Chicken waste to power homes and offices?

Green Energy Solutions is one of the many companies benefiting from a 2007 state law that requires electric utilities to increase their reliance on renewable fuels, such as solar energy, poultry waste and swine waste. But poultry waste, despite its abundance, has so far proven a problematic fuel. When burned directly, it produces emissions comparable to those from a conventional coal-burning power plant.

But the company believes it has found the solution to that problem, by extracting methane from the waste and leaving behind an odourless sludge that can be used as fertilizer.

Company vice president Julian Cothran says Green Energy Solutions has submitted proposals to Progress Energy and Duke Energy, as well as to ElectriCities, which represents municipal power agencies, and to GreenCo, an arm of the state's rural electric cooperatives.

"The challenge is getting a power purchase agreement signed to sell the electricity," Cothran said. "We're not polluting the atmosphere. We're not polluting the ground."

In recent public filings with the N.C. Utilities Commission, the company has said it is building a power plant in South Carolina that is set to begin operating in June 2010.

It is reported that Green Energy Solutions is operating several similar facilities in Europe and has contracts or commitments with 13 poultry farms in the state of North Carolina to supply organic fuel. Green Energy Solutions would generate electricity at the farm and sell the power to an electric utility.