Ikea Installs Largest Solar Installation in Minnesota

The Ikea store in Bloomington now plays host not only to chairs and tables, but also to Minnesota's largest solar installation.

The installation, which covers an area of 142,000 square feet, was designed and installed by SoCare Energy, a commercial photovoltaic developer based in Chicago. With 4,316 PV modules, it is expected to produce, annually, approximately 1,161,328 kWh.

The panels are Ikea's 31st solar project in the US. Around 70 percent of the company's US stores use rooftop PV systems for their energy. That figure will jump to 89 percent when the eight solar projects the company is currently building are completed. Those eight installations will raise Ikea's solar capacity to 38MW in the US. Ikea has allocated €590 million towards renewable energy investments for the next three years, and has to date installed over 250,000 PV modules globally.

Solar energy is one part of Ikea's efforts to go green, which have included recycling over 80 percent of waste generated in stores, ensuring that over 70 percent of products are recyclable, made of recycled products, or both, seeking to set strict company-wide emissions standards, and setting minimum environmental and labor standards for suppliers.

Image Source: Clean Technica

DNR Names New Land and Minerals Division Head

There's a new man in charge at the Lands and Minerals Division of the Minnesota DNR.

Jess Richards, the newly appointed head of the division that oversees mining activities and regulation, comes to the position with eighteen years of experience working for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. There, he was most recently the assistant director of the Resource Management and Assistance Division. He also previously worked as the MPCA's mining sector manager, overseeing mining permits, environmental reviews, and related work, and as the MPCA's enforcement supervisor, and biofuels sector manager.

"Jess' deep understanding of the permitting process and the mining industry will be a major asset for the DNR," said DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr.

The move comes as the DNR continues to deliberate over whether to allow a number of major expansions in the state's taconite mining and processing. Controversial plans to mine copper in northern Minnesota are also being considered, and the Division is involved in the management of the state's silica sand industry, which has seen recent expansion driven by the fracking industry's demand for the fine sand.

The Land and Minerals Division, with 100 employees and an annual budget around $10 million, is charged with managing mining permit applications to ensure operations are operated in accordance with state laws and environmentally sound practices. It also provides real estate leadership in managing 5.5 million acres of state-owned land.

The division was previously managed by Larry Kramka. Kramka has left the DNR for an environmental services position at Houston Engineering, a Twin Cities based company.

Richards starts his new job on Monday.

Resource Efficiency Key to Greater Crop Yields, Fewer Impacts, Says Study

Feeding the hungry world of tomorrow while mitigating the expansion of impacts on the environment may be possible if resources are used efficiently, suggests a new study from University of Minnesota and McGill University researchers.

The study, published in Nature, analyzes the water and nutrients needed for under-producing farm land to reach its potential, using yeild and mangement data for 17 major crops. The researchers found that most of the crops could see global yeild improvements of 45 to 70 percent, with gains concentrated in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe. The study also examines to what extent fertilizer can be conserved without significantly affecting yeild. Highlighting overuse of fertilizer in China, India, the US, and Western Europe, the researcher claim that we could decrease nitrogen use 28 percent and phosphorus use 38 percent. Using proper techniques, the paper concludes, bringing under-perfoming lands up to 75 percent of their production potential would require raising global nitrogen use by 9 percent. while phosphorus use could be decreased by 2 percent. Potassium use, however, would have to rise 34 percent.

"These results show that substantial gains are indeed possible from closing the yield gap- and combining these efforts with improved management of existing lands can potentially reduce agriculture's environmental impact," says lead author Nathaniel Mueller, a researcher at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.

Global food demand is expected to double by 2050, due to population growth and changing eating habits. The world's population is predicted to peak at about the same time, reaching over 9 billion before the demographic transition that has lead to lower birth rates in the industrialized world takes hold in the global south. At the same time, eating habits are shifting as developing nations seek to emulate western, meat-heavy diets. Because of the amount of feed it takes to raise livestock for consumption, such a diet dramatically expands the demand for crops. Meanwhile, due to both poor infrastructure in developing countries and picky habits in the developed world, nearly a third of the world's food continues to go to waste.

The researchers caution readers that the analysis of their paper is at a large scale, and that a variety of factors not included in the paper remain relevant to the prospects of agriculture. These include local land characteristics, water availability, the use of organic fertilizers, economics, develepoment and geopolitics, and climate change. However, even with a rough analysis, the paper holds cautious hope for developing the capacity to sustainably intensify global food production- one part of the puzzle to feeding the future.

