Now that's some powerful s**t! Electricity from cow manure

Manure entrepreneur Kevin Maas turns dairy waste into green energy

By Rami Grunbaum
Seattle Times deputy business editor

The back end of a cow provides the front end of the green-energy business that Kevin Maas is slowly expanding in Western Washington and Oregon.

With missionary zeal, he and his brother Daryl build modest electricity-producing projects that help family-owned dairy farms preserve their key role in the agricultural ecosystem.

Their company, Farm Power, turns manure into electricity, fertilizer and bacteria-free animal bedding in Mount Vernon and Lynden. Another plant is slated to break ground this summer in Enumclaw, and two are planned in Tillamook, Ore.

The technology is fairly simple. What's hard about a manure digester is linking farmers, bankers, regulators, environmentalists and utilities.

"An urban liberal would get laughed off the farm" for trying to convince risk-averse dairymen they can save money while benefiting the environment, said the lanky, bearded 35-year-old.

But with rural roots, as well as an MBA, Maas seems uniquely suited to the task.

(More here.)