Preti Flaherty congratulates its client, Exeter Agri-Energy, a renewable energy company, on the recent dedication of its anaerobic digestion system at Stonyvale Farm, a fifth-generation family dairy farm in Exeter, Maine. The 1-megawatt generator is fueled by methane produced through anaerobic digestion of cow manure and off-farm organic waste which is converted into biogas. The project demonstrates both a promising technology and an opportunity for farms to produce and market new products. The biogas is burned in a combustion engine to produce electricity (enough to power about 800 homes) and heat.

Preti Flaherty's Energy Law attorney Todd Griset assisted Exeter Agri-Energy with qualifying the project for incentives under Maine's community-based renewable energy pilot program, which gives Exeter Agri-Energy a long-term contract to sell the facility's output to its local transmission and distribution utility for up to 20 years at average prices up to $100 per MWh (equivalent to 10¢ per kWh).

This on-farm energy project also enables the creation of additional products and revenue streams, as well as cutting the farm's costs. Byproducts of the digestion process become organic fertilizer, organic soil additives, and animal bedding used on the farm, creating a variety of products with minimal waste.