Image Source: Horn Portal

EPA to Intervene in Minnesota Haze Management

Minnesota's national parks may be breathing easier soon, as the Environmental Protection Agency moves to enforce stricter regulations on air quality, targeting the haze formed largely by the emissions of taconite facilities and coal-fired power plants.

The EPA is required, under the 1977 amendments to the Clean Air Act, to work with states to maintain certain standards of air quality in national parks and other wilderness areas. However, the three areas in and around Minnesota that warrant this special protection- the Boundary Waters, Isle Royale, and Voyageurs- suffer from haze driven by emissions from Minnesota and other states in the region.

The pollutants in the haze, primarily sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, reduce visibility in the scenic parks. They also, at certain levels, contribute to athsma attacks, bronchitis, respiratory illness, and heart attacks.

A clear day (left) and hazy day (right) at Voyageurs National Park

Minnesota's regulations on the haze producers, written after over three decades of failing to comply with federal mandates, are built on the conclusion that the 'best available retrofit technology' (BART) for the taconite industry is too expensive to be feasible. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's 2003 report on the issue, written by Barr Engineering, concludes that the "The affordability of BART must be analyzed on a site-specific basis. Given the current economics of the industry, a significant cost burden associated with BART could impact the future viability of the industry." Instead of retrofitting the plants, the MPCA require them to use 'good combustion practices' with existing technology at six taconite firms- in other words, to run technology that is not the cleanest available, in as clean a way as possible. At five coal-fired power plants, the state requires no action. Minnesota's plan also includes participation in an emissions trading program, which allows firms to buy pollution allowances. The MPCA's approach has been derided by critics as "requiring Xcel and the taconite people to do-essentially- nothing".

The proposed rules also sustained criticism by the National Park Service and Forest Service. The two agencies made a statement last March, asking the state to reconsider its rules and stating that the "The methodology used by the MPCA results in emissions limits that are too high".

The state's plan, and its long-standing failure to fulfill the requirements of the Clean Air Act, sparked legal action by a coalition of environmental organizations earlier this month, asking that the federal government step in and mandate compliance with the Clean Air Act's technology-based regulations.

Now, the EPA is invoking the right to impose a Federal Implementation Plan, a rarely used override of state regulatory agencies who fail to carry out the law. The EPA plan, which the government must approve by November 15th, requires the plants upgrade their technology to cleaner alternatives, on a rolling deadline of up to five years. Such technologies include scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, and the low-NOx burner, which can cut nitrogen oxide emissions from a furnace by up to 70 percent. The regulations would target the taconite faciltiies and coal fired power plants responsible for most of Minnesota's haze-causing emissions.

Cliffs Natural Resources, one of the state's taconite firms, has spoken in opposition to the EPA's regulations. Their attorney, Douglas McWilliams, says that it will take months to design a burner system that can work for the furnaces, and even longer to determine costs and likely emissions reductions. The says tghat their engineers are unsure if the furnaces can be retrofitted with the burners at all. McWilliams suggested that the EPA use the state's less strict plans instead.

"These two states, Michigan and Minnesota, have decades of direct experience regulating taconite mines and their pelletizing furnaces that EPA cannot hope to replicate.", he said. "Minnesota and Michigan are in a better position to assess the time and resources that it will take to evaluate the next generation of emission controls for this industry."

Hibbing Taconite Co, operated by CNR.

The EPA, however disagrees. "Controls do seem to be feasible and economically reasonable, so we think that could be applied at the different facilities that are not currently applying that technology," said Douglas Aburno, an environmental engineer at the agency.

Environmental advocate Alan Muller, in a recent op ed in the TC Daily Planet, agrees, saying that "This is an inexpensive approach:  The cost per ton is a few hundred dollars against EPA criteria of a few thousand dollars."

Environmental attorney Kevin Reuther, who represents the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and other environmental organizations, says that the EPA's rules are necessary because the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency  is unable to deal with the haze problem.

"With this particular industry, it's really hard for the MPCA to get it right. EPA had to come in and say look, this is not the best available retrofit technology, you haven't identified any technology, the state plan didn't require them to do anything," Reuther said. "That's why the EPA has this backstop role when the states don't act according to law. And that's what happened here."

