High octane plan for pig farm

POO POWER: A Waikato farmer has wants to expand his piggery to include a biogas plant, which would power homes by pig poo.

Kereone's McIntyre Piggery, southeast of Morrinsville, has applied for consent for an expansion which will make it the biggest in the country.

And a biogas plant would turn the waste from the piggery's 5000 sows into electricity.

"The biogas plant is the key to the thing," said operator Ken McIntyre.

Effluent from the piggery and other organic waste would be treated in the plant, with the resulting mixture of methane and carbon dioxide burned to generate electricity.

The plant is expected to deliver up to 1.2MW of electricity to the local network - enough to power 1800 homes.

The biogas plant would be operating in the first 18 months.

Mr McIntyre said 36 new 350sq m pig sheds would be built, up from the farm's current four sheds. The expansion was expected to take three years to complete.

He said it was difficult to put a firm cost on the project until resource consent was finalised but he estimated it would be "in the tens of millions".

The biogas operation is a first for New Zealand. The plant would be operated by CH4 Energy, owned by the piggery and other partners.

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