Darling Downs Fresh Eggs in southern Queensland is the first egg producer in Australia to create power from 100 per cent poultry manure.
Geoff Sondergeld, chief executive officer of Darling Downs Fresh Eggs, said the rising cost of power, teamed with the need to do something with the poo produced by 250,000 chickens, made the choice to explore electricity production an easier one, ABC Southern Queensland reports.
95 percent of the farm’s energy consumption is from converting about 100 tonnes of bird waste a week into energy.
The conversion process
Liquid and solid waste is put into a "digestion" process which produces methane gas.
Once the methane is produced, a biogas generator converts the gas to electricity which powers the farm.
Chicken manure does not contain the natural bacteria needed to make methane, so it is added.
Sondergeld said the process is easier for piggeries, as pig manure has the naturally occurring bacteria that helps produce methane.
The facility on the farm has had to be registered as a separate power plant.
"There are a lot of approvals to obtain but it will be worth it in the fullness of time," Sondergeld said.
He expects the costs to be fully offset in five years.
"We are essentially turning a cost part of the business into a revenue generating part of the business," he said.