Startup Aims To Help US Farmers With Green H2 & Wind Power

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The global green hydrogen industry has been roller-coastering along an uncertain trajectory, its path littered with canceled projects and dashed hopes. Nevertheless, solutions are emerging. One of them is taking shape here in the US, with the aim of helping farmers replace expensive imported ammonia fertilizer with a domestic product made locally.

Trump’s War In Iran Is Giving Green Hydrogen A Crack At The Fertilizer Market

Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen pushed from water in electrolysis systems. Among other key industrial uses, green hydrogen can replace conventional hydrogen in the ammonia fertilizer widely used in the global agriculture industry. A form of nitrogen fertilizer, ammonia fertilizer has the chemical symbol NH3 (H for hydrogen and N for nitrogen).

There being no such thing as a free lunch, the high cost of electrolysis has prevented green hydrogen from competing against conventional hydrogen, which is sourced mainly from natural gas, with coal also playing a role in some regions (see more green H2 background here).

Now that US President Trump has launched a war against Iran, green hydrogen makes a more compelling financial case. That’s particularly so in Europe, where the EU and other European nations have been scrambling to cut ties with Russia’s natural gas industry, only to fall victim to a painful spike in prices as suppliers in the Middle East turn off the tap and the key Strait of Hormuz shipping lane goes dark.

The pain is not limited to Europe. “The world’s farmers face soaring fertiliser and fuel prices as the war in the Middle East escalates, leaving some scrambling for supplies as the spring planting season approaches,” Reuters reported on March 5.

“Prices in the United States…jumped from $516 per ​metric ton on Friday to up to $683 at the import hub of New Orleans on Thursday,” Reuters elaborated.

A Helping Hand For US Farmers

As noted by Reuters, the US produces a significant amount of ammonia fertilizer domestically, but farmers also rely heavily on overseas producers. In an epic case of bad timing, last year President Trump dismantled a $7 billion federal funding pot aimed at expanding and diversifying the domestic hydrogen industry, with much of the focus on water electrolysis as well as biomass and other sustainable sources.

CF Industries is among the industry stakeholders writing off their US green hydrogen plans in favor of natural gas, but others have picked up the torch. That includes the startup TalusAg, which has developed a modular, solar-powered green hydrogen-to-ammonia system designed for local deployment.

The first commercial-scale pilot project launched in Boone, Iowa last year in collaboration with the agriculture co-operative Landus, with plans already in motion for widespread application. That day has come.

In partnership with the agricultural cooperative Central Farm Service and the carbon accounting firm CleanCounts, on March 5th, TalusAg announced plans to build two full scale “Talus 10” ammonia production facilities in Minnesota. Deploying electricity from the provider Blue Earth Light & Water to run the electrolyzers, each system will have a capacity of up to 20 tons of green ammonia per day.

Central Farm Service anticipates that ammonia produced by the two facilities will cover more than 100,000 acres among its members, accounting for more than two-thirds of its yearly ammonia sales. The member-owned organization includes more than 4,500 farmers in Minnesota and northern Iowa.

A Helping Hand For Local Taxpayers, Too

And, here’s where it gets interesting. Funding for the project is not completely nailed down, but the three partners expect the Minnesota State Legislature to approve support from the state’s Renewable Development Account. They make a compelling case. While last year’s pilot project was designed to showcase onsite solar power, the Talus 10 system can also deploy wind power.

Talus and its partners cite reports issued concurrently by the Agricultural Utilization and Research Institute and Great Plains Institute, which describe how local green ammonia production can soak up excess wind power that would otherwise be curtailed during periods of low demand, saving millions of dollars for local taxpayers.

“Unlike most states, owners of wind turbines in Minnesota pay property tax based on the turbines’ annual production. Curtailment of wind power results in lost property tax revenue to rural counties,” the partners state. The loss can be substantial. Murray County, for example, experienced a 34% drop in tax revenue related to curtailments between 2020 and 2022.

The potential for reducing curtailments is not limited to Minnesota. The state is part of the wind-rich MISO grid management territory, which encompasses Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and a tiny sliver of Texas.

Even with planned grid improvements, MISO is facing difficult bottlenecks that force curtailment. Talus and its partners cite an assessment by the National Lab of the Rockies (formerly the National Renewable Energy Research Laboratory), in which wind curtailments in MISO currently run at 8  million megawatt-hours. The figure could rise to more than 15 million by 2035.

PepsiCo Likes The Idea, Too

Local green hydrogen electrolysis systems are not the only facilities that can suck up extra kilowatts from wind turbines without running into grid bottlenecks, but they can be particularly beneficial to farmers in more ways than one. In addition to the potential for pushing down the cost of fertilizer and saving money for local taxpayers, US farmers that export their goods around the world can deploy green ammonia fertilizer to take advantage of overseas carbon markets. In order to do that, they need a reliable carbon accountant, which is where CleanCounts comes in.

The beverage and food producer PepsiCo is among the leading stakeholders to underscore the importance of global carbon markets for US farmers. “By supporting initiatives like Talus and the use of credible registries such as CleanCounts, PepsiCo aims to advance lower-carbon, locally produced fertilizer solutions that can help strengthen supply chain resilience and deliver climate benefits for agriculture,” explained PepsiCo VP of Sustainable Agriculture Margaret Henry, in a press statement.

Regardless of President Trump’s firm grip on the Republican party, the Republican-centered organization Minnesota Conservative Energy Forum is also on board. “Done right, this kind of local production can reduce curtailment, create new revenue for rural counties, and strengthen industries…not to mention reducing dependence on foreign supply chains at a time when that risk is increasingly clear,” explains Executive Director Rachel Stuckey.

The NRDC is also among those to endorse the project, noting that “electrolytic hydrogen is one of the highest value uses of hydrogen in agriculture.”

“Instead of using price volatile natural gas to produce hydrogen for fertilizer production, this proposal incentivizes the use of electrolytic hydrogen that utilizes renewable energy,” says the organization’s Hydrogen Advocate, Erik Kamrath.

TalusAg states that its facilities can be deployed rapidly. Hopefully that means sooner rather than later. Help can’t come soon enough for farmers in Minnesota and elsewhere, who now have to grapple with a war-induced spike in fertilizer and fuel prices in addition to Trump’s illegal tariffs, a trade war with Canada, labor shortages, and the curtailment of federally funded programs that support rural communities (pro tip: next time don’t vote for the convicted felon).

Photo: A US startup aims to provide farmers with ammonia fertilizer produced from green hydrogen at local facilities, while solving a curtailment issue for wind power, too (courtesy of TalusAg).