Public comment will be taken until September 28, 2012. Comments can be sent to aburano.douglas@epa.gov.

Image Sources:  MinnPost and Star Tribune

Energy Solutions Home on Display at State Fair

Builders, environmentalists, and anybody who pays for electricity will have a new exhibition to look forward to at this year's state fair- a home sized demonstration of energy efficiency.

The Energy Solutions Home, part of the Eco Experience exhibit, is a partnership of public agencies, contractors, retailers, utilities, advocacy groups, and other parties, presented by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.  will show a range of energy-saving technologies. There will be a Green Materials and Efficient Appliances Display, a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Condition Display, and a Sustainability Stage for demonstrations. Miniature gardens displaying rain barrels and drip irrigation take the efficiency not only to electricity, but to water as well.

Visitors can even assess their home's performance and look at possible upgrades, including advice on how to finance such upgrades, and a hands-on display that allows fair-goers to tell if their home has good solar potential.

Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman says, "This exhibit is specifically designed to help Minnesota homeowners discover cost-effective ways to improve your home's efficiency and save money."

The Energy Solutions Home will be open August 23-September 3. Daily schedules of fair exhibits, including sustainability exhibits, can be found at this link on the State Fair website, while daily themes for the exhibit can be found here.

Image Source: Windustry

Quick Hits- Frogs, Student Hunger, and Wind

Frogs
Research at North Dakota State University is finding a correlation between habitat availability and gene pool size in northern leopard frogs. Gene pool size is important because a large, diverse gene pool creates a more resilient population that can overcome stresses and adversity more easily. This research may prove valuable as frogs experience habitat loss from the conversion of marshes and prairies into crop production (driven by high food prices), and dry conditions strangle wetlands.

Student Hunger
With youth unemployment high, college debt a crushing burden, and a degree not quite worth what it used to be, college graduates have become a small but growing demographic of the recipients of the Supplemental Assistance Food Program, more commonly known as food stamps. The program is currently at a record high of over 46 million recipients. Although these students are a small minority of those in the program, their participation is growing at a rate faster than that of people their same age with less education (and less debt).

Wind
The Twin Ports (Duluth-Superior) are experiencing a boost in shipping as wind farm projects across the country rush to finish construction before a federal tax incentive ends. The incentive, which provides a break of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour, is to expire at the end of the year. While the wind industry has seen significant growth in recent years, roughly doubling its capacity between 2008 and 2011, the end of the tax credit could spell hardship for the industry.

Image Source:  National Park Service

Ash Borers Found at Fort Snelling Golf Course

Emerald ash borers have made their way to yet another victim- the Fort Snelling Golf Club.

The infestation, reported by a forestry employee of the Minnesota Parks and Recreation Board, is the first new infestation of the year,  according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The damage is extensive- officials believe they will have to cut down over 100 trees in the area- the course could lose over a fourth of its trees. In the words of Ralph Sievert, the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board's Director of Forestry, “We haven’t had any tree look this bad in the areas where we’ve been dealing it with so far.”

Hennepin County, where the infestation was found, is one of four counties already under quarantine, with exports of firewood and ash tree limbs forbidden. However, because the infested trees are close to the border of Dakota County, the Department of Agriculture will conduct a survey to determine if the infestation has spread there, as well. The Department has determined that the infestation at the golf club started some five years ago.

“It is something we’re going to continue to find in new places,” says Mark Abrahamson, an entomologist. “We’re not going to get rid of this bug. If we can slow it down and so that it can spread slower, it will do us a lot of good.”

The emerald ash borer arrived in the United States through Detroit in the 1990s and has since spread to fifteen states and two Canadian provinces. North America's ash trees have no resistance to the pest, and millions of trees have already succumbed. In the Minneapolis and Saint Paul together, over 5,000 infested trees have already been culled. Hoping to avoid a repeat of the devastation from previous tree epidemics such as Dutch elm disease, the state has explored avenues ranging from bug-detecting dogs to predatory wasps.

Information on recognizing an infestation can be found at the DNR website. Anyone who suspects their trees are infested is asked to contact the Department of Agriculture. The email address is arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us

Image Source: NYS DEC and Emerald Ash Borer Info

XCel Ending Key Solar Support Program

XCel Energy's 'Solar Rewards' program, which has offered a boon to Minnesota's renewable energy producers and installers, may soon come to an end. 

