**FILE PHOTO** A turkey runs through a paddock at the Misty Knoll Farm in New Haven, Vt., Nov. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Posted on 12/15/2004 6:50:05 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turkey leftovers will take on a whole new use after a Minnesota company finishes construction of a power plant fired by the birds' droppings.
It may not be the total answer to relieving the United States' addiction to foreign oil, but the plant will burn 90 percent turkey dung and create clean power for 55,000 homes.
Three poultry litter plants have already been built in England, but the Benson, Minnesota-based facility will be the first large-scale plant of its type in the U.S. and the largest in the world, according to operator Fibrominn, a subsidiary of power plant builder Homeland Renewable Energy, LLC of Boston.
Turkey dung is prized over pig excrement and cow chips.
"Poultry litter is drier material, so it burns better, and there's a lot of it," said Charles Grecco, of HH Media, LLC, an investment bank that helped arrange $202 million in financing for the plant.
The 55-megawatt plant will burn 700,000 tons of dung a year and produce fertilizer as a by-product, a process that will keep phosphorus and nitrates found in the raw litter from seeping into water supplies, said Grecco.
No extra amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide would be emitted than would be naturally emitted as the dung decomposes, said Grecco.
Utility Xcel has agreed to purchase the turkey power, said company spokesman Ed Legge. Under 1994 Minnesota state legislation, Xcel is required to buy a small amount of power made from biomass in exchange for clearance to store spent nuclear fuel outside its Red Wing nuclear plant in Minnesota.
Fibrowatt, LLC, a Philadelphia-based developer, which is mostly owned by Homeland Renewable Energy, is pursing other plants in poultry-growing U.S. states.
**FILE PHOTO** A turkey runs through a paddock at the Misty Knoll Farm in New Haven, Vt., Nov. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Somebody lay down some newspapers at DNC HQ and the NYTimes, we'll be millionaires with just one day's collection!
Okay...I think this is a good reason to reconsider Turkey's invitation to the EU.
bump for later read
There's a certain symmetry that I will be cooking a turkey in my electric oven that is powered by the birds poop. A very human like characteristic.
I had a friend in Utah over 30 years ago who had several huge chicken barns - tens of thousands of birds - and heated the barns totally with chicken s*it.
oh, right, this is "turkey" s*it.
Is this related to that Oliver Stone/Midnight Express story posted just after this?
Someone has to say it:
"As god is my witness, I swear I thought turkeys could fly."
Sounds like the straight poop to me.
I believe thats called "Dung shui"
*shakes head* HAHAHAhahahaa... Your varied interests are quite entertaining....
These guys come through the back of my yard sometimes (my Golden goes crazy) and they evidently leave a lot of energy on the forest floor.
"We call it Underworld. That's where Bartertown gets its energy."
"What, oil? Natural gas?"
"Pigs."
"You mean pigs like those? Bulls**t!"
"No. Pig s**t."
"What?!"
"Pig s**t. The lights, the motors, the vehicles, all run by a high-powered gas called methane. And methane cometh from pig s**t."
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