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Week of Aug. 3, 2009 |
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The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), a leader in utilizing renewable energy to meet its customers' power needs, has established a feed-in tariff (FIT) effective next January that streamlines buying electricity fed into its distribution system from eligible generation units at customer sites. The FIT is a huge step forward for the utility industry as it removes barriers to interconnection by reducing regulation, making it easier for SMUD and its power-generating customers to do business. It will also benefit the region by increasing energy efficiency, protecting the environment, saving money and reducing climate impacts of electricity generation.
The FIT minimizes the usual time and effort required to contract with power generators by standardizing the price SMUD pays. It is currently aimed at systems up to five MW connected to SMUD's local distribution system, and is capped at 100 MW systemwide. SMUD sees the FIT as a way to provide a new opportunity for customers to own or host efficient small-scale generation plants and be able to sell power from those units at a fair market price. The FIT also helps SMUD meet its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The SMUD FIT applies to both renewable and fossil-fuel generation technologies. It sets higher prices for power produced from renewable sources like solar and biogas, but also applies to so-called Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generators. CHP generators use fuels like natural gas but boost the plant's overall efficiency by utilizing the waste heat for on-site purposes, reducing overall fuel use and improving local air quality. CHP units may also reduce the amount of peak capacity SMUD would otherwise purchase, thus improving reliability.
Because the FIT idea already enjoys support at the state level, SMUD continues its leadership in developing distributed generation and renewable resources. The California Public Utility Commission and the California Energy Commission are encouraging this kind of mechanism. The CPUC is looking to expand the feed-in tariff concept for investor-owned utilities and has approved such a tariff for eligible renewable generation systems up to 1.5 MW. The CEC recommends a feed-in tariff for all eligible renewable generation up to 20 MW. With regard to CHP, the Waste Heat and Carbon Emissions Reduction Act requires SMUD and other utilities to provide a market for purchasing CHP generators' excess electricity at a "just and reasonable rate." The SMUD FIT satisfies this requirement.
The SMUD FIT is part of the utility's recent General Manager's Report and Recommendation on Rates and Services, which the SMUD Board of Directors approved last month. The report also eliminates separate agreements for net-metering and interconnection by putting the provisions directly into the SMUD rate schedule. It also resets the demand charge for both solar and energy efficiency. Previously, the customer was charged for peak demand over the year and realized no benefit by waiting. Now it is automatic. Source: Sacramento Municipal Utility District, 7/17/09
Visit U.S. DOE EERE Green Power Network for more information.
Terra-Gen Power, LLC has closed a $115 million initial funding of a $140 million pre-construction financing used to fund the purchase of 100 General Electric 1.5-MW SLE wind turbines. The wind turbines will be deployed in the development of the 150 MW Alta Wind I wind project in the Tehachapi, Calif., area. The commitments were funded by a lender group composed of Calyon, Prudential Capital Group, and CIT. Calyon acted as Lead Arranger and Administrative Agent for the lenders, with Prudential Capital Group serving as Documentation Advisor.
The Alta Wind I project represents the first phase in the development of the Alta Wind Energy Center, a 3,000-MW initiative and one of the largest wind development projects in the United States. The Alta Wind Energy Center is underpinned by a 1,550-MW power contract to sell clean, renewable wind energy to Southern California Edison (SCE), and will transport power from the Tehachapi area to Southern California via SCE's Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project.
Alta Wind I is owned by California Highwind Power, an affiliate of Terra-Gen Power and ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC. Terra-Gen Power, an affiliate of ArcLight, is a developer of renewable energy focused on wind, geothermal, and solar generation. In total, Terra-Gen owns 831 MW representing 21 operating renewable energy projects across the western United States. Source: Energy Central, 7/21/09
In a field tucked into the northern side of this college town, just across from the Kansas State University football complex, some unusually tall plants are growing. They are part of the university’s research into promising biofuel feedstocks that may ultimately power vehicles of the future.
“We are studying sorghums and perennial grasses because we think these will be used in the non-irrigated acres in Kansas to produce biomass,” said K-State professor of agronomy, Scott Staggenborg. “On our irrigated acres, corn will remain the crop of choice (as a biofuel feedstock), but on our dryland acres – especially in extremely dry environments, perennial grasses may be the crop of choice. Plus, since sorghum has the ability to perform better than corn when it is hot and dry, it gives us options.” Read more. Source: Kansas City Infozine, 7/20/09
The pioneering technology of Gills Onions squeezes onion juice from its daily 200,000 to 300,000 pounds of waste and converts it into clean energy.
All that work has led to the formation of its $9.5 million Advanced Energy Recovery System, which takes onion peels and turns them into energy and cattle feed. Source: The Associated Press, via CBS Broadcasting, 7/17/09
Learn more about renewable resources.
