Wind is a clean and renewable source of power. Within the United States, wind energy experts consider the central and northern Great Plains as having the greatest available wind energy resource, yet this resource has remained largely undeveloped. The EERC is developing innovative technologies to extract and transmit power from the wind. The Plains Organization for Wind Energy Resources® (POWER®) provides a comprehensive program for wind in the region.
Areas of EERC Expertise
- Providing wind resource evaluations using online wind data
- Enhanced wind transmission such as wind forecast modeling, dynamic scheduling, and transmission through fertilizer and hydrogen production
- Innovative wind storage and hybrid technologies
- Credit trading and enhanced wind energy development
- Establishing a small wind turbine training center
Wind-to-Hydrogen in the Northern Great Plains
Converting wind energy from the northern Great Plains to hydrogen is a project under way, working to overcome obstacles with wind's intermittency and capacity constraints in the electrical grid. Basin Electric Power Cooperative and the EERC are working together with the U.S. Department of Energy to investigate, develop, and research hydrogen production from electrolysis using wind energy. Other partners in the project include Hydrogenics, Central Electric Power Cooperative, Verendrye Electric Cooperative, North Prairie Rural Water, and the North Dakota State University North Central Research Extension Center, which is located in Minot, ND.
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