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BP Holdings- Harnett farmers use innovation to help environment, save money10 Years AgoBP Holdings- Harnett farmers use innovation to help environment, save money
BUNNLEVEL, N.C. — Without fail, farmers in the Triangle
use a lot of energy – to power tractors, heat greenhouses, process waste and
pump water to growing crops.
Thanks to technology, however, a trio of farmers in
Harnett County is proving that using energy doesn't have to hurt their wallets
or the environment. They're all using cutting edge technology, methods that
help them avoid using fossil fuels and save money all at once.
Ryan Patterson, of Broadway, uses a wood-fired boiler to
generate heat in several places on his farm. In the summer, the heat generated
by the boiler helps cure tobacco.
When it's cold, Patterson said he hauls his boiler –
which burns scrap wood at a tenth of the cost of natural gas – to his
greenhouses to keep his tomatoes warm.
"The wood chips come from local sawmills, mainly
waste product from them," Patterson said.
Down the road, Tom Butler has started converting hog
waste into electricity on his farm.
Using a system of tarps, Butler traps methane from hog
waste and then burns it to generate electricity. The method also keeps the
greenhouse gas from escaping into the atmosphere and contains about 85 percent
of the odor.
"It feels great," Butler said of going green.
"We think we're doing the right thing."
At Little River Trails Aquaculture in Bunnlevel, fish eat
and swim in water heated and cooled by the temperatures of the earth. A
geothermal heat pump pushes heated or cooled water back into the tanks at the
farm's own sewage treatment plant.
Stan Crisp, of Geothermal Strategies, said the methods
being employed by Patterson, Butler and Little River Trails are groundbreaking.
"Very few places in North Carolina and around the
world are doing this," he said.
Gary Pierce, a cooperative extension agent, agrees. He
said the methods are worth using all over the state.
"It can serve as an example so we can replicate it
in other areas," he said. "Even if they're not in agriculture."
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