How To Make Biodiesel

Mar. 29–Alliant Energy’s potentially controversial plan to build a coal-fired power plant is driven by the type of electricity demand in the growing ethanol and biodiesel industries, the company said Wednesday. Alliant officials also said the sale of the company’s in-state transmission assets to ITC Holdings Corp. will help the state’s young wind power industry by improving connections between wind farms and energy markets. Alliant will hold a meeting May 21 in Marshalltown to discuss plans for a $1 billion coal-fired power plant at its Sutherland Generating Station. It soon will apply for state permission to sell 6,800 miles of high-voltage lines, 170 substations and other transmission assets to Michigan-based ITC Holdings. Plans for the power plant and the sale of the transmission system are related. Part of the proceeds from the $750 million transmission asset sale are expected to be reinvested in the plant. Iowa’s future as a hub of the renewable energy industry is a prime consideration in both decisions, Alliant officials said in an interview. “What’s fueling our growth in Iowa is the biofuels and ethanol industry,” Vice President of New Energy Resources Kim Zuhlke said. “Their demand is around-the-clock.” Zuhlke said this demand led Alliant to a coal-fired power plant that could provide economical power continuously. Alliant expects to encounter criticism from air quality advocates in regulatory proceedings because of growing concerns about the effect of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fueled power plants on global warming. Tom Aller, president of Alliant’s Iowa utility subsidiary, Interstate Power & Light, said economics dictated that Alliant choose proven technology that will be economical in the long term. Aller said failure to build the plant would force Alliant to buy more power on the open market at higher and less predictable costs. “That’s a very risky position to take on behalf of the people of Iowa,” he said, adding that Alliant believes there is “an enormous risk of uptick on behalf of the people of Iowa.” The Marshalltown plant will be able to burn coal from a variety of sources and to burn switchgrass, a renewable fuel. ITC President Joe Welch said his company is the only electric transmission company that is entirely independent of a utility. As such, he said, ITC is more willing to build transmission capacity to developing wind energy generators. “We will be like a normal toll road,” Welch said. “We don’t care whose trucks are coming down the road. We don’t care where they’re coming from. They just pay the toll and move on.” Transmission costs typically account for 5 percent to 10 percent of a customer’s utility bill. Alliant will request that the transmission portion of the bill be regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rather than the Iowa Utilities Board. Credit: The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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