Finland’s energy companies generating power from animal dungs.

With many countries searching for innovative ways of generating power from green energy, Finland’s energy companies are looking towards generating power from a less green-coloured energy source: animal dung.

Five years ago, a Finland Energy company, Fortum, launched an initiative called ‘Horse Power’. This initiative was to help with advocating for the generation of power from animal dung. The company believes that with so many horses available in Finland and around the world, the horses’ poop could be harnessed to generate enough power for homes.

“There are so many horses in Finland and of course many more around the world, so it would be amazing if we could turn all that poop into energy,” Fortum’s Krista Hellgren told AFP.

This initiative was evident in this month’s FEI World Cup show jumping qualifier at Helsinki International Horse Show where about 100 tonnes of Manure were picked up and fed to the Jarvenpaa power plant. This was said to be capable of generating about 150MW of electricity which could power the four-day show and even with extra power left to heat homes.

Fortum isn’t the only energy company in Finland looking to harness the energy from animal dung; Vantaan Energia is also advocating for pet owners to send their pets dungs to them.

The company believes that pet’s dungs could be giving a new life rather than been thrown away. In their sticker and online campaign, they encourage pet owners to throw their pet’s dung in the bin, from where it can be transferred to a waste-energy incineration plant.

With the drive towards producing more power from animal dung, Vantaan Energia hopes that in the next two years they will be coal-free.

The idea of converting animal dung to usable energy was well received by dog trainer, Marianne Mayer. She appreciates that the enormous dung from her 50 dogs which used to be wastes, can now be turned into useful energy.