Ethanol-Fired Power Plant Proposed For Wisconsin

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). A group of investors from Chicago and Wisconsin are looking into constructing the first of its kind ethanol-fired power plant in Brokaw, Wisconsin.

Local land developer Doug Weinkauf of Brokaw and development partner Lyon Development LLC (Chicago, Illinois) are seeking investors and performing interconnection and transmission service studies to see if it is feasible to connect the plant to the American Transmission Company's high-voltage transmission grid.

The plan is to construct a 99-megawatt power plant fueled by corn grown from area farmers. A 20 million gallon per year fuel ethanol plant will be built at the site to process and convert some 7.5 million bushels of corn into the renewable fuel. A natural gas pipeline will also be used to provide a secondary fuel for the plant.

Early estimates on the cost of such a project are in the $120 million range.

If the money is raised and the application to connect to the local gird is approved, the Brokaw Ridge Renewable Energy Center could begin construction by the summer of 2003 and operational by October of 2004.

The project will also have some financial feasibility to prove if the plant wants to compete with the local cost of electricity. Wisconsin Public Service rates are running at about 7 cents per kilowatt-hour and projections for the cost of electricity from the ethanol-fired plant are at 11 to 12 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The developers are also banking on marketing the electricity to the wholesale energy market and selling "Renewable Energy Credits" to companies that are trying to meet the federal governments minimum renewable energy requirements.