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Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend refinery considers solar to help meet power needs

1/27/2021

Press Release Rosemount, Minn. – Flint Hills Resource

30-megawatt solar development would be among the largest of its kind in the nation

The Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend refinery is seeking bids for the construction of a
large-scale solar development on the company’s property in Rosemount, Minnesota, to help meet the
refinery’s electrical power needs and lower its energy costs. The 30-megawatt solar development would
be among the largest of its kind in the nation where all the power is generated and consumed by a
single business. The company has requested bids from select solar companies that specialize in building
commercial-scale solar farms and integrating them within established operations. A decision on whether
to proceed with the project is expected by mid-year 2021.

The Pine Bend refinery supplies most of the transportation fuels used in Minnesota and a significant
portion of the fuels used throughout the Upper Midwest. It also produces approximately 10 percent of
the nation’s total demand for road and roofing asphalt as well as other essential products such as home
heating fuels and the raw materials used in the manufacturing of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and
plastics.

The solar development would be located west of the refinery on 200 to 300 acres of farmland owned by
Flint Hills Resources. The refinery recently commissioned a new Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
system, which produces about 50 megawatts of electricity or roughly 40% of what is required to power
the refinery’s daily operations. The solar development would provide additional lower cost, highly
efficient power that together with the CHP, under optimal conditions, could satisfy more than half of the
refinery’s daily power needs.

In the past five years, Pine Bend has improved its energy efficiency by 10%, advancing it into the top
quartile of all U.S. refineries. The refinery recently earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
ENERGY STAR certification for the second consecutive year. Since 1997, the Pine Bend refinery has
lowered emissions of traditional criteria pollutants by approximately 70%, while increasing production
to help meet demand for transportation fuels. The refinery has reduced total on-site emissions in 11 of
the last 15 years, and its emissions per barrel are approximately 20% lower than other U.S. refineries.
“Continually improving our energy efficiency and reducing our energy costs are critical to our ability to
remain competitive,” said Geoff Glasrud, Flint Hills Resources plant manager and vice president of
operations. “We are in a highly competitive commodity business where many of our competitors pay far
less for the energy required to power their operations than we do. This type of co-generation would also
improve the overall efficiency of our operations and help us continue to lower emissions associated with
producing the fuels and other products that people rely on every day.”

Wichita, Kansas-based Flint Hills Resources’ other renewable energy and disruptive technology holdings
include investments in bioplastics and battery technologies. The company is the fifth largest biofuels
producer in the United States.