The French Power Plant That Runs on Cheese

Truly, is there anything cheese cannot do? The Telegraph reports that a power plant in the southeastern French town of Albertville is now converting the delicious, creamy stuff into electricity. The station in the Savoie region uses the byproduct of the local Beaufort cheese to power its biogas plant and turn the picturesque French Alps into an even more potent fantasy land.

The power plant, which opened in October, works like this: The skimmed whey created during the Beaufort-making process is added to a mix of bacteria. These little critters work through natural fermentation to convert the material into the mixture of methane and carbon dioxide commonly called biogas. The biogas is then heated and the steam powers turbines which, in turn, create electricity.