Cole Gustafson, Extension biofuels economist, is leading a six-state effort to develop a series of Webcasts with national leaders in the wind energy industry. The first presentation is Friday, Feb. 13. He also is scheduled to deliver a train-the-trainer Webcast on the economics of wind energy to Extension educators and rural community developers on Feb. 27.

Gustafson is seeking comments and suggestions on several biofuels and wind energy projects.

He is working on a biofuel project that was started with a grant from the Great Plains Institute. The project’s goal is to develop a tool that producers surrounding the new Spiritwood project can use to evaluate the profitability of supplying biomass to the new combined heat and power facility.

In a related project, Gustafson is working to develop a statewide inventory of biomass, including crop, pasture, urban waste and agricultural processing residual materials.

He also is developing a preliminary assessment of developing a sugar beet-to-biofuel industry in the state. The goal is to identify five regional production areas across the state, and then determine optimal sugar beet processing and transporting methods to reduce biofuel production costs.

To help potential wind energy investors evaluate the profitability of different lease arrangements and systems, he is developing a wind calculator. It is a spreadsheet that calculates potential returns, operating expenses and investment costs associated with a new project.

For more information, contact Gustafson at 1-7096, or cole.gustafson@ndsu.edu.