Pitched as a boon to small towns, the biodigester financed $41.5 Million via the town of Gillett, promising jobs and future tax revenue.
Zahn’s Farms LLC, an approximately 11,500-head dairy operation in Gillett, Wisconsin, is the site of WI RNG Hub North, a manure methane digester project funded using $41.5 million worth of tax-exempt municipal bonds financed by the town. On June 1, the project, developed and run by Aerogy LLC, missed their $1.7 million principal payment, raising questions about the fate of the project and its impact on Gillett.
Methane digesters, like the one at Zahn’s Farms, are frequently pitched as climate-smart solutions to one of the biggest environmental critiques of animal farming: the emissions and pollution caused by manure. According to the non-profit World Resources Institute, manure from cows and pigs constitutes one percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Biodigesters are a technology for processing the manure by allowing microbes to break down the organic material. The result is biogas, a mix of primarily methane and carbon dioxide, that is touted by the booming biogas industry as renewable energy.
sentientmedia.org
by Nina B. Elkadi
August 27, 2025