According to the Solar Minnesota Coalition, the state's solar potential is comparable to that of Florida and greater than that of Germany, the world's leading producer of solar power, but most of this potential is untapped. The Solar Rewards program gives businesses and homeowners rebates, upfront, for installing panels. This is designed to make the panels more affordable, nurturing the growing industry. It also provides XCel, who buys the energy, with a solar supply.

Solar capacity has been installed at St. John's University

However, XCel now says that the program, which has cost $5 million annually, has been successful in meeting its goals. The company will be rolling back the rebates, ending them entirely by 2014. Though Minnesota's Department of Commerce will hold a hearing preliminary ruling later this month and a final decision in October, XCel says that the company has no obligation to continue its voluntary subsidy.

The rollback has Gary Shaver, president Silicon Energy, worried. The company, based in Washington state, has a manufacturing facility in Mountain Iron, a small town in the Iron Range. "For us, that will be damaging to where we consider whether or not it makes sense to manufacture in Minnesota", he says, citing worries that the demand will drop without the subsidy keeping prices low."We have an innovative product, but still, we're a small manufacturer. So, to pull that out right now is to really destroy a business plan where you're talking about working at a local level to innovate toward the future." Silicon Energy has already downsized their Mountain Iron factory from 15 to 11 workers in anticipation of the lower demand.

Silicon Energy workers in Mountain Iron

Part of the problem, Shaver says, is the competition American solar panel companies face from cheap imports from places like China. China's cheap solar manufacturing, which has captured over half of the world demand for solar, has also caused problems for domestic producers in Germany, and reduced European and North American solar R&D spending. The Chinese solar industry enjoys considerable subsidies, and eschews many environmental regulations that US firms follow, bringing cheap solar at the cost of intense water and air pollution in China's cities, and devastating villages near the mines where the rare earth metals essential to solar are extracted. In a very real sense, the current Chinese cheap solar, like cheap fossil fuels, is given the 'subsidy' of ignoring its social and environmental externalities.

In response to cheap Chinese imports, the US government has placed a controversial tariff of over 30% on Chinese panels, accusing the Chinese companies of price dumping to deliberately drive competitors out of business. The tariff could harm the growth of solar power, the price of which has fallen by half in the last five years, becoming in some cases competitive with fossil fuels. On the other hand, the long-term effects of allowing the stagnation of American an European solar development and production could themselves be harmful both to the technological advancement of renewable energy and to the popular goal of energy independence. Shaver fears that ending XCel's program could further disadvantage American solar.

Workers construct panels in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province

Not all solar manufacturers share Shaver's concerns regarding the end of the program. Joel Cannon, CEO of Minneapolis-based firm tenKsolar, says of the rollback, "It's definitely not what's keeping me up at night." However, his company keeps their costs low in part by using Chinese labor for the company's lower-skilled tasks, leaving the skilled jobs to their Minneapolis factory. They also focus on out-of-state markets with strong incentive programs, such as Tennessee, California, Massachusetts, Romania, and Japan.

XCel, for its part, acknowledges that the end of the program will likely stagnate Minnesota's solar growth. Regional company VP Laura McCarten suggests that the state will have to make changes to promote the industry:"From a public policy standpoint, it really needs to be looked at with a fresh eye the regulatory framework, the incentive mechanism, and then how does this work and who should really pay for it."

While the program remains in place, information on it can be found at XCel's website. 


Image Sources: Clean Energy Resource Teams, Made In USA News, and CSB/SJU

A New Weapon In the War on Zebra Mussels

Zebra mussels may soon learn the name of fear- and that name is zequanox.

Zequanox is a bacteria, bred from the Pseudomonas fluorescens species, which can be found naturally protecting certain plants from breeds of parasitic fungi and nematodes. It has been selected by a team from the New York State Museum which has spent two decades researching a potential bacterial remedy to the zebra mussel invasion- a plague that has already infested over fifty of our state's lakes. The mussels, introduced through the Great Lakes in the 1980s, displace native species, cling to boats and docks, and even clog pipes, and as yet remain difficult to stop. A trial run being carried out on mussels at Lake Carlos with the help of the Minnesta DNR and US Geological Survey may change that, however.

