Newfoundland dairy turning poop into power

A dairy farm in western Newfoundland is harnessing the power of cow manure to create power. 

New World Dairy in St. David's has a special $5 million digester that breaks down the waste of its 1,200 cows. 

"We can produce about four million kilowatt hours of electricity annually," company president Brent Chaffey said.

He told CBC News he had been looking into the unique way of creating electricity for years.

"I first became aware of it in 1989 and was quite interested in it," Chaffey said, "Recognizing that it wasn't something that we could utilize for quite some time into the future, if at all."

His staff travelled to Europe and North America to see how others made use of anaerobic digesters.

The process uses high heat and water to turn manure into power.

We can produce about four million kilowatt hours of electricity annually- Brent Chaffey

The green energy created will be able to power his farm, and then some, however at this point no one can sell excess power back to the grid in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"We'd like to be able to sell it into the grid, as we require for our own purposes only about 20 or 25 per cent, so we are 75 per cent surplus to our needs, [now] we are waiting on a policy decision from the Department of Natural Resources," Chaffey said.

In addition to power, the project also creates nutrient-rich water for crops, and fertilizer for cow beds.