A local business is the recipient of a federal grant that will allow the company to use wind to produce high-purity hydrogen.
Ketchum-based Synthetic Energy Inc. will use a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to buy turbines for a wind-powered hydrogen production facility in southwestern Idaho.
"It's simply to provide another alternative for wind power providers to derive income from the turbines," said Tom Griffith, the company's president and CEO.
Griffith said a commercial gas distributor in the Boise area has expressed interest in finding a local supply of hydrogen.
Project backers believe theirs would be the first wind-to-hydrogen project for commercial resale in the nation.
"It's an exciting new project," said Brian Jackson, president of Boise-based Renaissance Engineering & Design. Jackson's company wrote the grant and is under contract with Synthetic Energy to provide ongoing services and project management.
The farm will consist of two 50-kilowatt turbines that will provide energy for hydrogen generation, Jackson said.
Hydrogen is used in various chemical and industrial applications. Steel making, glass making, oil refining, computer chip manufacturing and vitamin manufacturing require the element.
The project won't need constant wind to function.
"When turbines are running at full power, they're exporting energy to the grid," Jackson said. When the hydrogen-production units aren't producing excess energy, they can still produce hydrogen by taking stored energy from the grid, he added.
"The other significant thing is that it's a commercial project," Jackson said. "We aren't doing it for research."
Ninety percent of hydrogen in North America is derived from natural gas, Griffith said. But the price of natural gas is volatile, making wind an attractive generation option, he said.
The project, estimated to cost $800,000, will be located on land between Boise and Mountain Home, just south of another wind farm.
Griffith said he has under contract a 160-acre parcel of land. The property could eventually be used as a renewable energy campus, with mechanical engineering students doing fieldwork on location, he said.
Although Idaho Power requested this summer a temporary moratorium on their obligation to buy energy from small wind-power producers, the Synthetic Energy project won't be affected because of its size.
"It's large enough to be meaningful but small enough not to be affected by the moratorium," Jackson said.
The Elmore County Planning & Zoning Commission this month issued a conditional-use permit for the project.
The wind turbines are scheduled to be shipped in October.
"We're trying to get the project up and operational by February," Griffith said.
There are two other wind farms in Idaho: the Schwendiman farm near Mountain Home and Fossil Gulch near Hagerman. Another farm, with 43 turbines, is under way east of Idaho Falls.
Synthetic Energy is one of 150 recipients of USDA rural development grants amounting to $21 million.
The grants, announced Sept. 14, were awarded for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
Idaho resident Larry Johnson will receive from the USDA $18,000 to erect a small electricity-producing wind turbine on his property near Melba, approximately 35 miles southwest of Boise.
Idaho ranks 13th in the nation for wind power development potential, according to the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
"We have this incredible resource blowing across our state, whether we use it or not," Jackson said. "We're in an energy crisis. Wind is going to be a more significant issue as time goes forward. It's just too valuable."
