WILLMAR -- The Kandiyohi County Agribusiness/Renewable Energy Development Committee is pushing ahead with its wind energy project and the establishment of a renewable energy corridor in west central Minnesota.
Steve Renquist, executive director of the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission, told the committee at the regular meeting Thursday that he will ask committee members or other interested persons to step into leadership roles on the wind project. The project includes locating sites, landowners and investors for a 20- to 40-megawatt wind farm in the county.
"Projects of this type get done because of leadership," he said, noting that the county is in lockstep with the state's push to grow renewable energy use.
"We have a very real opportunity here in Kandiyohi County to do something significant," he said.
The committee also named a subcommittee to meet with representatives of area counties about the renewable energy corridor. The goal is to seek state legislation to establish a corridor similar to the bio-science corridor authorized between Rochester and the Twin Cities. The advantages of such a designation include tax breaks, job growth and business incentives, similar to the state's Job Opportunity Building Zone program.
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Renquist told the committee that members need to push the issue to put the county and the area in a position to take advantage of having incentives to attract and establish renewable energy projects.
The measure might be met favorably by the Legislature and the governor, who has pledged to set the state on course to have 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.
The board also heard a report that the annual ag conference, co-sponsored by the committee and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, will be Feb. 23 at the Holiday Inn and Willmar Conference Center.
Event organizer Kim Larson reported to the committee that the event will include a state and federal legislative update session. Potential topics for sessions include the debate on the use of corn for fuel versus food and the impact on both ethanol and livestock production, plus discussion of new odor quantifying research.
The committee also heard a report from Dr. Phil Goodrich, University of Minnesota, on the feasibility of moving biogas from an on-farm methane digester to market as a replacement for natural gas.
The research, funded by the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, concluded that it is not economically feasible for a 300-cow dairy farm to transport its biogas to a pipeline or market for the fuel. Goodrich noted that it may be more feasible to use the gas as an energy source on the farm.