"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." Edith Ann, [Lily Tomlin].
I agree, Edith Ann.
I had one of those teachers: Ms. Williams, 4th grade English teacher. Her love of the written word and the English language was, well, intoxicating, inspiring, even for a 4th grader. Her influence was potent; I became an English major.
I hadn't thought of Ms. Williams until recently when I reviewed The Rahus Institute's recently released, Teaching Solar: A Teacher's Guide to Integrating Solar Energy into Classroom Curriculum, which features the work of several pioneering renewable energy educators-most of whom have used or adapted Solar Schoolhouse materials-and provides real examples of the different ways that clean energy concepts can be presented to students.
I'm thinking it's a book about many Ms. Williams's, and I want to go back to school. Read more. Source: Interstate Renewable Energy Council, 7/14/09
Meeting registration for GRC 2009: Making Renewable Energy Hot, Oct. 4-7, is now available.This year's event in Reno, Nev., will be the best ever, featuring:
There are lots of ways to get involved in GRC 2009. Enter the amateur photo contest—deadline is Aug. 31. Join GRC corporate and individual members by becoming a sponsor or exhibit your company's products or services to industry decision makers.
Reserve your room at the Peppermill Resort and Casino today. Source: Geothermal Resource Council, 7/20/09
We need your presentation topic suggestions for next year's 30th Annual Utility Energy Forum. In particular, the Executive Committee wants to hear about your innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that could be easily replicated by other utilities. With your suggestions, the Committee will meet August 14 to choose next year's theme, outline the agenda, and begin to identify topics and speakers.
Email your presentation topic suggestions to Ed Thomas by no later than Friday, Aug. 7. No formal abstract is necessary—just email a proposed topic and speaker with up to 50 words to describe the presentation as it might appear in the Forum agenda program.
The Utility Energy Forum is a non-profit consortium of utility sponsors. The annual meeting provides attendees, speakers and exhibitors with a high quality, low key opportunity to exchange information and learn from the pros about the current and emerging industry issues.
The primary goal is to provide a networking and professional development forum for mid-level staff of energy utilities serving California and neighboring states who are responsible for developing and implementing customer programs related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, key account management, and customer service. Source: Utility Energy Forum, 7/20/09
One significant obstacle to meeting aggressive federal and state alternative fuel consumption targets is the relative scarcity of retail fueling stations that carry alternative fuels. Policies that encourage or mandate use of alternative fuel vehicles in government fleets, thereby increasing demand for such fuels, are one popular approach to stimulating further development of the alternative fuel retail infrastructure.
Building Out Alternative Fuel Retail Infrastructure: Government Fleet Spillovers in E85, by Kenneth Cort, focuses specifically on flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that burn E85, a combination of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, to study the impact of government fleet composition on retail alternative fuel infrastructure. Using data from six states in the Midwest that account for over 60 percent of US E85 stations, the report shows that government fleet adoption of FFVs leads to an increase in retail E85 stations. This finding persists when using instrumental variables techniques to address the endogeneity of government fleet FFV purchases.
Cort also explores whether fuel station retail market structure has an effect on alternative fuel availability and find no evidence that the presence of stations affiliated with integrated gasoline producers has limited the availability of E85 at the market level. Finally, I examine how the effect of government FFVs on E85 availability varies by state and discuss the differing policy approaches that these states have taken.
The Center for the Study of Energy Markets (CSEM) published the report, which can be downloaded along with other working CSEM working papers from the University of California Energy Institute. Source: Center for the Study of Energy Markets, 7/20/09
Get your free annual directory of healthy and sustainable businesses on Colorado's Front Range!
The ReDirect Guide is your source for finding sustainable options for everyday purchases, presented alongside regionally appropriate educational articles and community resources. Each business, organization, and resource is screened and qualified by ReDirect's staff to ensure that the guide promotes environmentally and socially responsible products and services.
Check out the ad for Project C and the Colorado Carbon Fund inside the front cover. Information about the Governor's Energy Office is on pages 46-49. Source: Colorado Governor's Energy Office, 7/20/09
A study by Harvard University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is another quantification of what Iowans have known for a long time: The wind here is strong enough to generate a whole lot of electricity for the rest of the United States.
The report, "Global Potential for Wind-Generated Electricity," was published last week in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences. It said - based on studies of wind patterns taken in west Texas, southern Minnesota and central Montana—that Great Plains states from Texas to the Dakotas have the potential to supply up to 16 times the normal electricity consumption in the United States.
Iowa is part of that bloc. It already is the second-largest wind generator in the nation, with 2,800 MW of capacity. Only Texas has more.
Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota are the leaders in wind potential with Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico close behind.
