Bar 20 Dairy Reduces Energy Costs, Limits Emissions, and Invents a New Business

Farms in North America often struggle with high energy costs and limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Bar 20 Dairy in Kerman, California addressed both and added a new revenue stream in the process.

In a first-of-its-kind agtech innovation, Bar 20 Dairy collaborated with California Bioenergy and Bloom Energy to turn methane from cows into clean energy without combustion that is stored in fuel cells, with enough renewable energy to power the farm and charge 17,000 BMW electric vehicles. The effort required meticulous strategizing, financial planning, and a lot of manure.

Legacy Bank of the West, now a part of BMO, played a critical role in determining the financial feasibility of this unique biodigester project. What would happen if the dairy invested in the digester and fuel-cell technology and it didn't generate the expected energy output? What would happen if the market value for Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits fell dramatically? What would the financial impact be?

Bar 20 trusted our bankers to stress test the project using various scenarios and our institutional knowledge of how biodigesters had worked for other businesses. This analysis enabled the dairy to embark on the project, understanding that it wasn't just the right thing to do for the environment, but also, over the long term, for Bar 20's bottom line.

Here's Bar 20’s story.