Question 1

Will a digester make the farm down the road smell worse?

Accepted Answer

Usually the opposite. A sealed digester tends to cut odor from manure storage, though it does not eliminate it, and spreading the leftover digestate can still be noticeable on warm days.

Question 2

How big does a dairy need to be?

Accepted Answer

There is no hard cutoff, but the economics have favored herds of roughly 1,000 cows or more. Smaller farms sometimes make it work by adding food waste or by sharing a digester.

Question 3

Does the gas go into my home's pipeline?

Accepted Answer

It can, if the farm cleans it to pipeline standard and a gas main runs close enough to inject it. In much of the North Country the nearest main is too far, so those farms make electricity instead.

Question 4

Who pays for all this?

Accepted Answer

A mix. Farmers put up capital, and state (NYSERDA) and federal (USDA REAP) programs cover part of it, with gas or electricity sales and environmental credits paying it back over years.

Question 5

Is this actually good for the climate?

Accepted Answer

Capturing methane that would otherwise escape from manure storage is a real benefit, since methane is a strong greenhouse gas. How large the benefit is depends on the farm and the accounting, so treat single headline numbers with caution.

Analysis archive: every entry, most recent first

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