Efficiency of wind, biodiesel fuel touted

Missouri is making progress in the push for renewable and efficient energy efforts nationwide, and MU is playing a major role in that transition.

At an “Advancing Renewables in the Midwest” conference on Wednesday at the Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Building on MU’s campus, about 220 people — interested consumers, representatives of local and state environmental groups, government agencies and businesses — listened to a daylong series of presentations from industry leaders, many of whom are MU graduates.

Jenna Higgins, a 1994 MU graduate, showcased her work as National Biodiesel Board communications director, located in Jefferson City. Higgins’ presentation touched on the benefits of biodiesel blends using primarily soybeans, while debunking myths commonly associated with the fuel source.

For engines using diesel fuel, biodiesel is an alternative fuel that Higgins said lowers emissions, is nontoxic and is just as effective, though at a slightly higher cost, as the diesel consumers already use.

“Many people think it won’t work or will be less effective in cold weather,” said Higgins, who uses biodiesel in her Volkswagon Jetta. “It is treated by the distributor, just like diesel, for climate needs.”

It’s use will also not void the warranty of any major U.S. manufactured vehicle as many consumers think, she added.

“Biodiesel’s best selling point is that it works with the existing infrastructure today,” Higgins said. “We might as well start doing something with what we already have.”

Much is being done nationally, and now it’s being done in Missouri as well.

Higgins mentioned schools, the agriculture industry and cities nationwide, including Columbia, as following the trend to use biodiesel in their vehicles.

Additionally, 40 biodiesel production plants are being constructed nationwide, with Missouri sites in Mexico and Bethel under way, and a Deerfield plant to be built next year.

Fifty-three plants exist already nationwide; Missouri has one in Bunceton.

Thomas Carnahan, also an MU graduate, spoke of what the wind energy industry needs to work on in Midwest communities.

He used the Blue Ridge Wind Farm in Gentry County, Missouri’s first utility wind farm, as an example.

The wind farm, started in January, is expected to be two-thirds built and operating by this year’s end.

“Missouri is never going to have the wind resources some of our neighboring states have,” Carnahan said, noting northwest Missouri as the best area in the state for wind, according to research data. “There is nothing we can do about it. What we can do is compete with the other states in the other areas essential to wind energy.”

He says those areas include community support, financing and a long-term power purchase agreement.

The event’s keynote speaker, Stanley Bull, said he hoped Wednesday’s conference, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, MU Department of Atmospheric Science and Columbia Water and Light, helped the public recognize the role of the many pieces in the energy production and consumption puzzle.

Bull, a 1963 MU alum, is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s associate director for science and technology and is vice president of the Midwest Research Institute.

“The energy challenges are enormous,” Bull said. “Energy efficiency has to be our number one priority and renewable energy needs to be a much greater part of our future.”