NativeEnergy helped the Wanner family build a methane digester that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and produces surplus renewable energy.

Carbon Project Type: Farm Methane Power
Location: Narvon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Year: 2006
Volume: 35,337 metric tons
Capacity: 130 kW

Seven generations of the Wanner family have developed the Pride-N-Joy Farm located in Narvon, Pennsylvania, in eastern Lancaster County. The farm was founded in 1840, and it is operated today by Alfred Wanner and his two sons, Matt and John, with 600 milking cows. Their goal is to keep the farm viable for future generations.

In early 2006, the Wanners began to improve their manure management by constructing increased manure storage capacity, manure solids separation, and an anaerobic digester. The anaerobic digester, completed in the summer of 2007, produces approximately 2,000 kWh of electricity each day, more than three times the amount of electricity the farm currently uses.

With plans to sell the surplus generic electricity to their power provider, the Wanners turned to NativeEnergy to provide an upfront purchase of the digester’s RECs and carbon offsets to help fund the project.

Other benefits from the project include producing digested manure solids, which after composting can be sold to landscaping contractors. Digested manure liquids, which are essentially made odorless by the process, will be irrigated on nearby fields as natural fertilizer.

Sustainable Development Benefits

Environmental Benefits

• Displaces polluting local grid-based electricity with renewable energy
• Reduces 35,337 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions
• Reduces the farm’s nutrient runoff, odor, and pathogens
• Creates safer organic fertilizer to apply to the fields

Social Benefits

• Reduces energy and nutrient management costs for the farm
• Creates bedding for the cows, replacing expensive and hard-to-find wood shavings
• Preserves open space, local agriculture, and the traditional community

Project Participants

This project is a collaborative effort between the Wanner family and NativeEnergy.

Validation and Verification

This project was validated using Carbon Neutral Network methodologies.

Financial Additionality

This project meets NativeEnergy’s stringent additionality criteria, as our funding was necessary to the project’s implementation.