The Crude Capital Campaign: Drones, EVs Creating New Opportunities in Energy
TrainND Northwest is leading the way when it comes to energizing UAS integration.
This past year, Kenley Nebeker, executive director, TrainND Northwest, sat down with the founder of The Crude Life, Jason Spiess, to talk about their “$2.8M grant” they were able to obtain from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) as well as their Drone Light Show in Williston after the Babe Ruth World Series.
The “sustainability” grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan and EDA’s $300 million Coal Communities Commitment, as well as $464,000 in local matching funds also being added to the expansion project.
“Part of that project was to do an electric vehicle conversion on a CDL-level semi-truck,” Nebeker said. “It’s been a little bit slow starting up, we had to go through the procurement process, but we have selected a company to do that for us and that project will be starting up here shortly.”
Nebeker continued describing the combustion-EV conversion.
“It is a classic semi-truck that is being retro fitted to be driven by electric motors, be powered by battery power and have a small combustion engine powering those batteries,” Nebeker said. “Ultimately making it to where we can drive as far as we want to as long as we keep diesel or gas in the tank.”
The project is still in its final stages of development, so Nebeker said they haven’t decided if it will be diesel or gas yet.
Although the details are an important and vital part of the process, Nebeker seems more interested in the bigger picture and awareness factor with the EVolution Hybrid project.
“I am really excited about this project because it shows the marriage between industries. There seems to be a lot of rhetoric that is all one or the other. We are all oil and gas or we are all electric vehicles,” Nebeker said. “In my mind there needs to be a marriage. The future is a marriage between those industries and this project can show how that works.”
A couple weeks earlier, following a Sunday night baseball game at the Babe Ruth World Series in Williston, ND, spectators were presented a glimpse of the future with a drone light show.
According to Nebeker, there were two-hundred drones that lit up the sky, showcasing the region’s advancements in the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) industries.
The interview compared fireworks and drone light shows and pontificated whether UAS would become a player in the fireworks industry.
“I think it is a great option (to replace fireworks) for organizations, cities and people going into the future,” Nebeker said. “When you look at fire prevention and just the noise factor, being awake on the 4th of July every year til 3-in-the-morning eventually wears on you.”
Not everyone can become a Drone Light Show operator either. There are Federal Rules to accompany all the state and local laws. And only a handful of companies in the United States that can even put these shows on.
“The drone light show industry has been very interesting, Intel broke into the United States and just dominated that market,” Nebeker said. “And it’s interesting because they don’t even do drone light shows anymore. There’s really only three major up-and-going light shows in the United States.”
Firefly was the company used for the drone light show and Nebeker “couldn’t have been happier with their work. They just absolutely killed it.”
The drone show was sponsored by TrainND Northwest, Williston Economic Development, Williston Convention and Visitors Bureau, Cardon Global, Dunlevy Drones and Firefly.
North Dakota is one of six unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) research and test site operators across the country. North Dakota’s test site was approved for operations on April 21, 2014.
Nebeker and the team in Williston may have done more than executing an entertaining light show, rather, shown the world how they have set the stage and blazed path for a whole new thread of the new ESG Economy.
About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA invests in communities and supports regional collaboration in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.
About TrainND Northwest
TrainND Northwest is a division of Williston State College (WSC), a two-year public community college in the North Dakota University System (NDUS). The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education is the policy-setting and advocacy body for the NDUS. For more information on the governing body, officials and faculty, please refer to the WSC Catalog at www.willistonstate.edu. TrainND Northwest is located at the Workforce Training Campus of WSC. Construction was completed in 2015, and facilities include classrooms, offices, The Bistro (food service), conference room, field training simulators, nursing lab, and computer lab. An outdoor yard holds mobile equipment, commercial vehicles, a range of crane types, a workover rig, and field safety training equipment.
TrainND Northwest meets the workforce training needs of northwestern North Dakota as part of TrainND’s statewide workforce training network. TrainND Northwest believes that partnerships with business and industry foster an environment of continuous improvement to provide North Dakota with a competitive workforce. TrainND Northwest works with business, industry, government agencies, and non-profits to assess training needs and deliver timely, relevant, training that maximizes employee productivity and improves entity performance.
This year we have changed our Crude Capital Campaign in several areas. One is opening up to Substack and a whole new audience of subscribers, companies and sponsors. Please take a moment and consider your company becoming a paid subscriber, or sponsor. Companies interested can email studio@thecrudelife.com
Perhaps you personally might consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our 12-year-plus mission of Energy Independence, Industrial Integrity, Sustainable Solutions and Community Conversations. Subscriptions are only $5/ month or $50/year.
In addition to our new substack page, we also have an Eco-System of Activity to ensure our message is seen, heard and engaging.
When you support The Crude Life, you are supporting a decade-plus of positive stories to the masses about Veteran Affairs, Family Independence, Sustainable Solutions, Ethical Energy and Industrial Integrity. Will you support The Crude Life?
The Crude Life has been one of the leaders in digital diversity, ethical energy and community engagement for over a decade.
In 2023, The Crude Life had another successful year characterized by creating new revenue streams, more distribution partners, an increase in content news partners and strong creative momentum.
Our content is reaching more people than ever, both domestically and internationally. Our goal is to continue to expand the reach and engagement of our content with audiences around the globe.
In 2023 and beyond, we believe we’re well positioned to build on our decade-plus of success. We’re focused on continuing to make investments in our business, particularly in our connecting content, to further strengthen our trust with communities, energy enthusiasts and industry experts while creating value for our sponsors and supporters.
The Carbon Conference 2024 will bring sustainable stakeholders and energy enthusiasts together that wish to capture CO2 emissions safely and transport the CO2 via pipelines, allowing the captured CO2 to be permanently stored in deep underground formations. The Carbon Conference 2024 is dedicated to advancing the necessary conversation regarding carbon emissions, capture, transportation, and storage.
The Conference Center at the Tuscany Suites & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the perfect venue to encourage productive discussions and diverse dialogue - both pro and con - everyone’s voice will be heard in order to find a positive path forward for all parties concerned.
The Carbon Conference has partnered with the Energy Exposition & Resources Symposium for multiple reasons. Their 25 years of successful Energy Exposition conferences is extremely valuable experience in the Carbon Conference's first year, however what may be more important is why it started.
Over 25 years ago, Wyoming was in the middle of an energy dispute similar to the carbon pipeline and storage issues. The Energy Exposition was started in order to broker peace and bring all voices to the table in a conference format. Twenty-five years later a similar situation is presented in the world of carbon.
We believe this partnership with the Energy Exposition & Resources Symposium will ensure fair deals will get done and peace will be brokered at the Carbon Conference 2024 Las Vegas.
The Carbon Conference is limited to 500 stakeholders, policymakers, impacted parties, and industry experts to ensure a solution-focused event, bringing together as many decision-makers to the table in order to discuss all the pressing issues related to carbon emissions.
We encourage you and/or your company to participate in this remarkable event. Sponsorships will not only allow your participation at the conference, but also provide your company with valuable exposure to a diverse audience of multi-industry professionals and stakeholders.
To reserve Exhibit Space at the Energy Exposition or Carbon Conference, contact
Austin F. Jennings III
239-898-3923
austin (at) energyexposition (dot) com