“Farm Show weather” came to central PA with a vengeance this year, threatening the grid with excess energy needs from below zero temperatures. While the state and public utilities were calling for energy conservation outside, inside the complex on North Cameron Street, various forms of energy production and conservation were on display – and in one case, a Farm Show tradition was about to help handle a farm’s electric needs.
The PA DEP continued its exhibit at the Farm Show, featuring a garage to showcase vehicles that run on alternative fuels. DEP had useable pumps and plugs for compressed natural gas and electric vehicles (EV) to give visitors the experience of fueling alternative fuel vehicles (AFV).
DEP partnered with Nissan North America to bring a Nissan Leaf all-electric vehicle to their Farm Show exhibit. The Leaf sat in the driveway of DEP’s exhibit, where visitors could use the EV charger to “power” the vehicle and sit at the wheel to envision driving the car. DEP’s AFV Rebate Program provides rebates to PA residents that purchase certain types of alternative fuel vehicles like the Leaf. DEP Secretary Abruzzo announced plans to put an additional $1 million into the rebate fund in 2014.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition set up a production wellhead as part of a larger, two acre exhibit called the modern farm. The goal of their exhibit was to demonstrate how small a disturbance natural gas development will have on a farm, the equipment being used and the production life-cycle of the well.
Once again this year, the Farm Show featured a butter sculpture, carved from 1,000 pounds of Land O’Lakes butter, honored 60 years of milk shakes at the Farm Show food court. And the butter will serve to help operate a Juniata County dairy farm at the close of the show.
The butter will be melted and added to a other products in a methane digester, which will produce three days of electricity for the farm. In the past, the Farm Show butter sculpture has been put into digesters, and used to make biodiesel.