Arrowhead Cooperative’s parent company Great River Energy (GRE) spent 437 million dollars building a ‘state-of-the-art’ coal burning power plant in North Dakota. Construction began in 2007 with an original cost estimate of 277 million dollars…oops! The “Spiritwood Station” project was encouraged by North Dakota’s political leaders to promote the state’s lignite coal mining industry.
In addition to power generation, the plant was to sell steam to a large malt plant owned by Cargill and a proposed new ethanol facility. As steel prices rose, both the financial crisis and housing recession hit. Construction costs increased, the demand for power dropped and in 2008 construction of the proposed ethanol plant was cancelled…oops again!
Due to those unexpected market forces, Great River Energy took the Spiritwood plant off-line soon after completion. GRE then budgeted 30 million dollars to cover the interest on bonds and to hire nine new employees to maintain Spiritwood Station through 2012-13 while it sat idle. Spiritwood eventually came into service in November of 2014.
Currently run as a combined heat and power plant, Spirtwood generates steam and electricity using up to 610,000 tons of lignite coal per year and supplementing with natural gas as needed. Because of the high water content of lignite coal, lignite is dried and then refined to a powder before use. This process is done at GRE’s Coal Creek Station and the resulting product is shipped by rail to Spiritwood for electric power generation and to supply steam to the adjacent Dakota Spirit ethanol bio-refinery.
Considering that well over a half billion dollars has been invested in building Spiritwood, Coal Creek Station and the Dakota Spirit bio-refinery in support North Dakota’s lignite coal industry, GRE will no doubt be burning fossil fuel well into the future.
That’s assuming of course that the continued use of fossil fuels will leave humankind with a future.
Bob LaMettry, Grand Marais
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