Southeast Indiana renewable energy project looks to be template for rural adoption
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When Sister Claire Whalen was approached about working on a clean energy project centered on her town of about 600 people in Oldenburg, it was one she couldn’t pass up.
The project was one she had been working to bring to her community for years, so she came out of retirement for the third time after being a teacher for most of her career. Expanding the use of renewable energy and curbing climate change is a passion of Whalen’s — it is one with a foundation in her Franciscan values and she feels is a responsibility.
“What do I see for the future? If we don’t have [renewable energy], there won’t be a future,” she said. “As easy as that.”
The renewable energy project aims to expand clean energy opportunities in Franklin, Ripley and Decatur counties after an Indiana University startup motivated to increase the affordable adoption of renewable energy was the recipient of a $100,000 federal grant seeking to expand such projects in rural counties.
The primary goal of the project is to create a template for affordable renewable energy installation in rural areas. The organizers will use a combination of solar and other sources to establish a package that is both replicable and economically feasible.
“The hope is from the federal government on down that we can ignite interest in renewable energy within rural communities,” IU professor Peter Schubert said. He leads the startup, Green Fortress Engineering, and is the director of the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy at IUPUI.
The project team will be meeting with community stakeholders, partners and residents in late October to hear about what they want to see out of the project to which they will look at how to tailor the project to be sustainable after they finish.
Behind the project
Green Fortress was created in 2016 by the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office to bring technology in biomass and hydrogen to market and to use scientific community engagement and policy work to advance technology use. Schubert’s name is on nine patents for biomass-to-hydrogen and solid-state hydrogen storage as either the inventor or co-inventor, a feat that is the basis for Green Fortress.
Schubert met Sister Claire Whalen at a festival in Oldenburg when they found an instant connection talking about renewable energy. Whalen, who was honored as a 2019 Hoosier Resilience Hero by the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, was working a booth for their volunteer solar energy study group at the festival. When federal dollars were designated to help rural communities, Schubert looked to her.
“It seemed to me to be an opportunity to really bring awareness to our rural areas the importance of climate change and the importance of everybody taking their responsibility to do something as a solution to that,” Whalen said. “One of the biggest solutions is to move away from fossil fuel and onto clean energy.”
They organized a campaign called Energy Awareness: Rural Towns & Homes, or EARTH, where they and local organizations will foster and support multiple renewable energy projects over 10 months in the three southeastern counties.
They then participated in a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored and HeroX-administered program, called the Energizing Rural Communities prize, which handed out 67 grant awards to local projects looking to increase renewable energy projects in areas prone to not see that development: rural areas. Green Fortress was the only winner based in Indiana.
Mike Cambron, who has worked on resilience and emissions inventory with Whalen over the last decade, and Kathryn Lisinicchia, resiliency coordinator for Earth Charter Indiana, are also on the leadership team.
“If we can create an environment where renewable energy topics are acceptable in rural communities, where they’re somewhat lagging than more urban communities, that creates an environment where the hydrogen and biomass technologies we’re developing, can find a welcome home,” Schubert said. “And so we can broaden and accelerate the use of renewable energy across all levels of society.”
The company has made strides in a burgeoning energy industry. Green Fortress was applauded at the 2023 RENMAD H2 USA: Hydrogen Conference in Las Vegas after its system produced hydrogen energy at 78 cents per kilogram and stored hydrogen at $7.72 per kilowatt-hour using catalytically modified porous silicon.
Green Fortress is also working on using outer space resources for new materials and technology.
Replicable and affordable
The primary goal for the project is for it to not be the only one. Leaders say they want this to be an example for the region that clean energy is not just for major cities but can be adapted in rural areas with fewer resources and cash on hand.
“So what we’re trying to accomplish is to crack the nut on affordable, renewable energy in rural communities,” Schubert said. “Our project will look at a number of different facilities that are large enough in size to be of interest to many rural communities.”
They want to do their calculations in the open, Schubert said, and share their decision-making, data and what they learned to make it easier for whoever does it next. He said they want to calm skepticism of renewable energy by showing it can be reliable and affordable while also addressing climate and pollution issues. They want to provide this knowledge at no cost to industry leaders and the public to reduce barriers and show the adaptability of their work.
“If we can make it cheap enough, people will say I can save money,” he said. “And that’s something that everybody can salute.”
IU professor Peter Schubert talks about the project and his motivations for renewable energy in rural area and in general.
The EARTH campaign is looking into retrofitting a building at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg to be a clean energy demonstration center. Whalen said it works well since the sisters are both looking at downsizing their square feet as well as interested in investing in something they believe in. They’ve previously looked at switching their convent campus away from traditional electric, she said, but it was not economically feasible at the time.
“It was an opportunity for me to continue doing something to promote renewable energy, but also possibly having our own convent benefit from that as well,” she said. “I couldn’t resist the opportunity.”
Schubert said they are looking at four or five other properties as well to see which has the potential to be best replicable in the region.
Student interns will also be hired with the prize money to complete techno-economic analysis and cost of ownership models as well as prepare them with industry knowledge. Schubert said their calculations and data will be used to figure out what makes sense for adopters.
When talking about the impact these large investments could have on rural towns, Whalen said they have only a few, part-time elected officials who don’t have the bandwidth to also be grant-writers. Oldenburg doesn’t have the resources major cities have at its disposal, she said.
Having a demonstration center will show how these technologies are achievable on their scale. The project is more than just a demonstration site, she said, because people will see what is possible and the resources that are available to them.
“This town could be a model for other small towns — how to move forward,” she said. “That appealed to me.”
Sister Claire Whalen talk about how their is a responsibility to protect the Earth and the opportunity with the project.
Leveling the clean energy divide
Whalen said there’s no time to waste on this effort. She had worked for not-for-profit Solarize Indiana the second time she un-retired and repeatedly asked her local officials to invest in renewable energy infrastructure.
Rural communities like her own have been on the fringes of seeing innovation implemented in their communities. She said this type of investment is a big step for the whole country because rural areas will be required to be a part of the conversation. The progress touted so often, she said, has not been distributed equally.
The future she hopes for Indiana is one where every building is energy efficient, Whalen said. The planet is home to all, and there is a responsibility to tend to it and preserve it, so future generations can enjoy the Earth hers did. It’s a future that’s nonpartisan, she said, and everyone can agree on.
“I’m a human, a human being who acknowledges my dependency upon earth’s resources and natural systems. I know that all creation is a gift from a loving God, for all of God’s creatures,” Whalen reads from what she calls her “passion document” that she shares with local leaders. “And I must use nature’s gifts wisely, so that others who come after me may be blessed with the same gifts.”