The power of cows is about to be felt in two Vermont communities.

Residents in Benson voted on Town Meeting Day to enroll the town’s electricity accounts in CVPS Cow Power™, and selectmen in Jericho have decided to enroll as well.

“As a ninth generation Vermonter, it has everything to do with supporting our farmscape, our farming, and a key piece of our economy and our environment in Vermont,” Jericho Selectboard Chairman Bob Penniman said.

The towns took different routes to their decisions, but both were related to Vermont’s unique tradition of Town Meeting.  In Benson, select board member Sue Janssen proposed a ballot item, which was approved by voters, to purchase half the town’s electricity through CVPS Cow Power™.  In Jericho, resident David Eaton asked selectmen if he could offer a budget amendment at Town Meeting to enroll the town clerk’s office.  Selectmen supported the idea, but said they could approve the move on their own, and agreed to enroll.

Cow Power enrollment is expected to cost Benson about $600 per year, while Jericho is expected to pay about $800.

“Benson and Jericho are making an important financial commitment, but their example is even more important,” CVPS spokesman Steve Costello said. “By supporting Cow Power, they are making a statement about the importance of farming, renewable energy and our environment in Vermont.”

CVPS created Cow Power in late 2004 to provide farmers with a new income stream and customers a way to “vote” for renewable energy through enrollment.  Customers pay a premium of 4 cents per kilowatt-hour for CVPS Cow Power™, which goes to participating farm-producers, to purchase renewable energy credits when enough farm energy isn’t available, or to the CVPS Renewable Development Fund.  The fund provides grants to farmers to develop generation. Farm-producers are also paid 95 percent of the market price for the energy sold to CVPS.

The generation concept is simple.  Manure is held in a sealed concrete tank at the same temperature as a cow’s stomach, 101 degrees. Bacteria digest the volatile components, creating methane, which fuels a generator, and the energy is put onto CVPS’s power lines for delivery to customers.

The environmental benefits are significant.  They include:

- Improved manure management, and air and water quality.

- The capture of methane, which is roughly 20 times worse than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

- Destruction of pathogens, including e coli, in the manure.

- Destruction of weed seeds, which may reduce the need for herbicides.

- Reduced fossil fuel use through the use of generator heat to produce hot water.

- Replacement of sawdust bedding with dry solids, and reduced fossil fuels for hauling sawdust.

- Virtual elimination of odor when spreading liquid manure on fields.

Blue Spruce Farm was the first farm to produce CVPS Cow Power™, but it was recently joined by Pleasant Valley Farm in Berkshire.  Green Mountain Dairy in Sheldon, Montagne Farms in St. Albans, Newmont Farms in Fairlee, and Deer Flat Farms in Pawlet are expected on-line this year.