On the road to clean energy
CHENANGO COUNTY – One area organization took its campaign to promote renewable resources in Chenango County on the road Saturday.
Representatives from the Chenango County Farm Bureau attended the first “Energy Fair” in Lackawaxen, Pa., located about 75 miles southeast of Binghamton.
The fair was a showcase of environmentally safe and community accessible power sources, Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers said. Vickers, with wife Rainy and bureau Vice President Giff Foster, presented their progress on two alternative energy projects they’re currently developing locally.
The event was organized by the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition (UDPC) – which protects scenic areas along the Delaware River in Sullivan County and Eastern Pennsylvania – partly in response to the New York Regional Interconnect power line project.
“The goal was to get people looking at the alternatives that exist in energy,” said Vickers. “It promotes creating more localized energy sources versus stringing up 200-mile-long power lines across the countryside.”
NYRI is proposing to construct a high voltage power line with 115-foot-tall steel towers from Utica downstate to Orange County in an effort to delivery more energy to metropolitan New York. At one time, the line was designed to encroach protected areas of the Delaware. That route has been abandoned by the company. However, 44 miles of Chenango County are still threatened by the project.
“The focus is still there to continue to the fight and show the alternatives,” Vickers said.
Foster co-operates a bio-diesel production plant, Creative Energy Solutions, in Bainbridge. Saturday he displayed his pick-up truck, which runs 100 percent on waste vegetable oil from deep fryers. He says using waste oil has increased his mileage from 17 to 30 miles per gallon. That’s not all it’s improved, either.
“It (fryer oil) smells better than regular diesel,” Foster says, “more like French fries.”
According to a press release from the UDPC, the fair featured a host of wind, water, bio-diesel and other renewable resource technologies, in the hopes of showing the public the reality of renewable resource options. Vickers displayed the farm bureau’s plans for developing a “Community Anaerobic Digester” – a generator that would heat and power a facility comparable in size to the Chenango County Correctional Facility on cow manure. The project won a $50,000 matching grant from the state to conduct further research. No site or formal plans have been offered.
“It sparked a lot of interest,” he said. “The fair focused on all different aspects of energy. Our displays are very practical, in that they’re feasible concepts people can understand and they’re projects that could happen today.”
One exhibit showed how the country could produce energy using the flow of the ocean, Vickers said.
Aside from using farm waste products to produce energy, in Chenango County, Vickers and Foster are looking to start a fuel crop cooperative, where local farmers would ideally grow non-food intensive plants like rape seed and willow that would be turned into fuel – a chunk of which would go back to the farmer to run their operations with. The group showcased a mini-model depicting what they are calling the “Field to Food Tank” process.
“People are fascinated when they can visually see the finished product and realize that everything can be utilized with no waste,” Foster said, explaining that bio-diesel waste can be turned into a multitude of things, including soap.
Vickers and Foster say their projects are in line the U.S. Farm Bureau’s “25 x 25” program, an initiative to have agriculture producing 25 percent of the country’s energy by 2025.
He added that the Farm Bureau will attend next year’s “Energy Fair” in Lackawaxen.
Representatives from the Chenango County Farm Bureau attended the first “Energy Fair” in Lackawaxen, Pa., located about 75 miles southeast of Binghamton.
The fair was a showcase of environmentally safe and community accessible power sources, Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers said. Vickers, with wife Rainy and bureau Vice President Giff Foster, presented their progress on two alternative energy projects they’re currently developing locally.
The event was organized by the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition (UDPC) – which protects scenic areas along the Delaware River in Sullivan County and Eastern Pennsylvania – partly in response to the New York Regional Interconnect power line project.
“The goal was to get people looking at the alternatives that exist in energy,” said Vickers. “It promotes creating more localized energy sources versus stringing up 200-mile-long power lines across the countryside.”
NYRI is proposing to construct a high voltage power line with 115-foot-tall steel towers from Utica downstate to Orange County in an effort to delivery more energy to metropolitan New York. At one time, the line was designed to encroach protected areas of the Delaware. That route has been abandoned by the company. However, 44 miles of Chenango County are still threatened by the project.
“The focus is still there to continue to the fight and show the alternatives,” Vickers said.
Foster co-operates a bio-diesel production plant, Creative Energy Solutions, in Bainbridge. Saturday he displayed his pick-up truck, which runs 100 percent on waste vegetable oil from deep fryers. He says using waste oil has increased his mileage from 17 to 30 miles per gallon. That’s not all it’s improved, either.
“It (fryer oil) smells better than regular diesel,” Foster says, “more like French fries.”
According to a press release from the UDPC, the fair featured a host of wind, water, bio-diesel and other renewable resource technologies, in the hopes of showing the public the reality of renewable resource options. Vickers displayed the farm bureau’s plans for developing a “Community Anaerobic Digester” – a generator that would heat and power a facility comparable in size to the Chenango County Correctional Facility on cow manure. The project won a $50,000 matching grant from the state to conduct further research. No site or formal plans have been offered.
“It sparked a lot of interest,” he said. “The fair focused on all different aspects of energy. Our displays are very practical, in that they’re feasible concepts people can understand and they’re projects that could happen today.”
One exhibit showed how the country could produce energy using the flow of the ocean, Vickers said.
Aside from using farm waste products to produce energy, in Chenango County, Vickers and Foster are looking to start a fuel crop cooperative, where local farmers would ideally grow non-food intensive plants like rape seed and willow that would be turned into fuel – a chunk of which would go back to the farmer to run their operations with. The group showcased a mini-model depicting what they are calling the “Field to Food Tank” process.
“People are fascinated when they can visually see the finished product and realize that everything can be utilized with no waste,” Foster said, explaining that bio-diesel waste can be turned into a multitude of things, including soap.
Vickers and Foster say their projects are in line the U.S. Farm Bureau’s “25 x 25” program, an initiative to have agriculture producing 25 percent of the country’s energy by 2025.
He added that the Farm Bureau will attend next year’s “Energy Fair” in Lackawaxen.
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