The bacteria is not being introduced into the lake itself- instead, the mussels are being gathered and bathed in water that contains the bacteria for twelve hours, to measure their effectiveness against the mussels. In the words of USGS fisheries biologist Jim Luoma "What we're trying to do with this trailer is to mimic a treatment like it would be in a lake without actually applying the product to the lake." Previous tests have seen casualty rates of over 90%, with most deaths occurring within ten days of treatment.

Zebra mussels can clog pipes and engines

Denise Mayer, one of the researchers on the project, stresses that zequanox is not likely to be used on whole lakes- rather, the likely approach "is to use it as a tool to prevent infestations very early on if you find a localized infestation around a boat launch or marina or a dock,"and in this way prevent the further infestation of the lake.

Lake Peppin and Wisconsin's Lake Shawano will also be test sites, after the Lake Carlos trial is complete. 

Image Sources: National Atlas and Invasion of the Zebra Mussels

State Asked to Conduct Frac Sand Study

The Environmental Quality Board has been asked to conduct a study on the frac sand mining. Such a study would delve into the environmental, socioeconomic, and health impacts of the growing extractive industry.

Fine silica sand, which is found in the southeast corner of Minnesota as well as across Wisconsin and parts of Iowa, has long been used to make glass and abrasives. More recently, however, it has found expanded demand as a part of the controversial natural gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Silica sand mine in Chippewa County, Wisconsin

Fracking is a process in which a mixture of silica sand, water, and fracking fluid (which contains hundreds of compounds, many of which are proprietary and thus not disclosed to the public), is pumped into holes deep drilled into the ground. There it creates high pressure, fracturing the rock and releasing pockets of natural gas.

The method has drawn fire from environmental advocacy groups for its environmental impact. This includes effects on air quality, the contamination of groundwater, the status of natural gas as a greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuel, and even for causing earthquakes in some locations. Proponents of natural gas, however, insist that it is a transition fuel, noting that burning natural gas releases half the carbon dioxide of burning oil, and that it is a cheap energy source of which the US has significant reserves. Some officials even credit natural gas with the recent decline of US emissions to a 20 year low as new gas exploration has cut the price per unit by more than half over the last four years.

Miner preparing holes for blasting

While proponents and opponents of fracking debate, however, Minnesota and Wisconsin have become the center of a frac sand boom, with mines opening across the silica sand region to fuel the booming fracking industry. In response, some counties in Minnesota have already imposed moratoriums. In the words of Kristin Eide-Tollefson of the planning commission of Goodhue County's Florence Townships, "These permits just start flooding these communities once the doors are open". She says that local governments need more information. Concerns have been raised over the sand mines, not only for their role in the fracking industry, but also for their effects on surrounding communities, such as increased truck traffic, respiratory illness such as silicosis, and the loss of ecosystem services from the sand hills' water filtering. Although the mines must follow the rules protecting navigable waterways, accidental spills have also raised concerns. In addition, concerns have been raised over the mine's effect on the habitat of the endangered Karner blue butterfly.

The sand mining industry, though, says that the existing rules already do a good job of protecting the environment, and that regulations could affect investment and jobs. Rich Budinger of the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Company, regarding the moratoriums that some countries have imposed, says, "Resources at that point are sometimes redirected into areas where counties and townships understand non-metallic mining and industrial sand mining, and understand that regulations are in place to pretty much protect the safety and the environment of the region". He claims that a study like the one being proposed would take time and have an effect similar to the moratoriums.

Image Sources: FracSandFrisbee and MPR

Haze Reduction Plan Subject to Lawsuit

A new plan for reducing haze in Minnesota's wilderness areas and national parks is prompting legal action from environmental groups who claim it is not strict enough.

The lawsuit was filed in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals by a coalition of several environmental organizations, such as the National Parks Conservation Association. The heart of the controversy lies in the difference between federal haze rules, which use the 'command-and-control' technique of mandating that plants install the best available control technology, and the cross-state air pollution rule, a different program which allows more flexibility through trading of pollution credits.

Clear day and hazy day at Voyageurs National Park

Under federal environmental laws, Minnesota is required to make progress on reducing haze in certain national parks, such as the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs NP, which have suffered from vision-obscuring air pollution from industry and vehicles. According to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, this haze is also a public health hazard, being linked to asthma and heart problems.

