By JAIME CONE

September 1, 2009  BRATTLEBORO -- A new project at the Windham Solid Waste Management District will soon be underway pending the approval of permits after the WSWMD board of supervisors approved a contract with Carbon Harvest Energy LLC Thursday. "The board actually cheered," said George Murray, WSWMD executive director. "It was a very happy moment for everybody." "We’ve been looking forward to this day and we’re ready to get busy," said Don McCormick, president of Carbon Harvest Energy. The project is being called Brattleboro Carbon Harvest, and the board’s approval means that Carbon Harvest will take over the landfill gas collection system at the district and use the gas collected at the closed landfill to generate renewable electrical power. But there’s a lot more to it than that. The project will also produce algae that can be converted into organic fuels and animal feed, along with locally grown vegetables and locally raised fish. The contract negotiations for the project started in May, and the board members were "quite involved" in the process, Murray said. "All these eyes looking at a contract -- even though it was time consuming, I think it helped everybody on both sides," he said.

September 9, 2009. We almost take it for granted that Windham County is a place filled with innovators in the green economy. But soon, at the former Windham Solid Waste Management District landfill on Old Ferry Road in Brattleboro, the nation’s first integrated renewable energy-to-agriculture and algae feed and biodiesel project will be put into operation.

Burlington-based Carbon Harvest Energy, Inc. says the Brattleboro project would be a zero fossil fuel input, zero waste output facility that will remove approximately 20,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year while using the landfill’s gas to produce electricity, high quality local food, biofuel and feed.