Analyzing the Cost Effectiveness of Accounting for the Methane Emissions from Livestock Anaerobic Digestion Projects

摘要

Offsets from agricultural methane anaerobic digestion (AD) projects are in high demand and can yield high premiums, but difficulties remain for offset producers that operate digesters with a herd of 1,500 to 2,000 head. At this threshold the economicviability of a carbon offset revenue stream is uncertain given current market prices, and costs of compliance. Recently the majority of dairy anaerobic digestion projects have been migrating to the Climate Action Reserve, the leading domestic offset program. Estimating the quantity of offsets produced through the Livestock Project Reporting Protocol, the Climate Action Reserve's calculation methodology, allows biogas producers, system designers and policy makers to identify the threshold where it is economically viable to finance AD projects through carbon markets. A group of industry stakeholders is working in tandem with the Climate Action Reserve to develop increasingly cost-effective monitoring methodologies that will ensure the integrity of the offset accounting, and could allow projects below the 2000 head range to access and benefit from a carbon market revenue stream. Access to additional revenue streams can lead to greater technology adoption amongst biogas producers. Given the expectation ofa federally-regulated carbon market, and the premise that livestock manure AD systems have been included in draft legislation as expected sources of offsets, the development of these methodologies has timely importance.