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In a new renewable energy milestone, a Wisconsin company is using the power of the sun to transport fuel made from cow manure. Through a partnership with Peterbilt Motors and Maki Trucking, EnTech Solutions plans to use a battery-powered truck to haul methane from its Middleton biodigester to a pipeline injection port at the Dane County landfill. Charged with energy from the digester’s solar panels, EnTech says the electric truck will lower the operation’s environmental impact and make it more profitable.

Since Pizza Hut’s inception in 1958, it has worked with the same family-owned business to supply 100% real cheese made with whole milk to top its pizza and that commitment to the highest-quality cheese will remain unchanged. With this announcement, Pizza Hut will leverage its national scale by partnering with DFA and dairy suppliers to help make its supply chain more environmentally friendly by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The use of renewable energy in the agriculture industry is an exciting new frontier that—with the right partners—can bring environmental and economic benefits to farmers, surrounding communities, and the renewable transportation fuel industry. And it truly revolves around manure.

More than 250 dairies across the U.S. use some type of anaerobic digester system to generate electricity or renewable natural gas (RNG). The technology adds a revenue stream for the farm, aids in manure management and community relations, provides lower carbon fertilizer options and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, all of which enhance sustainability efforts.

Massachusetts-based Vanguard Renewables, an anaerobic digester developer founded in 2014, announced on July 20 that a fund managed by BlackRock Real Assets has acquired the company from Vision Ridge Partners, the original majority investor in the company.

Michigan State University is planning to make some big changes to its greenhouses and Cattle Research Center, which are both more than 40 years old. The state of Michigan is giving the university over $53 million to help renovate the buildings.

The Varcor^TM system from Washington state-based Sedron Technologies converts dairy manure into high-value components in a continuous closed loop, all without tractors, manure spreaders, or waste lagoons.

Unlike electricity generated from methane, renewable natural gas doesn’t have to be sold to a utility company and put on the power grid, where returns are meager in most of the United States. Instead, it’s fed into pipelines and sold to municipalities or transit agencies for vehicles or to industrial users, generating credits under state clean air standards in California and, perhaps soon, New York and other states.

Absent a national commitment to make renewable energy from manure financially viable, cow power is unlikely to catch on the way its proponents hoped.

The U.S. dairy sector is well on its way to reaching methane emission mitigation, says Juan Tricarico, Ph.D.