Teaching Teachers About Energy

By CnAgri2012-09-20 19:48:43 Print

Dozens of teachers visited power plants and a coal gasification facility owned by three electric cooperatives this summer to learn more about the role lignite coal plays in providing power to dozens of distribution co-ops.

"We draw teachers not only from North Dakota but also Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota," said Renee Walz, the Lignite Energy Council's director of member services and education.

The Bismarck-based industry association has used the "North Dakota Energy Trail" for its annual lignite education seminar every summer since 1985. The 138 science, economics and social studies teachers who attended the four-day summer program are among more than 2,800 who have completed the classroom and field curriculum over the past 27 years.

"Teachers get continuing education credit for attending the program," said Daryl Hill, Basin Electric Power Cooperative's supervisor of media relations and communications.

"In North Dakota there are seven large power plants within about a 50-mile radius, so that makes the area a good place to learn about the technology," he continued.

Stops on the tour included the Bismarck-based G&T's Great Plains Synfuels Plant, northwest of Beulah, N.D., and its Antelope Valley Station, where co-ops have invested more than $319 million in environmental controls.

"People need to see that technology to really understand that we are doing so much to use coal to produce electricity while maintaining good environmental stewardship," said Steve Van Dyke, the council's vice president of communications.

Other G&T-owned plants on the tour have invested in similar environmental controls. Maple Grove, Minn.-based Great River Energy's Coal Creek Station installed equipment designed to reduce the moisture content of lignite fuel, improving its efficiency. The teachers also visited Grand Forks-based Minnkota Power Cooperative's coal-based Milton R. Young Station.

North American Coal Corp.'s Freedom Mine supplies 15 million tons of lignite annually to the synfuels plant and two Basin Electric generating stations.

Teachers who visited the site learned about site reclamation and the steps the company takes to restore the land once mining operations are completed, said Jerolyn Wallach, a science teacher from Halliday, N.D. "They're planning how to put it back before they even start digging it out."