It took 11 years, but a working biogas plant beside the Toronto Zoo is finally running, turning zoo manure and grocery store waste into liquid fertilizer and power.
ZooShare, a community co-operative headed by Torontonian Daniel Bida,
pitched its proposal to zoo officials in October 2010.
The concept then had worked in Munich, but had not been tried in North America.
Getting ZooShare’s digester built and a contract to feed Ontario’s electricity grid took longer and was more challenging than Bida realized.
But on May 7, the co-operative told its patient members and investors it had been producing power since April 1, reaching its 500-kilowatt capacity, enough to power 500 homes, on April 12.