Non Kubota generator.

[007kubotaguy]

Not Kubota. This was my project today. I have three of these that I take care of. They run on methane produced from manure at the dairies. The power produced is sold back to the utility company. This particular one is a German built Man V 12 running a 600 KW generator. Did motor oil and filters, adjusted the valves, replaced the spark plugs, and replace the air filters. Spark plugs are $100 each. Replace them every thousand hours.

 

[fried1765]

Not Kubota. This was my project today. I have three of these that I take care of. They run on methane produced from manure at the dairies. The power produced is sold back to the utility company. This particular one is a German built Man V 12 running a 600 KW generator. Did motor oil and filters, adjusted the valves, replaced the spark plugs, and replace the air filters. Spark plugs are $100 each. Replace them every thousand hours.

Guessing:
600KW @ .15 per KWH = $90 per hour production ($2160/day)
How many months is the anticipated payback on each of those generators?

 

[007kubotaguy]

Guessing:
600KW @ .15 per KWH = $90 per hour production ($2160/day)
How many months is the anticipated payback on each of those generators?

Great question. I can't answer that question. I maintain them for company that develops and operate these all over the country. They don't run 24 hours a day. Typically 12 to 15 hours a day 6 days a week. Methane production varies with the temperature. As far as payback there's a lot of other things involved. This is california. There's many subsidies and incentives for capturing the methane. There's carbon credits involved. Somebody with a much higher pay scale than me would have to answer that.

 

[fried1765]

Great question. I can't answer that question. I maintain them for company that develops and operate these all over the country. They don't run 24 hours a day. Typically 12 to 15 hours a day 6 days a week. Methane production varies with the temperature. As far as payback there's a lot of other things involved. This is california. There's many subsidies and incentives for capturing the methane. There's carbon credits involved. Somebody with a much higher pay scale than me would have to answer that.

How silly of me!
The very obvious answer is : "This is California"
That REALLY does explain everything!

 

[motionclone]

Not Kubota. This was my project today. I have three of these that I take care of. They run on methane produced from manure at the dairies. The power produced is sold back to the utility company. This particular one is a German built Man V 12 running a 600 KW generator. Did motor oil and filters, adjusted the valves, replaced the spark plugs, and replace the air filters. Spark plugs are $100 each. Replace them every thousand hours.

Must be kind of a sh!ty job fueling it up?

 

[BAP]

It’s not just California dairy’s that are doing it. It’s being done all over the country including the Northeast.

 

[Biker1mike]

 

[lynnmor]

My son and son-in-law operated a plant that had five large Caterpillar methane generators fueled from a huge landfill. They both quit on the same day after one getting a better offer and the other going into his own business. Now the plant had to be operated by the upper management. The plant is about 8 miles from my house and I heard the boom when the large explosion happened. They never reopened that worthless mess, now the methane is just flamed off.

 

[woodman55]

Not Kubota. This was my project today. I have three of these that I take care of. They run on methane produced from manure at the dairies. The power produced is sold back to the utility company. This particular one is a German built Man V 12 running a 600 KW generator. Did motor oil and filters, adjusted the valves, replaced the spark plugs, and replace the air filters. Spark plugs are $100 each. Replace them every thousand hours.

Plugs every 1K hrs, wow. I though methane burnt clean, but I guess not.

 

[007kubotaguy]

Must be kind of a sh!ty job fueling it up?

No. Not at all. This is the fuel tank.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

California's electric rates are .30 / KW

So it works out to $14,040 a week or $168,480 a year that's a pretty good chunk of change!

And yes there is other money being made at the same time!

 

[RCW]

Lance - that’s pretty neat.

My son in law worked for a company that did something like that. Can’t remember if it was net-metered generation on-site or if they refined the gas to sell to the utility. He had farms from Midwest to NYS near us.

They live in Santa Cruz.

 

[007kubotaguy]

Lance - that’s pretty neat.

My son in law worked for a company that did something like that. Can’t remember if it was net-metered generation on-site or if they refined the gas to sell to the utility. He had farms from Midwest to NYS near us.

They live in Santa Cruz.

Yes the company I maintain these for is now scrubbing the methane and selling it back to the utility company as natural gas. They're going that direction now instead of powering generators. In central California they have a hub where they're piping the methane from multiple locations to a plant where they clean it and process it to sell back to pg&e. It's great to see something that was once a waste product going to use.

 

[fried1765]

California's electric rates are .30 / KW

So it works out to $14,040 a week or $168,480 a year that's a pretty good chunk of change!

And yes there is other money being made at the same time!

Not quite.....600KW @ .30 = $180/hr.
Approx. 12hr per day = $180 x 12 = $2160/day
$2160 /day x 365 days = $788,400 per year.

THAT is a REALLY good chunk of change!

 

[mcmxi]

California's electric rates are .30 / KW

Whoa! Power up here is at most a third of what it costs in CA.

$0.0605/kWh for first 600 kWh
$0.0723/kWh for 601-3,500 kWh
$0.1053/kWh for 3,501 and over kWh.

 

[mcmxi]

They don't run 24 hours a day. Typically 12 to 15 hours a day 6 days a week. Methane production varies with the temperature. As far as payback there's a lot of other things involved. This is california. There's many subsidies and incentives for capturing the methane. There's carbon credits involved. Somebody with a much higher pay scale than me would have to answer that.

So assuming that the power company is buying that power at $0.30 per kWh, and assuming peak output over the entire running time:

12 hours a day, 6 days a week = $673,920 per year
15 hours a day, 6 days a week = $842,400 per year

Of course there are maintenance costs, downtime, and some other variables I'm sure.