Blue Spruce Farm begins generating CVPS Cow Power.

BRIDPORT, Vt. -- Fifteen-hundred Bridport dairy cattle of all ages, from first-calf heifers to mature milk cows, have become the newest generators in Vermont. Blue Spruce Farm today began producing electricity by burning waste methane gas for CVPS Cow Power(TM), (NYSE: CV) a first-in-the nation program directly linking CVPS customers, farm generation and the environment.

"The girls are now officially producing two streams of income, a milk check and a power check," said Earl Audet, who owns the farm along with his brothers and their families. "This is one more way to diversify the farm, improve our bottom line, and manage our manure responsibly."

CVPS Cow Power(TM), Vermont's first voluntary renewable pricing program, has been awarded the Agency of Agriculture's Commissioner's Choice Seal of Quality. Customers can sign up to get all, half or a quarter of their energy through CVPS Cow Power(TM), which collects 4-cents per kilowatt-hour for the environmental benefit of the energy. That payment, along with 95 percent of the market price for energy, goes to the farm generator. If not enough farm generation is available, the funds support other forms of renewable energy in the region, or the CVPS Renewable Development Fund, set up to provide incentives to Vermont farms to build methane generators.

"Our goal is to create a brand new market, allowing customers a renewable energy choice, and providing farmers with new income and manure management opportunities, and we're off to a good start," CVPS program director Dave Dunn said. "CVPS Cow Power(TM) gives new meaning to the old saying: 'One man's trash is another man's treasure."

The concept is relatively simple. Manure is collected in a large concrete tank, where it is heated up, and methane is collected and produced. The gas is collected and fuels the generator, and the manure byproduct that is left, which contains no pathogens, little odor and no viable weed seeds, can be spread on fields as fertilizer, or the dry solids can be used for animal bedding.

For Blue Spruce Farm, use of the byproduct for bedding could save up to $60,000 annually. The farm received incentives from CVPS and state and federal grant programs to help get started. The farm has a larger share of the investment of its own funds in the project.

More than 1,000 CVPS customers have signed up for CVPS Cow Power(TM) since the Vermont Public Service Board approved the concept in August, with dozens more enrolling each week. About half enrolled for 25 percent Cow Power, with the remainder evenly split between 50 percent and 100 percent.

"Many of our customers want to vote for renewable energy with their wallets," spokesman Steve Costello said. "Support of farmers, the environment, and renewable energy are key factors. People seem to like that it's local, it's practical, and it's benefiting people who work the land and help keep Vermont looking like Vermont."

Blue Spruce Farm is expected to produce about 1.7 million kWh of energy per year. Numerous other farms are considering the idea, some by combining their manure. It takes a farm with about 500 milking cows to produce enough energy for the Cow Power concept to be economically viable.

For the Audet family, today marked the end of several months of hard work and planning, as well as a new beginning.

"We're not just raising cows now," Ernie Audet said. "We're raising awareness about renewable energy."