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Abstract
Livestock waste presents an important potential source of renewable energy. A variety of factors
make the production of renewable energy from livestock waste particularly appealing. Rising
energy prices, rising fertilizer prices, and incentives for renewable energy production have
increased the value of outputs from livestock waste-to-energy systems. Additionally, confined
animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have come under increasing regulatory scrutiny regarding
waste treatment. Biogas production generally results in improved treatment of agricultural
wastes thereby reducing the environmental impacts associated with CAFOs.
The challenges to the development of the industry include the site specific nature of biogas
production. In particular, the best sites for biogas production, large livestock operations, may not
be located in areas with favorable markets for the energy produced from the system. Likewise, a
variety of technologies for production are required because each potential site often has different
characteristics, making a one-style fits all solution unlikely to be successful. Policy solutions
aimed at market development are likely to be of great benefit to industry development