Two new dairy bio-gas power plants among last

<p>VALLEY FORD – As one North Coast dairy starts up electricity production from trapped manure gas and another has one in the offing, the future of such power production remains in doubt amid high costs, competition with ethanol and opposition from free-range-livestock advocates.</p><p>San Francisco-based St. Anthony Foundation plans to start up an 80-kilowatt bio-gas power plant at its St. Anthony Farm dairy in the southwest Sonoma County community of Valley Ford in August. </p><p>Meanwhile, the Giacomini family that operates Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. in the Point Reyes Station area of west Marin County is planning to build a 100-kilowatt bio-gas plant next year, according to managing partner Lynn Giacomini Stray.</p><p>Those two were among nine bio-gas power projects statewide, totaling 1.33 megawatts of production capacity, to receive funding from the California Dairy Power Production Program in December. That was the second round of funding from the California Energy Commission for the program, initiated by the state's nearly $10 billion SB5X alternative-energy grant program of 2001.</p><p>The first round of funds went to 10 projects in 2004, including one at Straus Family Creamery in the community of Marshall, also in west Marin.</p><p>Those grants can cover up to half the cost of the project or a maximum of $2,000 per produced kilowatt. These funds and others covered $140,000 of Straus' $340,000 project and a little more than half of St. Anthony's $654,000 lagoon and power plant.</p><p>However, those three North Bay projects could be the last to get such backing until regulations change on how much power dairies can produce and more funds become available to offset the steep cost of the power plants, according to Michael Marsh, CEO of the Western United Dairymen trade group, which administers the power production grant program. </p><p>Currently, California law restricts independent electricity producers, such as dairies with bio-gas plants and wineries with photovoltaic arrays, from selling surplus production, according to Keely Wachs, spokesman for environmental programs at Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The state government is mulling over a proposal to increase the amount of surplus electricity utilities can purchase to 250 megawatts.</p><p>Utilities can enter agreements with producers and note the amount of electricity produced via net meters. Customers get an end-of-year credit on their bills if the amount of power produced at retail price is more than the amount used at wholesale price, according to Mr. Wachs. </p><p>Such credits can offset most of a dairy's power bill, such as the $4 Straus paid on its July bill, according to spokeswoman Kristen Heath.</p><p>In the Central Valley, Woodland-based engineer Doug Williams, who designed all the North Coast dairy bio-gas plants, said he is working on 20 to 40 plants there that could produce at least 500,000 cubic feet of bio-gas a day.</p><p>The dairymen's group is working with utilities such as PG&E and state and federal lawmakers to change state law and get more funding for bio-gas projects, but it is facing opposition from environmental groups and ethanol producers, according to Mr. Marsh.</p><p>For example, 65 dairies signed up for the first round of SB5X funds, but all but 14 withdrew when San Francisco-based Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment threatened to sue any dairy that participated, though no suits were filed, he noted.</p><p>A coalition of groups including the center and the Sierra Club came out against manure bio-gas plants in 2003, citing potential for methane leakage.</p>