The Red River Valley Research Corridor plays an important part in our state economy.  There are around three business incubators in the corridor associated with University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University.  NDSU’s research and technology park has some very cutting edge things going on, and UND has a great aerospace program. 

Seymour is right to spotlight the Red River Valley Research Corridor and those scheduled to speak at this conference.  Like the Bakken oil formation and the energy corridor on the west side of North Dakota, the research corridor on the east side of the state has a lot to offer the entire nation.  

Getting that information to the rest of the country is key to interesting investors in what ND has to offer.

I especially appreciated these comments from the post:

A majority of my conversation with Michael was focused on the unbelievably bright economic future North Dakota has and how that will transform the state’s citizens. In a time of uncertainty for the U.S. economy with the sub-prime housing mess and skyrocketing commodities such as oil and wheat, the only downside for North Dakota is its chilly winters. Just about everything else in the state will benefit greatly due to the rise in oil and food prices. Michael shared his love for all the different types of energy our state has the potential to produce and pictures North Dakota becoming the “Dubai of North America.” In case you didn’t know, North Dakota is very rich in agriculture, coal, oil and wind. Michael Marcil spent roughly 10 years in the dot com industry with his hand in a few projects like food.com and many, many more. Through consulting, he built up his management and development company extremely fast. So fast, that The Marcil Group has grown over 800% in three years. Not only that, but the company has been in positive cash flow every quarter since inception. It takes a man with a grand vision to grow and expand a company that fast. I have no reason to believe there is any slowing down in his future. The sky is the limit.

With regards to the chilly winters, I just have to say people should come in August.  It seems like we get about two weeks of extremely hot temperature that compensate for the roughly two weeks of very icy temperature we get in January/February.  Our weather here is more of a pendulum situation than a static cold spell. 

Granted, that’s all a perception thing.  But back to the post:  with our wind potential, coal and oil production–including the Bakken formation–some people are beginning to look at North Dakota as the Dubai of North America.  That could be a very good thing for everyone.  Regardless of the winters.

One of the best of the articles I reviewed yesterday came from Energy and Capital.  It’s full of facts and figures that demonstrate what the Bakken formation is all about.

It’s about boosting our oil reserve by ten times–and all within our own nation.  For ND, it means a tremendous economic burst as well as a sure way to help provide domestic fuel for the rest of the nation.  Who can complain?

Inventor Shawn Frayne is the CEO of Humdinger Wind Energy LLC and creator of the windbelt technology. In this video, Frayne explains how windbelts can be economical for generating small-scale power (sub-100 watts).  These windbelts could be very cost-effective (think $10 per generator).  Although they don’t put out much power, I picture fields of these things scattered through backyards across the nation.

Imagine what a peel-and-stick windbelt could do for someplace like the clean rooms at North Dakota State University.

Frayne said this next year Humdinger will be looking at scaling up the windbelts to see if they’re still economical when they’re large enough to produce kilowatts of energy.  He sees the windbelt technology as a design revolution for the wind energy industry.

 I’ve never heard of homeshoring before today, but it makes sense.  Why outsource out of the country when there are people here in our own nation who are willing to do the jobs from home?  The technology to make it happen is available.  And there’s something really satisfying about knowing North Dakotans are involved in this. 

Information technology is a growing industry in North Dakota.  IT careers range from jobs with the Midwest Telemark International centers sprinkled across the state to robotics engineers working at manufacturing companies like Bobcat.  

The nanotechnology and biotechnology research being performed at NDSU amazes me.  I can see why the university would be a good research partner. 

From the press release:

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, Chief Mentor of I2IT, said, “it’s a great honor to have such research-oriented collaboration especially in the area of Nano-technology, Robotics, Biotechnology, Embedded systems, VLSI, telecommunication and Computer Science”. He further added, “There is a need for the students exchange at master and research level”

I’m looking forward to learning more about the International Institute of Information Technology.  At first glance, such a partnership can only be a good thing for both parties.

NDSU president Joseph A. Chapman and other NDSU delegates were there for the signing.  More information here. 

A new project in North Dakota’s coal country will use dryers to refine lignite and cut down on pollution.

Great American Energy is investing $20 million in a plant that aims to enhance the coal mined near Underwood. Construction on the building is under way, and officials hope to make the refined coal available in 2009.

The company is a joint venture between Great River Energy, which owns the Coal Creek Station power plant, and North American Coal Corp., which runs the Falkirk Mining Co.

Board member David Farnsworth said eight coal dryers, powered by waste heat from the power plant, will be in a building near Coal Creek. The process of refining the coal is called beneficiation.

Farnsworth said the dryers can remove 25 percent of the moisture from the coal, allowing it to burn better. The beneficiation also takes out 20 percent of the mercury and at least 20 percent of the sulfur, which means reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions, power plant officials said.

The article states that Coal Creek station currently has a coal dryer that can dry about 75 tons of coal per hour.  The plant expects to dry more coal than it can use and sell excess dried coal to other coal-fired power plants.

It’s a step in the right direction, and it’s a direction that apparently all of North Dakota is heading.  Clear back in October, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, announced an award of $67 million to the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership led by the EERC in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 

North Dakota is one of nine states that participate in the program along with three Canadian provinces.  The partnership’s goal is to find ways to sequester carbon from coal and other fossil fuels so that when they’re burned, they don’t release greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. 

North Dakota’s Basin Electric currently has the largest carbon sequestration project in the world.  It’s Dakota Gasification Company captures some CO2 and ships it to Canada, where it’s used to recover oil.

More than 30 million tons of coal mined in North Dakota each year.  With its vast coal and oil reserves, it makes sense that North Dakota continues to work on making them environmentally friendly while building renewable energy resources at the same time.

Crosby is near the Canadian border in the northeast corner of the state.  It’s home to SEO Precision, Inc., a company that makes high-tech mirrors for defense programs like Star Wars.

For more information on businesses and life in Crosby, visit the Crosby homepage here.  

A Bismarck Tribune article written by Crystal Reid details Bismarck-Mandan’s attempts to bring in server farms that could this back-up data.  BTINet in Bismarck is one.  From the article:

The fact that North Dakota is so removed from major business hubs comes with the advantage that it’s also removed from major natural disasters and other threats. Hurricanes on the coast, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and other natural disasters on the coasts presented concerns about where back-up data was stored, both Stafford and Staiger said. Consequentially, companies began to realize that distance should be put between primary and back-up data systems, which is what’s driving the scattering of server locations all over the nation.

“What once was, we’re too remote to be considered, actually becomes a benefit,”Stafford said. “Our remote location, because we’re away from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes … we have a lot of these coastal places saying we’re absolutely perfect.”

Other advantages:the bricks and mortar of a building holding servers will cost less than real estate in larger cities, utility prices and availability are on par for these small-to-mid-range facilities, and the workforce is educated and honest, Staiger said.

These server facilities would bring in higher-paying jobs, averaging somewhere in the $50,000 to $65,000 range, Staiger said.

Data storage is one more thing North Dakota has to offer the world!