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Spiritwood Station is located approximately one mile south of Spiritwood, North Dakota, on a 100-acre site adjacent to Cargill Malt. The plant itself resides on approximately 10 acres. Learn how you could purchase steam from Spiritwood Station.

Spiritwood Station Great River Energy’s Spiritwood Station is the first of its kind in the state. When the plant goes online in 2012 it will generate two primary products: Electricity Steam The plant will have the capacity to generate up to 76 megawatts (MW) of baseload electricity and up to 23 MW of peaking electricity for the regional energy market. It also will supply up to 200,000 pounds of steam per hour to the Cargill Malt plant nearby. Local electric service provider Ottertail Power will supply electricity to the Cargill Malt plant. View project fact sheet  » View applications and reports »

Important benefits

Construction of Spiritwood Station began in mid-October 2007. When the plant begins operating, it will provide a number of important benefits. It will:

• Create approximately 400 construction jobs and 43 operating jobs: 24 direct jobs at the combined heat and power plant, and 19 indirect jobs for transportation of the beneficiated lignite from Underwood to the plant.
• Provide competitively-priced electricity for the region.
• Positively impact the agricultural industry by providing steam to operate Cargill Malt, which uses barley.
• Support research and development efforts (See Biomass study below.)

Highly efficient

Combined heat and power plants such as Spiritwood Station are highly energy efficient because they make use of the energy in the steam which, at most plants, is released to cooling towers. Spiritwood Station will send some of the steam produced at the plant to Cargill Malt for use in its production processes. Some interesting facts:

• Most conventional coal-based power plants are 30 to 35 percent efficient; Spiritwood Station will be 40 to 66 percent efficient depending on the amount of steam provided to the site partners.
• Plant efficiency will be increased to 40 percent by sending steam to Cargill Malt.
• If a second steam host could help the plant achieve nearly double its efficiency, to 66 percent.

Quality fuel source

Spiritwood Station’s fuel source will be lignite, which will be converted to a higher-efficiency fuel using innovative technologies. The lignite will be dried and refined at Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station near Underwood, ND. About 610,000 tons per year will be shipped to Spiritwood Station. The dried and refined coal is referred to as DryFineTM and has the following benefits:

• A higher BTU value per pound, so the plant burns less fuel
• Reduced emissions
• Lower transportation costs
• Lower maintenance costs

Technology that controls emissions

In addition to utilizing beneficiated lignite, Spiritwood Station will use Best Available Control Technologies to control emissions. State-of-the-art technologies will make Spiritwood Station one of the cleanest coal-based power plants in the world.

Water source

The primary sources of water for the Spiritwood Station will be wastewater from the Cargill Malt plant and water from the City of Jamestown and Stutsman Rural Water District.

Proposed cellulosic biorefinery

Great River Energy and Inbicon A/S, cellulosic biorefinery technology subsidiary of Danish Utility DONG Energy, are working together to develop and build a cellulosic biorefinery, Dakota Spirit AgEnergy LLC. The biorefinery will be located adjacent the Spiritwood Station. A cellulosic biorefinery converts biomass (proposed wheat straw or cornstover) into a variety of higher value energy products including cellulosic ethanol, C5 molasses and purified lignin pellets (solid fuel).

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Biomass study

Great River Energy and project participants — The Great Plains Institute, the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, the North Dakota Farmers Union and the North Dakota Natural Resources Trust — studied the feasibility of utilizing biomass at Spiritwood Station through a research and development grant from the North Dakota Renewable Energy Council. Study results highlight the technical feasibility and economics of supplying biomass to the facility from various sources.

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