Haubenschild Farms Final Report - The Minnesota Project

The Minnesota Project August 2002
Policy
Since the Haubenschild digester was built, Minnesota leaders have implemented several
initiatives to encourage digesters, many of which were policy recommendations in the
original Haubenschild report:
! A state production payment of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour was extended to include
on-farm digesters;
! The Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s zero interest loan program for
digesters was expanded;
! The Minnesota Department of Commerce released a report in August 2002 that
considers the total potential for biogas production on Minnesota farms;
! The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has considered anaerobic digesters as a
mitigating technology when negotiating with feedlot operators;
! Great River Energy, the electric generation and distribution cooperative utility for a
majority of farms in Minnesota, has recently announced a special grant program for
digesters; and
! East Central Energy, Haubenschild’s utility, has instituted the first green electricity
marketing program in the country exclusively for digester-produced power, by
offering their customers the option to purchase “cow power”.
Policies to encourage digesters are rolling along, not only in Minnesota and other states, but
at the federal level as well. The near future may see a rapid expansion in the number of
digesters on farms, without the need for additional incentives.
Digester policy and equity
The capital-intensive nature of digester systems, as well as economies of scale in their
construction and operation, are major barriers to their development on smaller and midsized
farms. The way policies are currently structured, this means that tax dollars to
encourage the construction of digesters will tend to go towards larger farms. Unless there
is a way to balance this out, smaller operations will be at a competitive disadvantage, since
they don’t have as easy access to these funding sources as larger operations do. Future
policies should consider this equity question.
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