By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The allure of alternative energy sources diminishes as the price of oil decreases, a Purdue University professor said last week.
When crude oil prices were well over $100 a barrel, ethanol and other alternatives looked promising, said Otto Doering, extension specialist for environmental and research policy in Purdue’s agricultural economics department.
“Now that oil is way down, these other forms of energy have to compete with oil in that lower price range,” he said. “As the price of oil drops, the other alternatives become less economically beneficial.”
Doering spoke Jan. 14 at the 20th annual Fort Wayne Farm Show. Coal liquefaction, the process of producing liquid fuel from coal, could be a key alternative energy source if researchers can find ways to improve the technique, Doering said.
“The liquefaction of coal is a dirty process, and we need to figure out how to do it without creating a lot of carbon dioxide,” he said. “There’s an opportunity if we can make the sucker work.”
A project at the Indiana-Illinois border that would have studied ways to lessen the impact of carbon dioxide was canceled six to eight months ago, he said. Doering doesn’t know if the project will be re-started under the new presidential administration.
“We have plenty of coal, and getting electricity from coal is not a big problem,” he said. “The problem is with the carbon dioxide and how that affects global warming.”
Ethanol producers are having a tough time, as their product isn’t as attractive as it was when gasoline prices were high last summer, he said. “There’s a funny balance here. Farmers really want ethanol because it raises corn prices higher, but the higher prices for corn hurt the ethanol plants,” he said.
A couple of years ago, when ethanol plants were doing well, the per gallon subsidy ethanol producers received from the government was a nice bonus, he said.
“If you had that plant built, you could earn your full capital back in nine or 10 months,” he said.
“The subsidy from the federal government was gravy.”
If all the active ethanol plants remain in operation, they could take as much as 30 percent of the corn crop this year, he said. “The price of ethanol determines the price of corn. It’s a balancing act between the demand for ethanol plants that depend on the price of corn, and corn prices.”
Wind energy has become more common but it has limits as well, Doering said.
“There are only certain places you can do it. And it should be done on a big scale, because bigger operations are more economical than smaller ones,” he explained.
Purdue has teamed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado to study wind energy, said Chad Martin, renewable energy extension specialist in Purdue’s department of agricultural and biological engineering. Indiana generally has reasonable wind resources north of U.S. Highway 40 and in the Evansville area, he added.
“Before you start installing a turbine, you need to be sure this is the best alternative for you,” he said.
“You should look at the costs of installation, plus your existing energy costs, to be sure the system would eventually pay for itself.”
It could cost as much as $50,000 to buy and install a 10-kilowatt turbine, Martin said. The payback period, depending on a variety of factors – including the amount of wind available and the price of electricity per kilowatt hour – could be 30 years, he said.
“You also have to be sure you install it in the right location,” Martin said. “If you don’t put it in properly, it probably isn’t going to generate enough electricity to pay for itself. You want to place it so it will take the most advantage of prevailing winds, and place it as far away from obstructions as possible.”
Wind turbines shouldn’t be expected to produce at 100 percent capacity, he said.
“If you get a 40 to 60 percent capacity, you’re doing pretty well,” he said.
“But you won’t get that much electricity every day of the year. Some days, the wind will blow strong, and some days, it won’t.” |
