Most people are supporters of renewable energy but if you ask them what technologies they know, the list ends abruptly after solar and wind. But there is another technology so popular that there are over 15,000 facilities in western and central Europe – and that is biogas. Biogas, or anaerobic digestion, processes such feedstocks as animal manure, food processing waste, corn silage, sugar beet pulp and other organics to create electricity, natural gas, useful heat and in the case of dairies, bedding for cows. It does all this while eliminating the methane which leads to global warming.

Amazingly, until recently, there were only 265 farm digesters in the United States. Why? Largely because there are only two major American based technology providers, and neither were proficient in sales. With over 35 years’ experience in business-to-business sales and marketing we were anxious to provide these needed skills.

We approached the older company, RCM digesters, which had sold fewer than 100 digesters in their 35-year history and asked if we could promote and sell their systems. While difficult to sell overseas due to competition and a strong dollar, we targeted Northeast farms in late 2016 and managed to sell four. Two in Massachusetts and the first two modern agricultural digester in the state of Connecticut have been successfully launched.  These four sales total over $17 million.

Unfortunately, in late 2016 RCM was taken over by another company and upper management replaced. However, we moved up to representing PlanET Biogas. PlanET is a well-established German based company that has built over 550 digester systems worldwide in less than 22 years.