What is in this article?:
- Co-op supplies biomass crops for electric generator
- A national model
A national model
Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO) says that Show Me Energy “has established itself as a national model in the area of renewable energy development, a model that should be encouraged by the federal government and eventually replicated throughout the American countryside.”
This business model allows for profits to be redistributed to members so they can reinvest in their local communities in the form of equipment and so on. “The money is not going to Wall Street mutual funds,” Flick says.
Will more cooperatives begin providing biomass feedstocks to power plants and cellulosic ethanol facilities? Flick thinks more entrepreneurial co-ops will get involved but says they need leaders who are passionate about renewable energy and are willing to work hard. He adds that cellulosic ethanol technology is still in its infancy. “That’s why we started with power generation,” he says.
Show Me Energy Cooperative received a USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) to evaluate a state-of-the-art modular syngas technology that will serve as a model for building a future 20-MW power/liquid fuels plant on site.