Duke Energy Corp. said it will spread its renewable energy turning livestock waste into electricity. The energy company made a deal to purchase biogas produced from swine, poultry wastes and other biomass sources from a processing plant that will soon rise in eastern North Carolina.  Carbon Cycle Energy will be responsible of building the biogas scheme.

Duke Energy is the biggest electric power company in the U.S., providing and delivering energy to almost 7.4 million U.S. customers. It has nearly 52,700 megawatts of electric producing volume in the Carolinas, Midwest and Florida including natural gas allocation services in Kentucky and Ohio. The company is a Fortune 125 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the name DUK and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to its website.   

The power generated from poultry and swine waste was a major consideration to legislators who passed the state's renewable energy law in 2007. In addition to reducing the fuel dependency which adds carbon particles into the environment, animal waste usage would alleviate environmental problems caused by the current systems for its collection and removal.

Duke Energy will collaborate with Carbon Cycle Energy to bring about more than 1 billion cubic meters of pipeline-quality methane annually.  Duke should generate about 25,000 megawatt-hours of energy a year which is sufficient to distribute power to 10,000 households for a year for a 15-year term, based on the Charlotte Business Journal report.

"We are pleased Duke Energy is supportive of our facility in North Carolina," says Carbon Cycle CEO James Powell. "We still have additional work to do with licensing, local regulations and completing our organic waste supply chain. But having a confirmed buyer like Duke Energy is a major step."

The system is one of the biggest in an increasing number of waste-to-fuel efforts and possibly will attract swine operations said Duke Energy spokesman Randy Wheeless.  Pork producers in the state reaching to 2,000 now collect liquefied waste in cesspool or lagoons and spray it on planted fields, reports ABC News.

With Duke Energy transforming animal wastes into electricity would be a great move to lessen the dependence on fuel such as coal for electricity.  Carbon emissions will be reduced and the source of the energy is environment-friendly.