Energy conference jumpstarts ideas, personal passions

The idea that human behavior can outweigh new technology resonated with attendees during the conference’s closing remarks by Paul Risser, chief operating officer of the University Research Cabinet at the University of Oklahoma.

“I think that gets lost in the conversation,” Neosho-based business consultant Michael Franks said from his seat in the Gillioz Theatre, to which the audience responded with cheers. “This is all about using common sense. The choice is ours.”

The conference, spearheaded by Springfield City Councilman and Watts Radiant Vice President Dan Chiles, covered more than a dozen sessions by educators, politicians and businesspeople.

Franks, who works under Strategic Alignment LLC, is advising Crowder College on development of the school’s Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Technology Center, which will be completely powered by renewable energy when it opens in 2009.

“Everybody is trying to find a way to make a difference,” said Sheila Nichols of Missouri Insulation & Supply, which was among the cluster of exhibitors promoting their green products and services inside Gillioz. “Global improvement starting at a local level is great.”

Missouri Insulation representatives demonstrated how its spray foam insulation leaves no carbon footprint and enhances indoor air quality.

The conference was billed by organizers as the state’s first to specifically explore alternative fuels and technologies to oil, natural gas and coal. Topics addressed energy issues from national, state and local levels. Speakers’ PowerPoint presentations are scheduled to be posted this week to www.ozarksnewenergy.org.

Springfield Business Journal’s reports on three of the sessions follow.

When the economy and the environment become one

"The Greening of the Economy" –U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill

by Cory Smith

The economy is ripe with opportunities in the green sector, according to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. But the transition won’t be easy.

“I’ll tell you why renewable energy isn’t the primary source of energy Americans use today: It’s the economy, stupid,” she told her audience in Gillioz Theatre, borrowing a line President Clinton made famous during his first campaign.

Even though hurdles exist due to perceived higher costs and a lack of tax credits available for renewable energy, Missouri Democrat McCaskill said new environmentally friendly technologies could fuel economic growth.

McCaskill said “green jobs” could fill voids left by America’s eroded manufacturing

sector, which lost 3 million jobs in the last decade. She cited a 2006 report from American Solar Energy Society that said 8.5 million jobs had been created in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, accounting for $970 billion in industry revenue.

The federal government carries the burden, she said, and it should provide more tax incentives, grants and loans to businesses interested in renewable energy technologies or energy-efficient production.

The Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm in Gentry County is producing 56 megawatts of energy with 27 wind turbines.

McCaskill said farmers could supplement their incomes by $3,000 to $6,000 per turbine.

Companies in Michigan and Pennsylvania are hiring workers to produce wind turbines, and the same could happen in Missouri, she said.

Blue Green Alliance, a strategic initiative led by United Steelworkers and Sierra Club, has estimated wind-power-component manufacturing could bring 10,260 new jobs to Missouri, McCaskill said. Overall, Blue Green Alliance has estimated that renewable energy could bring 23,000 jobs to Missouri, including more than 2,800 jobs to Greene County, McCaskill said.

“Our country cannot sustain a billion dollars a day in the consumption of foreign oil for every reason that you can think of, whether it’s national security, the environment or our economy,” McCaskill said. “I believe we’re on the cusp of what could be the next industrial revolution. No longer are the environment and the economy at odds with one another. No longer can opponents argue against renewable energy by claiming it will hurt the economy and industry.”

Green design gets local

"Making a Difference with Efficient Design" – Matt O'Reilly, Dynamic Earth; Jason Hainline, EMSI; Emily Fox, Discovery Center

by Jeremy Elwood

Discovery Center of Springfield CEO Emily Fox, Green Circle Shopping Center developer Matt O’Reilly and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consultant and EMSI Vice President Jason Hainline are making a strong argument for green building.

These three leaders in the Springfield green development community presented their projects as examples of what can be accomplished with environmentally friendly design.

O’Reilly said environmental and economic sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

“Efficiency is about reducing your input and retaining the same output,” he said. “By definition, efficiency pays for itself.”

O’Reilly has put his money where his mouth is, embarking on Green Circle, a $3.3 million shopping center that’s targeting LEED Platinum certification. The center’s rainwater collection system, green roof and use of pervious pavement, among other green techniques, added an estimated 20 percent to the construction cost. But he said tenants – including San Francisco Oven and Mama Jean’s Natural Foods – are willing to pay higher rent because of the savings in energy costs.

Discovery Center’s addition was Springfield’s first LEED-certified project, earning Gold in 2007.

After the presentations, the panelists opened the floor to questions from the audience of more than 100.

Greene County Presiding Commissioner Dave Coonrod began by asking what government can do to encourage more green development. All three panelists pointed to the city of Springfield’s green building policy as a good start.

“Springfield’s going to learn a whole lot about the process of green building and, I think, expose some of the hurdles and obstacles associated with (it),” O’Reilly said. “They’ll probably be forced to accommodate change or bring up-to-date some of the current building policies.”

He added that the next step should be for the city and county to hire a liaison in their building departments to facilitate green designs, as well as implementing a policy ensuring that proposed building plans get preferential treatment in the permitting process.

Best natural resource: Farmland

"Beyond Ethanol: Chemicals from Biomass Provide Additional Profit Potential" – Norman Olson, Iowa Energy Center

by Matt Wagner

Engineer Norman Olson thinks the American farm holds the key to replacing fossil fuels as the country’s primary energy source, and that key is biomass – a catchall category that covers various agricultural wastes.

“We think we should make a hundred products from the things we find on a farm,” Olson said. “We have the best natural resources in the world. … We can grow crops better than anywhere in the world.”

Olson is a program manager at the Iowa Energy Center’s Biomass Energy Conversion facility in Nevada, Iowa. The center, which is part of Iowa State University, researches and develops new methods of converting agricultural-based plant materials into value-added chemicals and fuels.

Olson said the Iowa Energy Center spends little time on corn-based ethanol or biodiesel – two alternative fuels being commercially produced by corporations and cooperatives around the country. Due to higher production levels, the costs of corn and soybeans – a raw material for biodiesel – has skyrocketed, he added.

Instead, the center’s research has turned to anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis, a form of incineration that chemically decomposes organic materials in the absence of oxygen. Olson illustrated how farms might practically utilize the various processes, but he said there’s plenty of room for improvement.

“We’re not nearly as good at our chemistry as the oil companies are at their chemistry,” Olson said, noting that energy is generated by manipulating molecules. “That first step is where everybody’s doing a lot of research.”

To learn more about the center’s biomass research, visit www.energy.iastate.edu.