Nov 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Lauren Donovan The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.

North Dakota gets a better than passing grade among states using federal recovery act money for energy projects.

Matthew Rogers, the Department of Energy's senior advisor for recovery act implementation, told a diverse audience of company executives and students he expects North Dakota will demonstrate a broad range of energy projects after using $170 million awarded so far and more to come in a cash grant program.

Rogers spoke Tuesday, the final of two days of the Great Plains Energy Expo and Showcase in Bismarck.

He said it won't be among states he plans to visit soon to find out what the hold-up is in getting the wheel turning on energy projects.

In North Dakota, money will be used for carbon capture at a coal-fired power plant, geothermal energy projects, carbon capture research and state-managed energy and weatherization programs.

Rogers said the short-term goal is to get money out DOE's door to create jobs and stimulate recovery, but the long-term goal is to make a "useful down payment on our energy future."

He said thousands more projects are submitted than funded and those only after a disciplined in-house review. DOE has $200 billion available in recovery funds.

Rogers said the review assures the money goes toward "not just good projects, but great projects."

Besides funds for specific projects, North Dakota will also have access to a cash grant program that reimburses developers for 30 percent of an energy project once it's operational.

Rogers said he expects much of that money will be used for wind farm projects here, though he wouldn't specify which, other than to describe one as nearly complete and several others in the works.

One of those might be Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which is building its own 115-megawatt wind farm near Max.

Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said the co-op is evaluating whether getting 30 percent of the project cost up front in a cash grant is a better financial move than taking the 10-year energy tax incentive it replaces.

Applications have to be made by the end of 2010 and projects operational by 2014.

Basin is far and away the biggest potential user of energy recovery funds in North Dakota, with a $100 million award announced this summer for a proposed carbon capture project at its Antelope Valley Station power plant at Beulah.

The award is waiting, while Basin continues to evaluate its technology options for a project that will cost at least $400 million. It plans to remove 100 million tons of carbon dioxide from the power plant and add it to its existing carbon gas pipeline next door at the Dakota Gasification Co. plant.

The carbon gas is piped to Canada, where it's used in oil recovery and sequestered in the oil bearing formations.

Rogers said the Basin project will demonstrate the carbon capture technology and the sequestration of carbon, both critical components of future coal use and development.

Hill said the co-op has a lot of steps still to take before it can proceed to construction and it's looking unlikely that construction would start anytime soon.

Another question is where the additional carbon gas would be marketed. Hill said it could be added to the carbon gas already going to Canada, or used in oil recovery somewhere in the Williston Basin.

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