW/h) within the year. At present the plant is operating at about half its capacity, and most of the energy is feeding back to the national grid.

The project is a joint effort between Tambour Hefer Ecology Ltd and Granite Hacarmel Investments Ltd. Granite Hacarmel CEO Amiaz Sagis said, “This is unquestionably an important milestone. This facility fits in with Granite Hacarmel’s strategy to invest in infrastructures and ecology. The company is also investing resources to developalternative energy, water treatment, and desalination.” While it wasn’t made cheap “ the new plant located in Hadera cost about $10 million to build, which included a $2 million grant from Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture to help improve Israel’s much-polluting dairy industry. First the manure is sterilized, then the solid and liquid waste are processed to produce methane, which drives
the generators. This Story was Originally Posted by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on Tree Hugger.


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