US-based biogas project developer Ag-Grid Energy LLC has recently announced that it has broken ground on its fourth biogas to electricity project. In Coventry, Connecticut (CT), Hytone Ag-Grid LLC, in partnership with Hytone Farm LLC, would be Ag-Grid’s fourth dairy digester in the northeast US and will begin construction in March 2022.
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The Hytone Ag-Grid plant is expected to be operational in the Fall of 2022 and will produce around 4.5 GWh of renewable electricity per annum derived from manure and food waste.
The renewable electricity produced from the Hytone Ag-Grid project will be consumed by the City of New Britain where Mayor Erin Stewart and Manager of Facilities and Energy Jon Delgadillo have supported both of Ag-Grid’s Connecticut projects with Virtual Net Metering (VNM) contracts.
In July 2022, the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority’s (MIRA) 30-year-old waste incinerator in Hartford, CT will close. An estimated 700 000 tonnes of waste will be transferred to landfills out of state. Each year, the State generates approximately half a million tonnes of food waste.
Depackaging units to handle additional food waste
A lot of that food waste goes into traditional waste streams, like Hartford’s MIRA facility, where it gets incinerated. Ag-Grid Energy’s projects are positioned to receive liquid food waste and have expansion plans to add depackaging units at the Connecticut facilities in Coventry and Thompson to support the State as MIRA the incineration facility shuts down in 2022.
Ag-Grid Energy was able to utilize the VNM program that the State of Connecticut has supported. The program is being replaced in 2022, however, Ag-Grid Energy was able to benefit from this program to install the first and now second dairy digester that would produce renewable electricity.
This aligns with Ag-Grid Energy’s vision of farm sustainability and creating financial stability for small to mid-size dairy farms. Greg Peracchio, owner of Hytone Dairy signed into this vision to jointly own Hytone Ag-Grid and continue to be a progressive dairy with an eye towards the future.
Ag-Grid Energy’s strategic partnerships with various food waste providers, Live Oak Bank, regulatory bodies such as USDA and CT DEEP as well as Martin Construction Resource as our EPC provider have been crucial in developing Hytone Ag-Grid, our 4th biogas to electricity project. We continue to expand to dairies across the US and move towards adding biogas to RNG projects to our portfolio, said Dr Rashi Akki, CEO of Ag-Grid Energy.