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WINNEBAGO — The wind turbines at the Corn Plus ethanol plant have begun to produce energy.

Corn Plus is the first ethanol plant in the nation to have wind turbines that directly feed the energy produced into the plant.

The wind turbines were erected in July and were initially expected to begin production in August. Due to technological complications, the turbines weren’t able to function until about a month ago.

Now, all the testing is done and the turbines are spinning flawlessly in the wind.

Director of project development Dan Moore said the turbines were turned on about a month ago.

“It just took a while for everything to get connected,” he said. “It took a while to get all the electrical components together.”

He said the computer system for the turbines was made in India, but the anemometers — devices that measure wind speed — and wind vanes were made in Germany, so the components wouldn’t talk to each other. They got an engineer to come from Germany to re-write the computer code.

“It’s a problem that happened that you couldn’t know or predict,” Moore said. “You just never know about some things.”

Plant manager Keith Kor said the project went well overall.

“The start up was delayed because of computer glitches they had,” he said. “There’s also a shortage of people commissioning these turbines. There were quite a few in western Minnesota that had to be commissioned as well. We had to wait our turn. But now they’ve been up and running, and have been running pretty much every day.”

Since that problem was solved, the wind energy production has gone without a hitch.

The energy produced from the turbines, Moore said, is replacing energy that would normally come in off the grid, which is produced from coal or nuclear power plants.

The turbines have a 2.1 megawatt output, which could power about 4,000 homes when the wind is blowing.

Moore said the biggest argument against ethanol plants is the amount of energy it takes to produce the ethanol. He said the energy count is unfair, because it’s counted from back to when the corn is planted and harvested — something that would be done anyway, regardless of its ultimate use.

The energy that’s produced from the wind turbines accounts for about 50 percent of the energy needed at the plant.

“That’s why they wanted to be more efficient,” Moore said. “I know he’d (Kor) like to be totally self-sufficient. I don’t know how he’s gonna get there, though I think he’s headed in the right direction.”

Corn Plus produces around 45 million gallons of ethanol per year. The VeraSun ethanol plant being built in Welcome, and the Buffalo Lake ethanol plant being built in Fairmont, are expected to produce about 110 million gallons each.

Corn Plus is making decisions that are more energy efficient. The company put in a fluid bed technology — which cut its natural gas consumption in half — then added the wind turbines and is now looking at microwave technology for drying its byproduct.

“We’re the first ethanol plant to ever do it (wind production),” Kor said. “I think that others will follow suit. We’re just trying to reduce our energy inputs and trying to be a low-cost producer. I think they look very nice next to an ethanol plant.”

The turbines were financed through John Deere Wind Energy and cost about $2.5 million each.

John Deere owns 99 percent of the turbines, with Corn Plus owning the remainder. Moore said John Deere has to own it in order for this partnership to work. He said it’s a win-win situation because John Deere gets a tax credit for it — a tax credit that a company like Corn Plus can’t receive. The credit can only be used to off-set passive income, and Corn Plus has no passive income. Moore said it’s the perfect partnership, because John Deere has the financial status to do the project, and it benefits companies like Corn Plus.

In 11 years, the ownership will flip to Corn Plus, because the tax credit only lasts 10 years.

Kor said it’s too early to tell how much of a cost savings this is for the plant. He also said it’s too early to know if the plant will construct more wind turbines to become completely energy efficient or if it will look at other methods.

 

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