No more tears!

Our road to energy independence will involve small, incremental, and localized steps.  One step I’d like to see turned into leaps is for homes and businesses to create their own energy, and even contribute to their neighbors and local grid—it sounds more attractive then being captive to large utilities and the volatility of oil prices.

Much of the pollution in California is from agriculture and related services.  But there’s no reason why farmers and food processing companies can’t be part of the solution.  Last week, Gill Brothers, an onion processing company in Ventura County, revealed its waste-to-energy system that will fuel its entire operations.

Gill Brothers had always struggled with waste:  the family-owned firm spent much money disposing onion scraps that could not be processed for fertilizer or—yuck!—cattle feed.

Now, the plant combines waste with yeast from a nearby Anheuser-Busch brewery, and the heat generated from the process keeps turbines on site whirring.  Now the company is self-reliant for its energy needs.

The investment was costly; tax credits and grants helped somewhat, but the family who owns the firm estimates that this investment will pay off in several years—perhaps even sooner if oil prices spike again.

Solutions like those of Gill Brothers really should be the focus of the alternative & renewable energy crowd.  Rotten onions and vegetable waste—and ugh, even animal waste, sure as heck sound revolting, but this is one answer to energy independence that’s right under our noses.