Renewables

On Thursday the Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JCEDO) held a panel discussion, sponsored by IMPA and NIPSCO, about renewable energy. The panel was moderated by an official from NIPSCO and was supposed to have four other members, but only two showed up. One was a commissioner from White County and the other a former commissioner from Warren County who now runs an organization called Hoosiers for Renewables.

The gentleman from NIPSCO said that generating with natural gas is now cheaper than generating with coal, in part because of combined-cycle power plants that use gas to run turbines and then capture some of the heat from the exhaust to make steam to generate additional power. (I had never heard of this technology, but you can find information about it on the Internet, for example here.)

He said that currently NIPSCO generates 71% of its power using coal, 25% with gas, and only 4% with renewables. NIPSCO's goal is to generate 65% with renewables, 25% with gas, and 10% from other sources in 2028. NIPSCO has signed agreements with four large wind turbine projects that are not yet built: Jordan Creek in Warren County, Rosewater and Crossroads in White County, and Roaming Bison in Montgomery County.

Steve Burton, a White County commissioner, noted that White County currently has 600 megawatts of wind generation capacity and that the two planned wind farms will lift that to a gigawatt. He noted tax payments from the wind farms as a major benefit from the projects. He also stated that desires of the landowners were the reason that White County has its windmills in rows rather than the scattered siting that some of the Benton County wind farms have.

JCEDO has added a new employee, an economic development coordinator. Next week it will finalize the purchase of a building for new office space. (It is the building that until recently had the music store.)

Other relocations from the fire: Serenity Health and Wellness is moving to a location on Vine Street and will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony on February 13. I heard through the grapevine that Work One will move to the former laundry on Drexel Drive. And I was happy to discover that Cliff Robinson moved his law office out of the building that burned two weeks before the fire. He is now located with Todd Sammons.

Genova has permanently closed its Rensselaer plant. 89 employees are affected. The company has defaulted on its loans.

The Jasper County Historical Society is looking forward to becoming the Helenor Alter Davisson interpretative center. She was the first woman ordained in the American Methodist Church. Read about her here.

 Demolition continues at the Town Mall site. The snow added contrast. It also resulted in another e-learning day for the local schools.

 The debris is being loaded into trucks and taken to a landfill.

Saint Joseph's College has released a three-year plan. It wants to partner with other colleges to offer college courses. It cannot do that on its own because it surrendered is accreditation when it closed. It hopes to start with junior-college courses in the fall of 2021 and expand offerings to four-year courses in the fall of 2023. It hopes to be able to apply for Accreditation Eligibility Status in Spring 2024. Simultaneously it will offer non-degree professional certification. It is currently trying to find students for Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA), Electrocardiogram (CET), and Phlebotomy (CPT) certifications.