Staff and wire reports
NORMAN — The turbine blades spin silently atop a metal tower that rises 100 feet above the headquarters of the Bergey Windpower Co., quietly turning its me-chanical motion into electric power by harnessing one of the most reliable energy sources in Oklahoma — the wind.
For much of its 100-year history, Ok-lahoma’s economy and culture has been fueled by oil and natural gas. But pollution-free wind power and other renewable energy sources like solar power and biofuels are gaining popularity as fossil fuel costs rise and concern grows about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming.
The new interest in renewable fuels is reflected at the state Capitol, where Gov. Brad Henry and lawmakers have proposed legislation to encourage development and use of alternative energy sources and help transform Oklahoma’s oil patch into a prairie of renewable energy.
The wind that blows across Oklahoma and other Great Plains states is capable of producing far more energy than the entire nation consumes, said Karl Bergey, chairman and chief executive officer of Bergey Windpower, the world’s largest manufacturer of small, wind turbines.
“All of the states from Texas up to the Dakotas are the Saudi Arabia of wind,” Bergey said. “It’s much less expensive to use wind power in most cases. I think it’s going to grow very rapidly.”
“The time is right,” said David Fleischaker, an oil and gas producer and Oklahoma’s energy secretary.
Fleischaker helped develop Henry’s plan to spend $40 million over the next four years to develop the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center to study and develop biomass feedstocks, like perennial prairie grass that is native to Oklahoma, and create a commercial bioenergy industry in the state.
“I think what we’re going to see across the nation is a convergence of the agriculture industry and the energy industry,” Fleischaker said. The proposal could provide a significant economic boost to farmers and ranchers in rural Oklahoma, he said.
In announcing the plan, Henry said renewable energy was a national security issue because 60 percent of the nation’s oil supply comes from foreign countries, many of which are openly hostile to the U.S.
Separate legislation filed in the Oklahoma House would offer tax credits to encourage Oklahomans to buy solar or wind power generators for homes and businesses.
“In addition to oil and gas, among our natural resources is a plentiful supply of wind and sun,” said Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, author of the tax credit bill.
“In the future perhaps we can have another energy boom. It’s just not going to be centered on oil and natural gas,” Terrill said.
Renewable energy is not a new concept in the state. Water-pumping windmills once dotted the landscape of rural Oklahoma, making farming and ranching possible in areas where water was not easily accessible.
Today, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.’s wind power program is one of the largest in the country with 50 megawatts of power, according to the company’s Web site. This year, OG&E; plans to have 170 megawatts of electricity generated by wind — enough electricity to power about 51,000 homes.
Bergey said sales at Bergey Windpower, founded almost 30 years ago, have doubled in the past six months as the company enjoys wind power’s status as the world’s fastest growing energy source. The company produces 1 kilowatt and 10 kilowatt wind power turbines and has sold them to consumers in all 50 states and more than 80 foreign countries.
“Global recognition of global warming has had an effect,” Bergey said. “A lot of people really do care about the environment.”
“Oklahoma has a huge role to play nationally in terms of advancing alternative energy technologies,” Terrill said. “These are homegrown technologies. We ought to be in the business of creating jobs for homegrown industries.”
Research is under way at universities and research institutions in Oklahoma to develop biofuel feedstocks and ways to convert them into usable transportation fuels, Fleischaker said.
The U.S. consumes over 210 billion gallons of transportation fuel a year, including gasoline and diesel fuel. Fleischaker said the national goal is to substitute 65 billion gallons of biofuels, particularly ethanol, by the year 2030.
“You’re talking about a lot of biomass to support a refinery,” he said. “The logistics of this are not trivial.”
Researchers are concentrating on a genetically improved variety of perennial switchgrass as a dedicated energy crop. Natural and abundant in Oklahoma, switchgrass is drought resistant, requires little fertilization and would be less expensive to grow than other bioenergy crops like corn, Fleischaker said. “Switch-grass has all the attributes that you’re looking for.”
Also needed is a way to harvest and transport the crop to refineries. “We don’t have that. And there hasn’t been much work on that,” he said.
Transportation methods may include reducing biomass material to a slurry or powder and transporting it by pipeline to refineries.
At the refinery, the material would be converted to simple sugars and exposed to enzymes and microbes to create ethanol.
Oklahoma is not the only state working to develop a biofuels in-dustry. Last month, Tennessee’s governor proposed spending $73 million to develop alternative fuels. Anchored by a $40 million pilot plant for making biomass ethanol from switchgrass, the plan could generate 4,000 new jobs in rural communities and $100 million in new farm revenue.
State Rep. Mike Jackson, R-Enid, serves on the Energy and Technology Committee, which is looking at viable alternatives to oil and gas. “Bioenergy is definitely a way to go in terms of viability for Oklahoma,” Jackson said.
Efforts to create ethanol traditionally have been through the use of corn and milo. Jackson hopes the state will try developing the use of switchgrass, a perennial, because it would be beneficial as an additional crop for farmers. Switchgrass would take little input while corn and milo are more difficult.
Although $40 million seems like a large chunk of money, Jackson said spread over a four-year period it may be better received by legislators.
“I don’t know specifically what the governor wants to do, but I think it’s mostly in conjunction with efforts at the Noble Foundation that try to increase the switchgrass poundage per acre and make it an alternative to corn and milo. Oklahoma needs to take a look at it,” he said.
State Rep. John Enns, R-Waukomis, was a little less confident. Enns met with Fleischaker and others last week to discuss the alternative fuels program.
“I’m not sure they have all the kinks worked out yet,” he said. Forty-million dollars for a re-search facility is a lot of money,” he said.
Enns said the nation definitely needs to stop being dependent on foreign oil and this may be a way to do it, but he thinks there is work to do.
State Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, thinks Oklahoma is ideally positioned to be a world leader in the biofuel industry, given its rich history in agriculture and energy. He attended a legislative conference during the summer where biofuels were discussed and brought information back from the meeting, which he presented to Gov. Henry in August. Part of the information was a plan by British Petroleum to spend $500 million to partner with a university to create a biofuels center.
“I felt the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University were ideal locations for the project,” Anderson said. “Hopefully Gov. Henry is pursuing that opportunity as well.”
Fleischaker, whose family has been part of Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry for 80 years, said demand for Oklahoma-produced oil and natural gas will remain high in spite of the state’s new emphasis on renewable energy.
“Biofuels are not going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” said Fleischaker. “We are a hydrocarbon economy. From an economic point of view, I am not threatened by biofuels.”
News & Eagle Staff Writer Robert Barron contributed to this Associated Press story.
