While families all across America are putting turkeys on the table this Thanksgiving, a power plant in North Carolina is gearing up to turn factory farm turkey waste into industrial steam.
According to the Fay Observer, the about 165,000 square Prestage AgEnergy plant will produce the equivalent of 95 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Prestage also operates a nearby industrial turkey and pig feed mill, and will use the energy produced by the plant to operate the machinery needed to produce feed pellets.
The steam from the combusting litter will be used to spin turbines and thereby make electricity. The ash byproduct from converting the litter into industrial steam will then be sold for commercial use as fertilizer.
Bob Ford, the executive director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation, told the Fay Observer that Prestage is one of a few poultry farming companies that has built a power plant facility that will run on the company’s own byproducts.
The $25 million facility will eventually be operated by 16 staff members.
A 2007 energy policy mandated that North Carolina utilities use poultry or swine waste to produce some of their power. It is the only state in the country that includes this as a requirement in its energy policy. Five facilities in the state are authorized to use poultry droppings in their production of electricity, but those use only a percentage of litter. The Prestage AgEnergy plant will use litter as its primary fuel.
At least 60 Prestage and Butterball turkey farms in a 45-mile radius of the Prestage AgEnergy power plant site will contribute turkey manure.
Ground was broken on the facility in June.
Another power plant, located in Missouri, will begin using manure from a pig farm to produce natural gas, with a planned on-sale date of 2016.
