News Releases for April 2006
April 17, 2006
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Hoeven: EERC Breaks Ground for National Hydrogen Center of Excellence
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Gov. John Hoeven and Dr. Gerald Groenewold, along with the state’s congressional delegation and city and university officials, today broke ground for the UND Energy and Environmental Research Center’s (EERC) National Center for Hydrogen Technology.
The North Dakota Centers of Excellence Commission, the selection body for the Governor’s Centers of Excellence program, recommended that the EERC be awarded $2.5 million toward the building of a new $3 million facility for its National Center for Hydrogen Technology (NCHT). The city of Grand Forks has also awarded the EERC $500,000 to provide a total of $3 million. More than $8 million in matching funding for the Centers of Excellence grant will be used for research activities at the new center. The 15,000-square-foot NCHT facility is expected to create 100 new high-paying technical jobs and attract $50 million in research contracts in the short term.
“The EERC is a model for our Centers of Excellence concept, illustrating a successful partnership between business and research that results in high paying jobs and career opportunities for our citizens,” Hoeven said. “The new hydrogen technology Center of Excellence facility will generate those jobs and career opportunities by developing the products of the future.”
In addition to the state’s congressional delegation, Dr. Groenewold and Gov. Hoeven were joined by Grand Forks Mayor Michael Brown, East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss and North Dakota University System Chancellor Robert Potts.
EERC staff at the facility will focus on research, development, testing and commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Hoeven said the facility will directly produce 50 to 100 high-paying jobs, and an additional 50 to 100 jobs in the region as projects develop.
The 15,000-square-foot facility will feature a 30-foot-high demonstration/testing area, a staging area for vehicle demonstrations, a fuel cell testing area, a high-temperature materials lab, and individual labs for other hydrogen research and development activities. Schoen and Associates designed the facility.
The EERC was designated the National Center for Hydrogen Technology by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in November 2004 in recognition of over 50 years of hydrogen research involving fossil fuels and renewable energy. The EERC currently has more than $8 million in funding for hydrogen research, which includes $2.9 million from DOE, and is leveraged by numerous corporate partners. Private sector companies the EERC is partnering with include ePower, Kraus Global Inc., Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Phoenix Industries.
Hoeven has brought DOE and Department of Defense officials to tour the facility, including former Sec. of Energy Spencer Abraham, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Dr. Theodore Barna; and Senior Advisor Dr. William Harrison III of the Clean Fuels Initiative in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
So far, the Centers of Excellence program has awarded $18.9 million for projects across the state, which has leveraged nearly $70 million in private sector matching funds.
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