To comply with the federal mandates, Minnesota has submitted a Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) to the EPA. The plan centers around the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, a system for trading of certain types of emissions.

Trading of pollution permits, commonly known as 'cap and trade', is controversial in part because it allows some firms to buy 'permission to pollute' from other firms that have not used all of their own permits. According to some critics, this creates a tendency for pollution 'hot spots' in certain areas (though a recent study at Indiana University disputed this claim). However, cap and trade also allows reductions in overall smog to take place where it is cheapest- if one plant can reduce emissions for a lower price than another, it can do so and sell its permits to the other plant.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has not yet commented on the lawsuit.

Image Sources: Earthjustice

Invasive Flies Arrive in Minnesota

A new fruit pest has found its way into our state, according to officials from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

The spotted wing drosophila

The spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), a species of fruit fly from southeast Asia, has been found in berry patches in Ramsey and Hennepin counties. The drosophila, which was first detected in the United States in Hawaii in the 1980s, feeds on healthy and ripening fruits such as blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cherries. The fly arrived on the mainland of North America more recently, being found in California in 2008, and has since spread to several states across the country.

According to Bob Koch of the Department of Agriculture, the drosophila cuts a small incision into the skin of the fruit and lays its eggs inside so that they can feed on the seeds. The infested fruits often have no noticeable signs on them until after they are harvested. The incision can become a source of secondary infections by bacterial and fungal pathogens

Drosophila larvae in a strawberry

"If you start to see a bunch of maggots showing up in some of the fruits that you've harvested, and if it was fruit that looked fine at harvest time, then that might be a pretty good indicator that that pest is in the area," said Koch.

Anybody suspecting that they have an infestation of drosophila in their fruits is asked to call the state Department of Agriculture.

Brainerd's Energy Innovation- Sewer Power

The city of Brainerd has been flushing money down the drain- or so say those advocating an overlooked resource to heat and cool the city's buildings through Minnesota's bitter winters and increasingly hot summers. That resource is the sewers.

Scott Sjolund is technology supervisor Brainerd Public Utilities, which has already been using heat from waste water to heat its buildings and clear sidewalks of ice.  He explains: "Everybody heats water up ... and all that gets drained down the sewer, and that's potential energy that could be extracted. That's part of the equation." The other part is harnessing it most effectively.

Brainerd's signature water tower, known as 'Paul Bunyan's Cup'

Hidden Fuels, a company based in the city, has an idea. The company, which received a $45,000 grant from the federal government and formed a partnership with the city and school district in 2009, has already used a series of sensors to map out the flow of heat in the sewers and find the hot spots. Peter Nelson of Hidden Fuels says, "It shows that there's a significant amount of energy — literally enough to heat hundreds of homes — within the streets of the city of Brainerd". There's enough heart in one pipe to heat the entire high school, according to Earl Wollert, the Brainerd School district director of buildings and grounds.

Hidden Fuels intends to use the energy by running water through a heat pump, running a turbine that generates the electricity that will heat or cool the building. It is similar to the use of geothermal energy, but with a bonus- the Brainerd sewer water, at 42-66 degrees Fahrenheit, is already generally in the temperature range. According to John Lund of the Oregon Institute of Technology, using the sewer water could cut costs in half compared to regular geothermal.

Jeffry Aga, Alan Cibuzar, and Peter Nelson of Hidden Fuels

There remain some drawbacks, however. One is the use of dirty water. Prior to now, geothermal systems have generally used clean water. In the words of Nelson, "We're dealing with contaminated fluids. And so that's really the challenge ... to be able to operate efficiently in that contaminated environment." The company intends to extract the energy in a closed system with a clean glycol process, reducing odor concerns.

Another possible problem is that with natural gas prices as low as they are, even the reduced-cost sewer power may be more costly than natural gas. Even though heating the school alone could save around $18,000 annually, it could still take years to break even compared to the cost of natural gas- though such calculations neglect the significant environmental costs of natural gas and the controversial fracking method by which it is gathered.

Regardless, with the price of fossil fuels in the future uncertain, the project is slated to be a long-term investment. Hidden Fuels plans to have the police station heated by the end of the year, with the school also on the agenda. In the Brainerd of tomorrow, the streets may not be paved with gold, but gold may certainly flow under them.


Image Sources: The Gilbert Lodge Blog, MPR