From manure to megawatts
Bern Kotelko is among the leaders in a manure-to-megawatt movement which, at its most visionary, lays on pie-in-the-sky rhetoric as thickly as the stuff collecting in cattle pens
Bern Kotelko and his brother Mike Kotelko run this 36, 000 cattle feedlot and a biorefinery, called Growing Power Hairy Hills. When their second biorefinery is up and running they will be able to put five megawatts of energy back into the grid.
A tractor dumps manure into the biorefinery.
A tractor dumps manure into the biorefinery.
A technician works performs maintenance at Growing Power Hairy Hill, the biorefinery at Highland Feeders.
Alberta feedlot operator Bern Kotelko stands in a silage (mixture of fermented leaves and grain) pit at Highland Feeders, near Vegreville, Alta.
Pen rider, Carmen Frocklage-Lutzak, inspects the cattle at Highland Feeders, near Vegreville, Alta.
Alberta feedlot operator Bern Kotelko in his office at Highland Feeders.
The digesters at Growing Power Hairy Hill, the biorefinery at Highland Feeders.
A tractor dumps manure into the biorefinery.
Alberta feedlot operator Bern Kotelko meets with auditors at Highland Feeders, near Vegreville, Alta.