Group touts sorghum as renewable energy crop
By LARRY MEYER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, February 6, 2010 10:15 PM PST
ONTARIO — While other regions of the state are involved in renewable energy through the establishment of windfarms, in Malheur County the interest is in products which can be grown and turned into renewable energy, bringing a new cash crop to farms in the county.
A group of local farmers will host a public meeting at 10 a.m. Monday at the Boulevard Grange to assess the level of interest in forming a grower-owned cooperative to produce high biomass sorghum.
“This crop has been proven not only to grow well here in our area, but to produce the yields necessary to make it profitable for the farmer,” Kurt Christensen, president of Renewable Ag Energy Inc., which is assisting the growers in the project, said. “The value of the crop will be enhanced with a processing facility constructed and owned by the co-op that will convert the sorghum into a compressed, burnable product.”
Christensen said his company has retained Randon Wilson to direct the organization and the financing of the co-op. Wilson directed in the organization of the Snake River Sugar Co-op, the growers group which bought out Amalgamated Sugar Co., and another growers co-op, United Onions USA Inc.
“The time is right for us to get involved in the energy market, and there are very few crops that can be grown in our area that will return a better net energy gain,” Christensen said. “The net energy gain is the difference between the energy expended to grow a crop and the energy gained from — in this case — burning the crop to produce electricity or heat.”
Another positive about this product is that the carbon dioxide that is released into the air was also removed from the air during growing season, Christensen said.
“This makes the process of co-generation of electricity greenhouse gas neutral,” Christensen said.
Renewable Ag Energy Inc. is a local company working with a team of experts in two main areas of renewable energy development, Solar PV generation and biomass production and generation.
Christensen said at least 3,000 acres would need to be committed to make the project feasible and they would initially focus on just growing one type of sorghum, but could spread to other types of sorghum or other crops.
