GRANVILLE – A partnership between the farming community and government is creating a unique type of energy being offered to municipalities and businesses throughout communities in Western Massachusetts.
HCOG (Hampshire Council of Governments), out of Northampton, an organization involving a consortium of towns in Western Massachusetts, and AG-Grid Energy LLC, an agricultural anaerobic digester investor, have partnered for a project to convert manure and food waste into electricity.
AG-Grid’s role is to provide money-saving net metering credits to the business or municipalities involved, while HCOG’s part of the project is to market and sell the net metering credits.
Net metering credits give residents and communities the opportunity to offset their electric bill by using unique sources of energy at a discount price which can then reduce the consumer costs up to 15%.
Two dairy farms have signed up to use manure or food waste as energy and one of those farms is Rockwood Farms in Granville. Noted in a press release by HCOG, Rockwood Farms and Belden Farms in Hatfield, Mass, will both produce 5.3 million kWh this year, which is estimated at 40 tons of manure per year.
In order to begin the process for Rockwood Farms, AG-Grid will have an outside company installing the anaerobic digester, which takes in the cow manure and food waste on the farm. Martin Construction Resource, who has offices across the United States, will be the contractor.
Through the anaerobic digester manure and food waste is converted into bio gas, which then goes through a generator and produces electricity.
The Town of Granville is looking to power some of their buildings with the energy provided by the anaerobic digester. (WNG File Photo)
Rashi Akki, the Owner and CEO of AG-Grid, said that the Town of Granville has decided to power their municipal buildings by using net metering credits from Rockwood Farms.
The owner of Rockwood Farms, Richard Woodger, said in the HCOG press release that the reason why he chose to invest in anaerobic digestion was because the farm was “looking for something to remain sustainable in Massachusetts.”
With the decline of milk over recent years, this source of energy is expected to bring additional revenue to Rockwood Farms.
Akki discussed in the HCOG press release about the partnership.
“Hampshire Council of Governments is already successfully working with towns. We saw the partnership as a good fit because Ag-Grid is looking to support local Western Massachusetts towns, just like how Hampshire Power has done by reducing the cost of electricity for many local municipalities [as a third party energy supplier.”
Todd Ford, the Executive Director of HCOG, then pointed out his organizations focus for what they do.
“HCOG is dedicated to investing in new, local, renewable energy sources. These projects have tremendous benefit to Western Massachusetts in the form of jobs, carbon reduction, and lower electricity costs. Solar, wind, and anaerobic digestion are all part of our energy future and we are proud to be deeply involved in this effort.”
Ford also added that a main focus for HCOG in this project is to make sure that the customers get everything that they asked for. Ford said that if the town of Granville needs to adjust the amount of net metering credits, and want less than they asked, they can help them through that process. HCOG would then take the left over net metering credits and find another potential customer to pick them up.
As far as the start of the installment of the anaerobic digester, Rakki said that they are still working on the construction plan with Martin Construction Resource.
