By james art MADISON COUNTY, Fla. (WCTV) – A dairy farm in Lee is now home to a $25 million renewable natural gas facility.
The facility captures methane gas from manure that can be used to power homes, cars and businesses across the state.
It is located at Full Circle Dairy, a farm that has about 3,700 cows. Before this facility began operating, the methane produced by these cows was released into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas and has a negative impact on the environment.
Now, instead of being released into the air, it is processed and transported to a facility where it can be used as fuel.
Philip Watts is a fifth generation farmer and operations manager of Full Circle Dairy. For him, this partnership is profitable.
“If you were to ask my great-great-grandfather, I’m sure that would have been very strange to him,” Watts said. “But it wasn’t for me. It was something that we saw as a future revenue stream and opportunity for us. It just made a valuable product even more valuable.”
The company running the operation is called Chesapeake Utilities. Their chief operating officer, Jeff Sylvester, said he sees natural gas as part of a larger renewable energy transition puzzle.
“It’s a holistic approach to solving a problem. This is just one of those decisions,” he said.
The gas produced here is sent to a connection point where it can be used by people in Nassau County and surrounding areas.
Sylvester said that in the future, their goal is to make the gas produced here available from anywhere in the state.
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