By SHARON UDASIN
09/13/2012

Plant in Be’er Tuviya will be able to provide electricity equivalent to the consumption needs of more than 6,000 homes.

Local and national government officials in Be’er Tuviya on Monday evening inaugurated Israel’s largest biogas plant, which will produce usable electricity from dairy and chicken farm waste.

In addition to providing a needed supplement of electricity to the region, the new plant will also help address ongoing concerns about water resource contamination issues as well as smells emanating from dairy barns and chicken coops, according to a statement from the Be’er Tuviya Regional Council.

“The facility will provide an end solution to farmers and to the environment,” said Dror Shor, head of the Be’er Tuviya Regional Council.

“Thanks to these projects, we do not need more polluting power plants.”

During the coming months, the NIS 10 million facility, owned by the company Eco Energy, will begin operating and transforming the waste into green energy, according to the council.

While two similar facilities already operate in northern Israel, this newest one is the largest and is expected to have a capacity of 4 megawatts. The plant will be able to provide an amount of electricity equivalent to the consumption needs of more than 6,000 homes, the council reported.

The waste will be collected from dairy farms across Israel and delivered in closed containers to the council, where it will then undergo pasteurization.

After this process, the waste will then pass into two concrete tanks devoid of oxygen, where the contents will emit the methane biogas – which can in turn be transformed into electricity.

Meanwhile, the remaining solid waste can be used as fertilizer, the council explained.

Because the facility will likely handle between 10 and 15 percent of the Israel’s dairy farm waste, it will significantly contribute to reducing the environmental damage caused by such waste to water resources, as well as the odors spread throughout the air, according to the council.

“We saw that in Ramat Hagolan, the possibility to operate bed and breakfasts in moshavim, made possible only after the activation of a facility that solved the problem of odors and flies from barns,” said Shay Levy, the owner of Eco Energy.

“In the first phase, the facility will handle the waste of 14,000 dairy cows. This is the forefront of technology.”

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