Turkey trot.

AuthorMildenberg, David
PositionSTATEWIDE: East

With millions of chickens and turkeys, and a state-mandated push for renewable energy, eastern North Carolina is a natural spot for converting poultry waste into power.

Rich Deming, a veteran energy-industry entrepreneur, wants to be a leader in the emerging business with a $22 million plant in Farmville. His Carolina Poultry Power expects to complete fundraising this month followed by equipment installation and a production start in the last quarter of this year. An unnamed Charlotte-area investment group is providing capital, he says.

The company's application filed with the state last year calls for 60,000 tons of turkey litter to be converted into steam energy that powers turbines to create about 1.3 megawatts of baseload electricity. The waste would be processed at a 200-acre site near La Grange, then shipped to Farmville.

Plans call for the power to be sold to Duke Energy and the state's electric cooperatives. As is common in alternative energy, there's politics involved. Under a state law passed in 2007, electricity providers must buy 700,000 megawatt hours from poultry-waste power producers. Deming and other developers of renewable-energy plants receive credits that facilitate sales to electricity providers.

The state requirement far exceeds energy production from poultry waste in recent years because financing has proven difficult, says Bob Ford, executive director of the N.C. Poultry Federation. North Carolina is the only state with such a requirement for poultry waste, he says, noting that most growers want to use the waste as a crop fertilizer rather than selling to power...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT