Cow excrement collected over a 24 hour period provides 3 hours of gas for your stove!

Sinkholes, severed heads, allegations of wire tapping and the search for a new attorney general all made headlines today, but I want to write about cow poop.

Eduardo Asturias from the Association of Alternative Rural Development (DAR) in Guatemala reports that a special apparatus, including a polyethylene bag, a tub and a valve is now being used to harness the methane gas from animal dung to power gas stoves. Including all components necessary for safe and effective use, the equipment costs about Q4,000 (US$500), of which participating families are expected to pay half, while DAR and the Energy and Environment Alliance for Central America cover the rest. Some units are in use in Chimaltenango, while another 300 should be installed in Tecpan later on this year. Additionally, the US and the FAO are running a similar, more extensive program in the dry corridor of Guatemala, where there are a lot of cows and not a lot of water. The Guatemalan Program for Clean Production also reports the use of "biodigestores" by some large companies in the region.

The capture and use of alternative fuels in Guatemala is not only interesting and timely, but also extremely necessary considering the effects of climate change on the country. Most of Guatemala´s power is hydroelectric. Hotter, longer dry spells are going to deplete ground water and have already diminished the country´s ability to provide electricity. Rising costs of electricity, in part due to the increased costs of production and water scarcity may potentially lead to social unrest. Household level technologies, such as the cow dung - methane - energy apparatus represent innovative solutions to the scarcity and expensive of utilities, particularly in rural areas. At the current time, this technology has not been efficiently adapted to provide household electrical power.

However, in order for these systems to be effective, families must be in a position to make the initial investment, willing to learn about and use the new technology, and have cows or pigs grazing nearby. This innovation is lauded as a solution to the overuse of leña, or firewood for cooking in Guatemala. DAR reports that 65.8 percent of homes use firewood, which contributes to Guatemala´s carbon footprint. However, the Guatemalan Stove Project was designed to achieve a similar objective, but wasn´t as successful as its Canadian founders might have hoped. Basically, Guatemalans like their smoky food. If this technology is to achieve its objectives, it must be adapted for mass use by large diary and cow farms, providing an alternative to hydroelectric power.