One of five finalists in an XPRIZE competition looking for ways to capture and reuse carbon dioxide is Carbon Upcycling UCLA (above), with a process that turns CO2 into building materials. Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station in North Dakota is one of two test sites for the competition. WRITE US Let us know what’s on your mind by writing to [email protected] or sending U.S. mail to Letters, South Carolina Living, 808 Knox Abbott Drive, Cayce, SC 29033. You can also use the letters form at SCLiving.coop/contact-us. SC |agenda A global competition for CO2 solutions LATER THIS YEAR, FIVE TEAMS of sci- entists and engineers from around the world will relocate their laboratories to a patchwork of gravel lots next to a coal- red power plant in northeast Wyoming. Their mission: Nothing less than nding bene cial ways to capture and reuse carbon dioxide before it’s released into the Earth’s atmosphere. The teams are competing for the NRG Cosia Carbon XPRIZE and a share of $20 million in grants promised to sci- entists who develop “transformational approaches to converting carbon dioxide emissions into valuable products.” Dry Fork Station, a power plant owned by North Dakota’s Basin Electric Power Cooperative, is one of two test sites for the competition, which is nan- cially supported by another co-op, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association based in Colorado, as well as the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (NRECA). The nal prizes will be awarded in 2020. Teams will capture carbon dioxide produced by the plant and attempt to turn it into useful products, says Dan Walsh, NRECA’s senior power supply and generation director. If they are success- ful, the technologies developed could be applied to any carbon-based fuel includ- ing natural gas and gasoline. “We have to do something, not just for power, but for the planet to come up with a way to utilize carbon dioxide in a bene cial way,” says Walsh. “The electric power industry is no longer the largest generator of carbon. The transportation industry now owns that title.” The XPRIZE teams at the Wyoming site are taking a variety of approaches to reusing carbon dioxide. BREATHE, a team from India, is working to produce methanol, which can be used as a liquid fuel. C4X, a team from China, will be developing new ways to produce plastics. Carbon Capture Machine (Scotland), CarbonCure (Canada) and Carbon Upcycling UCLA (USA) will all work on turning CO2 into construction materials. For more on the Carbon XPRIZE and the teams competing, visit carbon.xprize.org. — PAUL WESSLUND and nonprofit organizations for camps and retreats. Leadership Lexington has their annual retreat at Camp Kinard. We have also hosted events for Lexington County fire- fighters and law enforcement officers. That means thousands of people use power—and now internet—provided by Mid-Carolina when they are at our camp. DALLAS J. SHEALY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTH CAROLINA LUTHERAN RETREAT CENTERS LETTER TO THE EDITOR Happy campers Greetings from beautiful Camp Kinard in Batesburg-Leesville! We are delighted to be members of the Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative and are particularly happy that we just received Carolina Connect fiber-optic internet service. We are very happy customers! Our guests are delighted with our much- improved internet connection. Your readers may be interested to know about some of the very special camps and retreats we host. We are the home of Palmetto Health Richland hospital’s Camp Wonder Hands for kids who are deaf and hard of hearing, and Camp New Horizons, which is a bereavement retreat for kids who have lost a sibling to cancer. We also host a camp for kids with diabetes called Camp Sweet Escape. Our Lutheran Youth provide two camps for young people with developmental dis- abilities, and we host many other faith-based 6 SOUTH CAROLINA LIVING | OCTOBER 2018 | SCLIVING.COOP COURTESY OF XPRIZE COURTESY OF NRECA COURTESY OF DALLAS J. SHEALY