$125M Fertilizer Loan Fund Split into Two North Dakota Projects Pending Industry Commission OK – InForum

BISMARCK — State officials voted Tuesday to split a $125 million forgivable loan into two projects aimed at increasing fertilizer supply to North Dakota farmers.

The Office of Clean and Sustainable Energy voted Tuesday, Jan. 23, to award $75 million to the Prairie Horizons Energy Solutions project and $50 million to the NextEra Energy Resources project near Spiritwood.

The North Dakota Industrial Commission must give final approval to the plan. If either project chooses not to accept the loan, the entire loan amount will be provided to the other project.

After the completion of the project, the loan amount will be forgiven and the loan will be converted into a grant.

The Legislature approved the loan funds during a special session in October as a way to revitalize North Dakota’s agricultural industry. The bill specifies that fertilizer production facilities must use hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water.

Fertilizer is a major expense for farmers who grow corn and wheat. North Dakota is at the end of the line for fertilizer supplies, which are primarily imported from other countries. Global conflicts, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more recently the Red Sea transportation disruption, have caused price fluctuations in the fertilizer market.

The Prairie Horizon proposal is a $2.2 billion project. NextEra’s project is his $1.3 billion.

Prairie Horizon is a partnership between Marathon Petroleum and Canadian pipeline company TC Energy.

In Prairie Horizon’s presentation, Marathon’s Zach Taub emphasized that using a combination of green and conventional energy will make the project “low-carbon and cost-competitive.”

It would be located near Dickinson, where Marathon already has a renewable diesel fuel facility and is collaborating with the North Dakota Energy and Environmental Resources Center on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Hydrogen Hub project.

“We are in the early stages of the opportunity, but we see great potential in the strategic positioning of this project,” Taub said.

A presentation by NextEra Energy Resources’ Garrett Goldfinger said the location, east of Jamestown and near Spiritwood Energy Park, is in the eastern part of the state, home to some of North Dakota’s prime agricultural land, and some distance from the state’s existing fertilizer plants. He emphasized that it is advantageous because there are many , at the Dakota Gasification Plant near Beulah.

The site also required rail and truck transportation, water from the Stutsman County Rural Water District, and access to the electrical grid.

NextEra is primarily a wind energy company and has completed several projects in North Dakota. Goldfinger said a side benefit of the fertilizer project is that production can be reduced in small increments to feed power into the grid during times of peak demand.

Goldfinger responded to a question about the need for hydrogen storage, saying NextEra’s process does not rely on hydrogen storage.

Prairie Horizon’s proposal received a higher score than NextEra in the Clean and Sustainable Energy Agency’s review, which included factors such as independent reviewers and financing.

Both projects will focus on ammonia production, at least initially, but could later expand to urea, which has become increasingly popular among North Dakota farmers.

This article was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com