The manure from one cow can provide enough fuel to heat seven houses. In the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, we are looking at unusual energy-saving initiatives.
Nij Bosma Zathe is an experimental Dutch farm with 200 dairy cows. The manure these cows produce is used to make biogas. The gas is turned into electricity in a generator which feeds it into the national grid. The heat this releases goes directly to houses in the new estate in Techum.
The heat arrives, through a grate in the wall, in Carla Koelstra's home five kilometres away. "Just a push of the button and the house is warm," she says. Her children are surprised it doesn't smell: "They must use a lot of perfume on it."
As a result of the economic recession, not all the houses planned for this neighbourhood have been finished. Less than a hundred are now heated by means of biogas.
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Wow, seven houses heated by the use of just one cow? That's amazing. I'm looking for Vancouver rentals and now that I see there are quite a few unconventional energy sources that are actually in use in some parts of the world I'm thinking of trying to find a place in Vancouver offering an energy alternative. Sometimes you must really know what you are looking for so that you can find it and now I know:)
The idea of using bio gas from cow manure to produce heat and electricity for homes is not a new one but I've never seen it implemented at such a large scale. There a similar is a project in US too, a construction company is building a neighborhood of apartments for rent in Portland that will only use alternative, green energy. The world is starting to think about cheaper, less pollutant means of producing energy for the future and I am sure we will see a lot more projects like this very soon.
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