Nearly 100 renewable energy proposals were reviewed during the current funding cycle. In previous cycles, more than $52 million has been awarded for renewable energy research and renewable energy production. Currently, more than 23 megawatts of renewable energy are under development from fund initiatives.

"Innovative and new renewable technologies, such as solar and biomass, have trouble competing with conventional energy in the marketplace," said Scott Wilensky, Xcel Energy acting vice president of regulatory and government affairs. "The fund's objective is to remove barriers to entry of new renewable energy technologies by funding research on emerging technologies and supporting development of renewable energy projects."

Money for the Renewable Development Fund, which was created in 1999, comes from Xcel Energy customers. Each year the company transfers $16 million to the fund in accordance with state statute. Owners of energy production projects sell the energy to Xcel Energy or use the energy themselves. All selected projects are subject to final approval by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

"The Renewable Development Fund provides research support for marketable advancement of innovative renewable energy and environmental technologies that will benefit Minnesota customers as well as promote renewable energy within the region, nationally, and worldwide," said Bill Grant, associate executive director, Izaak Walton League, and Renewable Development Fund advisory board member.

"This round of grants appropriately focuses on the goal of making solar and biomass resources more cost-effectively available for Xcel Energy customers, which is entirely consistent with our state energy policy goals," said Mike Bull, assistant commissioner of renewable development and advanced technologies, Minnesota Department of Commerce, and Renewable Development Fund advisory board member.

Energy Production Projects (locations denote project site):

- American Crystal Sugar Co., Moorhead, Minn., to design, develop and construct a 3-megawatt electricity cogeneration plant utilizing methane, which currently is produced as a result of sugar beet processing. The cogeneration facility will be integrated with the company's current biogas collection system, $2 million.

- Freenerg, Minneapolis, to demonstrate the commercial viability of providing solar-generated electricity for homes based on a leasing and service package of rooftop solar panels connected to the grid. The program will use 50 solar generating systems at 5.6 kilowatts each, $1,488,922.

- City of Minneapolis and EyeOn Energy Ltd., Minneapolis, will install up to 600 kilowatts in direct current of photovoltaic PV panels on the roof of the city's Currie Equipment Facility. The system is projected to include at least 3,000, 200-watt panels, $2 million.

- Merrick Inc., Vadnais Heights, Minn., to connect a 100-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array capable of generating 125,000 kilowatt-hours annually to an existing geothermal heating and cooling system, $735,000.

- Outland Renewable Energy LLC, Chaska, Minn., to co-locate a 2-megawatt solar power plant in Cottonwood County in southwestern Minnesota with its 50-megawatt wind energy production facility currently being developed, $2 million.

Research and development projects (locations denote research site):

- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D., to test and develop a novel biotechnology additive to convert biomass into biogas, $970,558.

- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, to evaluate and address economic and technical issues related to biomass integrated gasification combined cycle technology in electricity generation at ethanol-producing plants, $819,159.

- Coaltec Energy USA Inc., Carterville, Ill., to prove the feasibility of biomass gasification (using turkey manure and agricultural waste) in a commercial turkey farm setting to generate electricity and heat, $1 million.

- University of Minnesota, Morris, Minn., to provide biomass fuel stock suppliers with accurate guidelines for management of biomass harvesting and maintenance of soil quality, $979,082.

- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, to develop an efficient system for the production, pre-processing and delivery of biomass feedstock for energy production that minimizes feedstock cost for energy facilities, while maximizing landowner income and the environmental benefits of biomass production, $992,989.

- Community Power Corp., Littleton, Colo., to adapt current proven modular biopower technology to produce and demonstrate a biomass/natural gas hybrid (dual fuel) power generation system. The system will integrate with on-site electrical and thermal loads to deliver electricity and heat, $999,926.

- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D., to demonstrate the performance of a mobile integrated indirect wet biomass liquefaction system gasifier at one-fourth commercial scale, $999,065.

- Minnesota Valley Alfalfa Producers, Raymond, Minn., to research the application of a new energy-efficient technology to process a variety of biomass feedstock to expand the resource options for biomass energy production, $1 million..

- Bepex International LLC, Minneapolis, to examine, evaluate and reduce the capital and operating costs of utilizing a thermo-chemical biomass pretreatment regime, called "torrefaction." Biomass used will be corn stover with the resulting product densified into briquettes for electricity generation, $924,671.

- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D., to develop an economical biomass power system by combining previous bench scale work in thermally integrated gasification systems with developmental work on a low-Btu gas turbine, $999,728.

- Northern Plains Power Technology, Brookings, S.D., to make specific recommendations for changes to codes, standards and test procedures to enable the use of harmonic-based loss of mains detection, $493,608. InterPhases Research, West Lake Village, Calif., to develop a photovoltaic technology that offers potential for extremely low cost and high volume production of thin-film, flexible cell modules, $1 million.

- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, to develop a new paradigm for controlling the microstructure of thin-film silicon, which will improve stability, efficiency and lower the cost of nanocrystal silicon photovoltaic cells, $732,032.

- SarTec Corp., Anoka, Minn., to use solar energy, photosynthesis and rapid growth algae to capture carbon dioxide from flue gas and produce lipids that can be transformed into the renewable biodiesel fuel, $350,000.

- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in sponsorship with Prairie Island Indian Community, to develop and test a high resolution Virtual Wind Simulator for accurate prediction of local wind and turbulence with the purpose of optimizing the turbine siting design of wind energy projects, $999,999.

- Xcel Energy, Minneapolis, to test the hypothesis that battery storage technology will enable effective storage of wind energy, and therefore enable "firming" of wind energy to reduce impact from the variability and limited predictability of wind generation resources, $1 million.

- West Central Telephone Association, Sebeka, Minn., to determine the ideal system configurations and specifications to use renewable energy solutions for its landline telephone switching nodes by testing five different small wind/solar hybrid back-up power systems, $137,000.

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