The Stranded Wind Initiative was founded last December with an eye on, well, rescuing stranded wind.

How does wind get stranded in the first place? Simple – if you have a wind energy resource in place that lacks both the population to use its power and the transmission lines to get it out of the area it is stranded.

We started looking for local electricity intense manufacturing that made sense in Iowa’s wind patch and the first thing that came to mind was ammonia production driven by water hydrolysis rather than the current method, which uses natural gas and produces 4% of the total global CO2 emissions. It didn’t work out in Iowa for a variety of technical reasons that may eventually be resolved, but earlier this week something very nice happened here in New England ...

There are two methods to make ammonia. The current production method is called Haber Bosch and it dates back to 1910. Hydrogen is evolved from natural gas using an SMR – a steam methane reformer. This pours CO2 into the air for the sake of extracting the hydrogen from the natural gas.

The second method, solid state ammonia synthesis, is at the benchtop phase and needs to be taken to a pilot plant next. The inventor, Dr. John Holbrook, one of the co-chairs of the Ammonia Fuel Network, has high hopes for this method, as it uses two thirds of the electricity and the capital costs are one quarter that of Haber Bosch, but no one has bitten the funding apple yet.

Earlier this year we proposed a grid connected anhydrous plant in northwest Iowa that would use its waste heat to drive a large greenhouse. It got shot down for two reasons – anhydrous ammonia was only $700/ton at the time and the area selected already had lots of jobs going unfilled.

Since that presentation ammonia prices have shot up to $1,200/ton and I got myself to New England and started getting acquainted with the area. As a result of this ... WE GOT FUNDED! One of the guys I met through Energize America 2020 met up with a New Yorker with deep pockets and a strong interest in local agriculture. We’re on to do a basic plan and some market research and then if they like it we get more money to move it down the field.

The source of electricity will be ... NIAGRA FALLS! I’ve been out hunting local waterfalls in Massachusetts and that is fun, but there is nothing like Niagra in this area.

I can’t get my head around the generating capacity but it’s lots and lots – check out the dams:

U.S. side

Canadian side

There is a huge distribution network for the power generated there. The attentive, bunny watching woozle is named Ozzie ...

There is a huge pumped hydro storage facility – there isn’t anything in this one to human scale, but I think the red tower is over ten stories tall. The impoundment for the pumped storage is an irregular polygon 2.3 by 1.7 miles at its largest dimensions. I've Googled and can't find an accurate number but I think that the body of water is about 1,900 acres and it's entirely man made, so it's deep.

There are a lot of abandoned factories in the area. That isn’t a green roof ... just a tree that took root as the place comes apart.

We’ve been checking around and we’ve found a couple of places that are near air separation plants (need nitrogen as well as hydrogen for making ammonia), they’ve got rail access, and there are high voltage power lines that used to feed factories which are now standing idle.

If this moves forward one of those sites will get selected and we’ll see a 50,000 ton per year or larger anhydrous ammonia facility, the waste heat will be directed to a wood pellet manufacturing operation, then the left over heat from that will move on to feed a greenhouse operation.

I’m beyond excited about the way this is falling together – my health stuff gets resolved so I can really go at this stuff, Obama gets the nomination and starts mopping the floor with McCain, and people get in the mood to start writing checks for the stuff we’ve been proposing – life is GOOD!