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620,000. Given the small size and rural nature of the state, it is difficult for individual municipalities to collect sufficient taxes to cover the cost of large projects with high initial capital costs and maintain user rate stability (even when projects achieve long-term operating cost reductions). Efficiency Vermont, the nation’s first energy efficiency utility, was created by the Vermont legislature and the Vermont Public Service Board in 1999 to help all Vermonters save energy, reduce energy costs, and protect Vermont’s environment. Efficiency Vermont is operated by Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, an independent, non-profit organization under contract to the Vermont Public Service Board. Efficiency Vermont administers virtually all system-wide, electric-ratepayer funded energy efficiency at a statewide level. The Efficiency Vermont contract is a multi-year, competitively bid, performance-based contract that includes a great deal of freedom and flexibility to achieve clearly specified, quantitative energy savings. While commercial and industrial customers have access to prescriptive incentives for simple efficiency measures1, the large majority of electric energy savings are achieved through custom projects and services. Typical services that may be provided by Efficiency Vermont include project-specific technical assistance (e.g., electric and cost savings analyses, economic analyses, technical recommendations, etc.), education and training, and financial incentives. Anaerobic Digestion and Methane Methane is produced as a by-product of a process known as anaerobic (i.e., without oxygen) digestion, which decomposes organic material. At wastewater plants, anaerobic digestion is used to stabilize wastewater sludge, reduce sludge volume, and eliminate pathogens. Volume reduction of sludge results in smaller disposal quantities and lower disposal costs. The methane generated from anaerobic digestion at wastewater facilities is typically considered a “waste.” In fact, methane gas can be a troublesome waste since it is also a “greenhouse gas” that contributes to global warming. Most wastewater plants with anaerobic digestion are required to collect the resulting methane gas and burn it (usually with a flare), rather than letting it discharge directly to the atmosphere, in order to control and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases2. Many do burn a portion for heating the digester. Based on information collected by the US EPA in its Clean Watersheds Needs Survey in 2000, there are approximately 16,000 public wastewater facilities in the U.S., referred to as publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). Anaerobic digestion is a process that is used at roughly 20% of these POTWs (EPA 2003a). Many of these facilities use their waste methane gas as a fuel to provide process heat for the anaerobic digesters, which are typically maintained at 95 degrees Fahrenheit; the rest is often flared. Few use the methane to generate electricity on- site. In fact, the possibility of using methane gas to produce electricity is mentioned only briefly in the Water Environment Federation (WEF) 2003 edition of Wastewater Treatment Plant Design, and then indicated only for “larger treatment plants.” (Vesilind et al. 2003, 15-1) 1 Prescriptive incentives are currently available to Vermont businesses from Efficiency Vermont for some lighting products, LED traffic signals, vending machine controllers, energy star transformers, some refrigeration equipment, premium efficient motors, and “tier 2” air conditioning units. 2 The by-products of methane combustion are carbon dioxide and water. Although carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse gas, it is 20 times less effective at trapping heat than methane.PDF Image | Turning Methane into Money: Cost-Effective Methane Co-Generation Using Microturbines at a Small, Rural Wastewater Plant
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