are the tiny grass blades capable of lighting up our houses? Farmers in Switzerland are coming up with the world's first commercial grass power station. The station, in the Schaffhausen town of northern Switzerland, would produce about three million-kilowatt hours of electricity annually from 4,400 tonnes of grass. More than 200 farmers living within a 10-km radius of the station's site would provide the grass. The farmers have entered into a contract of three years with 2B Biorefineries, the Swiss company that carried out the pilot project of the station. They will get up to us $9-12 for every 100 kilogrammes of grass they give. The process of obtaining energy from the grass is slightly different from other biomass. "We ferment without solid organic materials," says Graeme Hansen, an engineer from 2B Biorefineries. The grass fibres and proteins are first extracted and then the liquid containing carbohydrates is fermented at about 35 c. After this it is used to generate energy.
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