DTE Vantage has partnered with U.S. Gain and Matsche Farms, which manages approximately 10,000 cows and spans more than 5,000 acres of land in Birnamwood, Wis., to produce and distribute renewable natural gas (RNG).
The facility, which begins operations this month, will produce enough RNG to fuel approximately 1,600 vehicles per year.
“This RNG project is our eighth in Wisconsin, making us one of the largest RNG producers in the Midwest,” says Kevin Dobson, vice president of biomass, DTE Vantage. “We’re excited to be a part of this great community and offer many local environmental and economic benefits. We are assisting Matsche Farms in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by capturing the methane from manure – that would otherwise go directly into the atmosphere – and repurposing it as pipeline-quality RNG.”
The methane from the farm’s manure waste will be used to produce RNG, which is then transported to DTE Vantage’s nearby Newton Interconnect site and injected into a natural gas pipeline. DTE Vantage is working with U.S. Gain – a Wisconsin-based company that delivers alternative fuel and renewable energy – to transport the RNG to market for vehicle use. U.S. Gain will bring the RNG generated from this new project to the transportation market in California, where it will help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its customers’ fleets.
“We’re proud to work with DTE Vantage on this project, supplying cleaner transportation fuel for our customers’ vehicles,” says Bryan Nudelbacher, vice president of business development at U.S. Gain. “We’re so pleased this project involves a Wisconsin-based dairy farm, and we can extend the availability of cleaner, renewable natural gas.”
DTE Vantage developed and operates 13 facilities in the U.S. that convert methane from landfill gas or dairy cow manure into sustainable RNG while offering compensation to its host partners.
