Is Cow Poo The Next Big Source Of Renewable Energy?

Could we all be powering our homes with cow poo in the future?

The humble yet beautiful cow is a producer of many glorious things.

Tony C French / Getty Images

From milk to butter and cheese, and even deliciously creamy yoghurts, they give us a whole plethora of dairy goods to choose from every day!

naturalbox / Arx0nt / IGphotography / Getty Images

But while they're doing all of this, they're also producing lots of poo. Like, *lots* of it. And with such a constant supply landing on its farms, the dairy company Arla has been getting super creative with what they do with it as part of its Poo Power Projects.

Arla

As a farmer-owned cooperative, Arla is committed to working with its farmer owners to reduce carbon emissions on its farms and believes that the humble cow poo has ~untapped potential~ to transform how Britain powers itself.

They know that just one cow can produce enough poo to power three households FOR A WHOLE YEAR. With half a million cows on its farms, they've got enough slurry to supply 4% of UK households! That's 1.2 million homes! 

To showcase the potential in poo power, Arla has created Cow Patteries, aka batteries made with energy from cow pats! Geddit?

Arla

While the Cow Patteries are just illustrative for now, they demonstrate how much potential there is in poo power if it's just given the right support and investment!

Arla hopes that in the future, our homes could be powered by cow poo.

EyeEm / Westend61 / Getty Images

But how do you convert poo into energy? The process is called "anaerobic digestion"!

skaman306 / Hans Neleman / Getty Images

During the process, organic matter like cow poo is broken down to produce two things: biogas and bio-fertiliser. 

This process happens in a sealed, oxygen-free tank called an anaerobic digester where biogas is produced! Once the biogas is cleaned, it is taken to a combined heat and power (CHP) unit, where it can be used to make renewable energy! The end product of this process is a nutrient-rich natural fertiliser that can be put back on the land and into the soil to help nourish it. This also has the benefit of reducing emissions from fertiliser so it's truly a win-win situation!

Right now, the UK doesn't have the right infrastructure to implement biogas into our electricity grid.

PaulMaguire / Getty Images

The UK has a goal for all its electricity to come from clean sources by 2035. Right now, about 40% of what we use is from wind and solar power, but cow poo could help us achieve that ambitious goal without being reliant on the weather forecast! 

But Arla knows that it's onto something from experimenting so alongside its Cow Patteries concept, its farmers have also been fuelling their farms with manure.

James Robinson / Arla

Some of its farmers have their own anaerobic digestion systems to help power lighting for their barns or milking parlours, or to even fuel their whole setup and home.

Last year, Arla ran a successful three-month trial which saw two milk delivery tankers adapted to run on biofuel. This small trial reduced Arla’s carbon footprint by 80 tonnes! 

So next time you walk by a field of cows, think about how soon they could not just fill your fridge with milk, but also power it too!

Photograph taken by Alan Hopps / Getty Images

Want to find out more about Arla's Poo Power Projects? Click here to read more.