We hear a lot of talk about farm energy and for good reason. Agriculture is a tremendously effective means of storing solar energy in a wide variety of new carbon forms. Nebraska Renewable Energy Systems (NRES) is well underway in developing a renewable energy demonstration project on its off-grid farm in Lyons, Nebraska. Dubbed the Energy Farm, this project will display a wide variety of technologies that are suitable for farm and home energy production. This is not a white lab coat kind of research project; it is a functional application of renewable energy production and utilization in an agricultural environment.

The goal of the energy farm is to provide people an example of what such systems look like and how they operate. By seeing operating systems and equipment, people with renewable energy interests can better visualize how such a process could be integrated to their farm and home. The Energy Farm will not only illustrate the various opportunities that exist for energy production on the farm, it will also demonstrate the synergies that develop between these technologies when they are applied together. The farm energy 'closed loop' is very much alive and growing in Lyons, Nebraska.

NRES understands the synergies that were attempted many years ago and has taken those lessons; we arrive at a means of quantifying the inter-relationships between these various systems so people can apply the appropriate systems at the correct scale. Each application will be unique to the available resources and only utilize those portions of the energy system that are appropriate. This work is multi- faceted and I will only include a few of the systems we are developing here. Future work will include oil seed, ethanol, algae and fuel cells. We are determined to make the Energy Farm a first class facility for farm scale research and implementation.

If you are interested in partnering with NRES in any of these projects with research or support, please contact us.