The Eastern Shore's state prison is closer to manufacturing electricity from chicken manure to supply more than a fourth of the power at the Eastern Correctional Institution, an undertaking that would convert several thousand annual tons of manure and aid in the management of controversial animal waste blamed for polluting the Chesapeake Bay.
The Maryland Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved an agreement with EcoCorp of Northern Virginia to build a facility called a thermophilic anaerobic digester on 3 or 4 acres at ECI in Westover that would annually produce 1 megawatt of renewable energy from up to 5,500 tons of poultry litter or up to 8,000 annual tons of energy crops.
The Maryland Environmental Service is facilitating project development of the manure conversion initiative that is expected to be constructed and online by 2013.
The ECI project is the latest renewable energy initiative under way at state prisons across Maryland, said Mark Vernarelli, director of public information at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. ECI, a medium-security prison, has about 3,000 inmates.
The development of a solar farm under way on state property leased by a private company behind the Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown in western Maryland will generate power for the prison, Vernarelli said.
"Finding renewable energy sources is clearly a big issue in the future, and we're trying to participate any way we can," he said. "The chicken industry is particular to the Delmarva Peninsula, where there are tons and tons of manure to figure out what to do with."
Chris Garrigan, spokeswoman at MES, said the project involving a anaerobic digester system is a first for the firm that operates water and wastewater operations at ECI.
"Anytime you can help the state facilitate a potentially good energy project and handle chicken manure in a way it works for farmers and the Chesapeake Bay, that's good," she said.
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