Idea 413 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Visit five dairy or pig farms within a few kilometres of each other and ask each owner what happens to the manure now and what they spend each month on gas cylinders or firewood. Then ask the nearest bakery, eating house or guesthouse whether they would buy gas from a farm next door at a lower price. The proof is one farmer willing to host a plant and one buyer for the gas.
- Who pays first
- A farm owner who pays to get rid of manure and buys fuel for the kitchen, and would rather turn one problem into the answer to the other.
- What leaves today
- Cooking gas is imported and farm waste is dumped; a biogas plant replaces an import with a fuel made from what the farm already throws away.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 411Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 415Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
- 417Plastic-recycling units making building products from the beach and river waste
Idea 413 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.