Developers bring more alternative energy, jobs to Missouri (By Catherine Wolf, KWMU)Missouri has plenty of room for expanding its use of alternative energy. The state is second to last in the country for using renewables to generate electricity, and more than 80% of its power comes from coal. Mark Templeton directs the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. He said Missouri is well-positioned to reverse those numbers."Missouri has opportunity in wind. It has opportunity in solar. I think it will have great opportunity in biomass. We need to be looking at all of these."Missouri's wind farmsmight be the state's most visible source of renewable energy. The state has three in its northwest corner, all owned by Wind Capital Group. Company President Tom Carnahan said each generates enough power for about 20,000 homes."Folks thought there wasn't any wind in Missouri, and that's what wind developers thought. But as it turns out those winds from Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa don't realize there's a state border there."At least two other companies are planning to compete for a portion of Missouri's wind business. Frank Costanza is the vice president of Kansas-based TradeWind Energy. He said the company decided to build here because Missouri is ranked the 20th windiest state."What drives all development of wind projects is the quality of the wind. The higher the quality of the wind, the harder and more consistently it blows, the lower the energy prices that we can deliver our energy to the grid."turbineWith one powerful river boarding Missouri on the east and another running through it, energy developers are also investing in hydropower. Free Flow Power of out Massachusetts wants to install underwater turbines (pictured) along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Project Development Director John Guidroz said steady currents could provide enough energy to power up to one million homes each year."It's dipatchable, it's baseload. The river flows 24 hours a day. There are certainly seasonal variations but the upside of that is it's very predictable."Free Flow is still researching its river projects and will probably have to wait several years for final federal approval.While some renewable energies are still being developed, others like solar power already have a foothold in Missouri. Dane Glueck is the president of Missouri Solar Living. The company helps homeowners and businesses buy solar panels and get permits to install them. Glueck said Missouri's solar future is promising because the state gets almost as much sun as Miami on a yearly basis."We actually get 92 percent of the useful sun energy Miami receives, so we certainly have more cloudy days but even on cloudy days we get solar energy that can be translated into usable energy here."Solar power hasn't been developed on a large scale in Missouri. Glueck said that's because fitting an average single-family home with panels runs around $16,000, which can be cost prohibitive for many. Glueck said extended tax credits, higher electric rates and concerns about climate change will stimulate more solar development in Missouri."This year and over this next 12 months is probably the turning point. And I think that's especially true for Missouri. The potential is huge here because it's not been something that's had a great awareness up until this past year or two."Farmers are also banking on the future of renewables. The Show Me Energy Cooperative in Centerview, near Missouri's western border, began manufacturing biopellets (pictured) made from materials like switchgrass and corn stalks last year. It plans to sell the pellets to utilities, which will burn them with coal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Kansas City Power and Light is test burning the pellets at its Sibley power plant, with what CEO Michael Chesser said are good results."We couldn't convert the whole plant at this stage, but if we continue to develop the technology and reduce t |