ROCKFORD — Job creation and economic development were among the benefits promised by Freedom Field supporters when they announced the project to the public in late April.

The alternative-energy technologies research-and-development center proposed for the Chicago/Rockford International Airport is initially expected to cost up to $5 million to become operational. These officials said they hope it will eventually wean itself from tax dollars and become self-sustaining.

But for now, their plan calls for early funding to come from three government sources: the airport, Winnebago County and the federal government.

These hopes could certainly be realized. But any jobs or economic boost for the Rock River Valley stemming directly from Freedom Field, and its becoming a tax-dollar-free operation, probably would take years to come about. Why? Because of the cutting-edge technologies involved in the plan, according to industry and government officials.

"The way to look at it would be long term,"said Hans Detweiler, deputy director for energy and recycling for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Alternative energy center

Freedom Field, proposed by a coalition of area governments and businesses, is slated to open in summer 2008 on a 10-acre site on the airport's southwest side. Plans include a 40,000-square-foot research and demonstration center, solar and wind energy equipment, and a hydrogen fueling station.

The solar and wind equipment would generate electricity, which would be used to produce hydrogen to fuel vehicles. The electricity also would power the complex and possibly the lights at recreation fields proposed near the center.

The research center also is expected to have other renewable fuels available for vehicles, such as methane piped in from the nearby Winnebago Landfill and ethanol made from locally grown corn.

For Winnebago County officials, the multimillion-dollar project represents a way for the region to position itself in the growing industry of green-fuels development as the nation struggles to shake its dependence on petroleum products and foreign oil.

County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen said the center would fuel not only vehicles, but economic development.

The center could provide to businesses a cheap energy source that would drive down their costs, a fact that would attract companies to the 6,600-acre Rockford Global Trade Park that surrounds the airport, he said.

Freedom Field is ?another tool? that would help give the region an edge with companies looking to expand or relocate, Christiansen said. The center "shows we are progressive in our thinking, we are cutting-edge."

Bob Lindstrom, regional energy program director for Rock Valley College and a key player in Freedom Field, expects interest in the project to help boost related opportunities at nearby higher education institutes.

He notes that Rock Valley College is offering an introduction-to-renewable-energy course in the fall semester. He said this will help train technicians and engineers.

In addition, Lindstrom believes that the nation is about to begin ?a third industrial revolution? focused on products related to alternative energy. He said Freedom Field will help position the region as a center of manufacturing for wind and solar equipment.

Taxpayer-dependent

No hard numbers detailing potential jobs or economic development are available. The coalition has just hired Hamilton Sundstrand to conduct a $150,000 feasibility study of the project. The study and planning phase could take up to four months and is expected to answer those lingering questions.

Some of those answers might be found by studying NextEnergy, a Detroit-based nonprofit created in 2002 to position Michigan as one of the leading states for research, development and manufacturing of alternative-energy technologies.

Funded by $30 million in state tax dollars through the Michigan Economic Development Corp., NextEnergy opened a $12 million, 45,000-square-foot center and a pavilion in September that allow companies to test various power sources on their products.

Similar to Rockford?s EIGERlab, which is a center for research and entrepreneurs seeking to develop manufacturing technologies, NextEnergy?s complex is home to at least seven businesses and organizations that are developing alternative-energy technologies.

NextEnergy has caused at least two other companies to open a lab or office nearby to conduct research. The businesses have generated 80 to 100 jobs tied to the research undertaken at the center, said Jim Saber, NextEnergy director of business development.

Saber, though, says Next­Energy?s economic effect goes beyond the companies housed in its center. He said the center provides networking and other business services to alternative-energy companies across Michigan that will help keep "energy dollars"  in the state. And he said the center has been able to create partnerships with Michigan?s dominant automobile industry related to practical research into alternative fuels for vehicles.

"We have an opportunity in Michigan to help diversify our economy," he said.

Saber said the organization has a plan to become self-sufficient within two years that relies on funding from the private sector, foundations, federal research programs, fees for such services as testing products, and specific Next­Energy projects. But after four years of operating, Next­Energy is still funded almost entirely by state tax money.

Lindstrom expects Freedom Field to initially be funded by federal and state tax money but to eventually become funded through private investment. ?I have learned that grant money is there to start projects, not maintain them,? he said. ?My motto is to plan for the day that the grant goes away.?

Obstacles to success

The Freedom Field project could face challenges beyond funding because of its intense focus on hydrogen fuel.

Several economic hurdles, such as the high cost of hydrogen-fueled vehicles and technological obstacles like storage capacity of hydrogen on vehicles have limited the use of hydrogen as a fuel for automobiles, said Guenter Conzelmann, director of the center for energy, environmental and economic systems analysis at Argonne National Laboratory in the southwest Chicago suburbs near Darien.

He said part of the problem is a ?chicken and egg? situation in which energy companies do not want to invest large amounts of money into building fueling stations because of the lack of hydrogen-fueled vehicles. On the other hand, automakers don?t want to produce more hydrogen-fueled vehicles because of the lack of fueling stations, which means consumers would shy away from purchasing the vehicles.

As a result, he said, only a couple of hundred hydrogen demonstration vehicles exist in the U.S. and far fewer in northern Illinois.

Conzelmann said federal energy officials do not expect large-scale use of hydrogen-fueled vehicles until 2018 because of these challenges.

"It's way too early for installations like (Freedom Field) to think about economics,"he said. "in all reality, that refueling station will not have regular customers."

Staff writer Heath Hixson may be reached at 815-987-1343 or hhixson@rrstar.com.

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