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The West Central Region Clean Energy Resource Team (CERT) has awarded the City of Gaylord a $7,550 grant for their clean energy project Anaerobic Digester.

This project is looking to find the best design for building a joint anaerobic digester that will treat waste water from the city and surrounding agricultural businesses “as well as generate marketable methane biogas that could be used profitable in a variety of local applications.” This study will determine the feasibility of the project, and if the project is implemented, waste reduction, water conservation and production of an environmentally friendly biogas to generate power are the expected outcomes.

Gaylord City Administrator Kevin McCann said that that city’s engineering firm, SEH, applied for the grant on behalf of the city, to investigate the feasibility of such a project.

Doug Parrott, engineer with SEH, explained that the grant will be used for a “very preliminary-type review” to determine if organic waste from area industries can be used to turn into a gas as an energy source. Not only would waste from Michael Foods be considered, but also from neighboring communities’ industries, such as Seneca, he explained. The waste would have to be biodegradable, Parrott said.

Once the Gaylord City Council authorizes the study, it is expected to take a couple weeks to complete, according to Parrott. When the study is completed, the City Council will be presented the report. McCann expects the council will address this project in September.

CERTs, started in 2003, is made up of community members across Minnesota who share a bold vision for Minnesota’s energy future: to foster strong communities, to create local jobs, and to develop clean and reliable energy from wind, biomass, and solar power, among others. CERTs works to connect people with the technical resources needed to identify and implement community-scale energy efficiency and clean energy projects, thus helping Minnesotan’s vision become a reality, one project at a time.

“There are literally hundreds of exciting clean energy projects happening across Minnesota, and this is a good example of one happening right here in your community,”says Joel Haskard, Co-Coordinator for the CERTs program. To find out more about CERTs, please visit www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org. To see a list of all of the projects across awarded grants during summer 2008, please visit http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/files/2008_RFP_release_2.pdf.

Funding was provided by the Clean Energy Resource Teams and the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Office of Energy Security and the Blandin Foundation.”