The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Planting for the future
Alternative energy projects taking root at Proving Grounds
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2008
Denny Huehl wheels his tractor around the field, in the thin shadow of a steel spire that looks a lot like an antenna tower, but isn't.
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And it's not his own land on which the Freedom Township farmer is planting dozens of acres of soybeans.
But as unlikely as it sounds, the two are actually related.
This is the second year that Denny's farm, Huehl Acres, agreed to be part of a Chrysler Corp. research project into alternative energy at the Chrysler Proving Grounds south of Chelsea.
On part of the acreage where the Huehls are planting, Washtenaw County and the University of Michigan have installed a tower with a number of meteorological sensors to determine if the Proving Grounds would be a good site to place wind turbines to generate clean electricity.
"One of the company's main initiatives is to 'go green,'" said Bill Anderson, Chrysler Proving Grounds Facilities Project Manager.
The renewable energy research has shown Anderson a piece of another world outside the automotive industry.
"This is my project, and I've enjoyed being part of this," he said May 29 as he watched the tractor roll across the dry, dusty field. "The things I've seen, I've never known before."
Besides soybeans, Chrysler is looking at other crops that can be used for fuel.
The only thing is, which crop that will be is still up in the air instead of in the ground.
The original plan called for that to be switchgrass, but found it to be impractical.
"We're looking at other crops, because switchgrass doesn't grow well in this climate," Anderson said.
"Then you have to find a place to process it into fuel, and that has a bearing on what we choose to plant," he added. "No place processes switchgrass around here."
A meeting took place Monday at which various alternative crops were discussed, but many, like and camelina, canola and ditropa, had the same drawbacks, Anderson said: they don't grow well here, or there's no processing facility available.
One crop showed great promise, however - pennycress.
"Pennycress is a weed-like plant (that) has a high oil content," Anderson said. "You plant it in September and harvest it in the spring."
Although growing corn for ethanol has been standard procedure for the past several years, recent environmental and food supply concerns have made corn fall from favor.
"Everybody's down on corn for ethanol at this point, but that's what's working," Huehl said.
"Everything else is kind of in the experimental stage right now."
Like corn that is processed into ethanol, soybeans can be processed into a form of diesel fuel — and with diesel prices soaring past gasoline prices for the first time in history, scientific research into the best way to make the conversion is on the front burner.
Part of the process is for Chrysler to learn lessons that farmers face every year with every crop.
"Last year we got a late start (planting the beans), and then it was so dry that it didn't do well," Anderson recalled.
"We only had 40 acres, and only about 25 percent of that sprouted."
Huehl said he and his brother Jerry, his partner in Huehl Acres, look at the Proving Grounds pretty much "like any other field" that they rent from other landowners to raise a crop.
"Basically we get free ground out of the deal, and we'll get the beans when we harvest," Denny said.
"It's not real good ground to begin with; it's been bulldozed over the years and a lot of it is in 2- or 3-acre plots, so you wouldn't pay a lot for it anyway."
Because it is within the perimeter of the high-security Proving Grounds, "We did have to meet extra liability and other requirements," Huehl added.
Anderson said that between the soybeans, the yet-unnamed second crop and the wind tower experiment, the car company is trying to be sensitive to opinion about renewable energy research.
"These crops are less costly, more environmentally friendly alternatives to mowing acres of grass," Anderson said.
"We have to keep our ear to the ground about the public perception," he said.
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