Holcomb's coal-fired "light" plant.

[lurker]

The plans for the growth of the Holcomb coal-fired electric plant are impressive if not stunning.

Sunflower Electric to announce wind farm contract

Company progresses with plans for coal-fired plants, bioenergy center

By John Green The Hutchinson News
jgreenAThutchnews.com


Sunflower Electric Power Corp. officials expect to make an announcement this week about a contract with a developer planning to build a wind farm in southwest Kansas.

"Monday or Tuesday we'll announce the contract," Sunflower Electric President Earl Watkins Jr. said.

The Hays-based corporation issued a request for proposals in August seeking a developer that could deliver 50 megawatts of wind-generated energy after a contract with another company planning a farm in Wichita County fell through.

With the new wind farm and the recent purchase by the Mid-Kansas Electric Co. - which owns Sunflower Electric - of Aquila Inc.'s share in the Montezuma wind farm, Sunflower will receive about 81/2 percent of the electricity it sells from wind, Watkins said.

The contract will be for a 20-year power purchase agreement, beginning no later than October 2007, according to the company's proposal request.

Plant progress

The company, meanwhile, is progressing in its efforts to develop new coal-fired plants in Holcomb, said Watkins and Clare Gustin, executive manager of external affairs, who were traveling together to newspapers around the state last week to answer questions about the plan.

The last of three public hearings on an application for state air permits will be in Lawrence on Thursday. A period for accepting written public comment also has been extended to Nov. 30, Gustin said.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is then expected to act on the application by late January, setting emission limits for the three 700 MW generating plants, Watkins said.

"We've got our response from the EPA and everything they said is manageable," Watkins said. "There's nothing threatening to the project there."

Sunflower will jointly own the first plant with Golden Spread Electric Cooperative of Amarillo, Texas, and other investors. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association of Westminster, Colo., will own the second and third 700-megawatt units, which it will use to supply power to its member systems.

(Inserted Sea Green color for the Green Earth folks.) The Sunflower executives were traveling to newspapers around the state, Gustin said, to answer questions about the proposed plants and respond to concerns expressed at previous hearings by the Sierra Club about mercury and carbon dioxide emissions, which are released when coal is burned.

"We want to assure people there are answers to their concerns," Gustin said.

"There are some criticisms we think are easily answered and some of the Sierra Club issues we can't deal with now," Gustin said, referring, for example, to decisions on how carbon dioxide emissions might be reduced or traded out when no regulatory rulings have been made on the issue. In fact, carbon dioxide emissions currently aren't regulated at all, though they may be in the future because of the role the gas plays in global warming.

"We can't spend consumer dollars to meet environmental challenges that have not been determined," Watkins said. "CO2 emissions are not regulated emissions. We can't jump out front on these issues and miss the mark, if we don't know if it will be cap and trade or sequestration."

Bioenergy possibilities

To help deal with the issue of pollution and draw on potential synergies, Sunflower Electric is working with the Kansas Bioscience Authority and National Institute of Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization to develop an integrated bioenergy center on Sunflower's Holcomb site.

The proposal includes an "algae reactor," through which flue gas from the power plants would pass. The algae would absorb some carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide gases, reducing those emissions.

Oils from the algae would be used at a proposed biodiesel plant and the algae solids at a proposed ethanol plant and nearby dairy. The proposal also includes a livestock processing plant and anaerobic digester, the waste from which would help fuel the ethanol plant.

The bioenergy center would end up producing electricity, ethanol and biodiesel.

When fully developed, the algae reactor could potentially remove 40 percent of the carbon dioxide gas produced, Watkins said. It would require 2,000 acres of algae to handle one power unit, however, and the initial target is for a 250-acre reactor. Plus, the technology is still in the development process. A company developing an algae reactor plans commercial level trials next August.

"We know it will be successful," Gustin said. "The question is practical application, the economics of it, as it folds into our overall 'mall' concept and what we'll have to invest. We may have to subsidize it, and what is public policy going to say? What level of subsidy is acceptable?"

There might be pieces of the bioenergy development that can stand alone, on their own, while others may or may not be developed, Gustin said.

"If we don't end up with the exact picture of what's presented here, which is likely, it will still be a win-win," she said.

11/12/2006; 02:37:22 AM