It’s often best to simply use what’s on hand for what one needs rather than go looking for resources elsewhere. With that line of thought in mind, an upcoming international horse show in Finland will apparently be powered by the burning of horse manure, according to the Finnish utility company Fortum.
The mid-October horse show in Finland’s capital Helsinki will reportedly be the first in which burning horse dung is used to meet all of the electricity needs of the event — from lighting, to scoreboards, to support infrastructure. It’s all powered by horse manure.
“I am really proud that electricity produced with horse manure can be utilized for … Finland’s biggest and best-known horse show,” commented Anssi Paalanen, vice president of Fortum’s horsepower unit.
Reuters provides more: “The show, including Olympic and world champions in jumping and dressage, will require the equivalent of the annual dung produced by 14 horses to generate 140 megawatts (MW). Scientists estimate that a horse can produce nine tonnes of manure a year.
“… Fortum HorsePower provides wood chips from sawmills as a form of bedding for stables. It later collects the mixture of bedding and manure and uses it in energy production. The manure is burned like any other biofuel, Paalanen said. The service was launched this autumn also in Sweden, where there are already close to 3,000 horses producing energy.
“During the event, Fortum HorsePower will deliver wood-based bedding for the 250 or so horses that stay in temporary stalls at the Helsinki Ice Hall and use the manure-bedding mix at Fortum’s Jarvenpaa power plant. An estimated 135 tonnes of manure-bedding mixture will be generated during the event.”
A vision for the future!!!
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