Texas has the greatest wind potential. It also has by far the greatest population of the wind-rich states and thus is not a good candidate for export of wind energy to other regions.
The report stated the problem that state and Federal energy policymakers already worry over: The need for expanded transmission capacities to move wind-generated electricity from the population-sparse Great Plains eastward to Chicago and on to the Eastern seaboard.
Several entities, including ITC Holdings of Michigan and MidAmerican Energy of Des Moines, are putting together transmission line proposals that would move wind energy from the Dakotas through Iowa and Minnesota across the Mississippi River eastward. Such lines, which have been likened to the interstate highway system or the 19th century transcontinental railroad, would cost up to $12 billion.
Eastern states lack the wind capabilities present in the Great Plains. However, it is unclear how willing their utility customers would be to pay for transmission lines running 1,000 miles or more to bring them wind electricity. Source: by Phillip Brasher and Dan Piller 7/20/09
Register now for Renewable Energy Markets 2009, Leading the New Energy Economy, Sep. 13-16, in Atlanta, Ga.
Speaking opportunities are still available. Submit your Call for Abstracts form for the unique opportunity to get in front of over 400 renewable energy stakeholders and help guide the discussions that take place the rest of the year. Submissions are due by Tuesday, July 28th, 2009, 5 p.m. PT. In order to maximize useful information and informed exchange, we'd like Presentations should be around ten minutes in length and feature new data or ideas, considered exposition of important issues and, most importantly, fresh thinking about where renewable energy markets are headed in these exciting times. Recommended topics include Utilities, Fundamentals, Markets and Trading, Marketing and Claims, Purchasers. For more information, see the proposed agenda.
Sessions will cover:
Please contact Alison Lambert at 415-561-2103 with questions about the conference or sponsorship information. Source: Renewable Energy Markets, 7/20/09
Learn more about educational resources.
On July 16, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its Policy Statement on smart grid technologies, directing the development of key operational standards and implementing an interim incentive rate policy that will allow for cost recovery of deployed smart grid technologies and certain legacy systems made obsolete by such deployment. The Policy Statement also establishes an important jurisdictional line by providing that, although FERC's rate recovery authority is limited by section 205 of the Federal Power Act, FERC is vested with the authority to adopt smart grid standards applicable to all electric power facilities—even those at the local distribution level and those directly used by retail consumers. Read more. Source: Stoel Rives LLC, 7/20/09
Learn more about legislative activities.
The Western Governors’ Association has identified 37 renewable energy hubs in eleven Western states in the first stage of its project to coordinate the development of high-value renewable resources with transmission in the Western Interconnection.
In a report the WGA released in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on June 15 at the annual governors’ meeting in Park City, Utah, it also identified 15 hubs in western Canada and two in the slice of northern Mexico that is part of the Western Interconnection.
To be counted in the “Western Renewable Energy Zones Phase 1 Report," the hubs must have at least 1,500 MW of high-quality renewable energy resources within a 100-mile radius, and not be within environmentally sensitive areas, wildlife management areas, state or national parks or other areas where federal or state regulations would preclude energy development.
While the hubs identified in the report have not yet been screened individually for specific wildlife issues, the WGA will be working with the DOE and other government agencies in future phases of the WREZ initiative to minimize impacts on wildlife.
Combined, the hubs have the potential to generate over 95,000 MW of wind power, nearly 87,000 MW of solar power, 4,478 MW of geothermal power, 3,720 MW of biomass power, and, in Canada, 8,452 MW of new hydropower.
In the United States alone, the cumulative renewable energy potential was estimated by the report to be in excess of 180,000 MW. Hubs were identified in every U.S. state in the Western Interconnection, in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and in the Mexican state of Baja California.
Along with DOE, the departments of Interior and Agriculture and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission were involved in the WREZ initiative. Other participants included renewable energy developers, tribes, utility planners, environmental groups and state and federal regulators and policymakers. In future phases of the initiative, the WGA will work with the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and utilities to evaluate transmission alternatives to bring power from the hubs to load centers most effectively.
The association also plans to coordinate purchases of power from the WREZ hubs and coordinate interstate cooperation, with the help of stakeholders. Source: Energy Prospects West, 7/23/09
Even without putting another turbine in the ground, wind farms are projected to generate $1.9 billion in economic benefits for Illinois over the next 25 years, according to a study conducted by Illinois State University’s Center for Renewable Energy.
The study examined the direct and indirect economic benefits, including jobs, tax revenues, and payments to landowners, from the 17 major wind projects totaling 1,118 MW that are online (or about to go online in the coming weeks) around the state. The study found that those 17 projects created 6,019 full-time equivalent jobs during construction periods with a total payroll of over $306 million. They also support 292 permanent jobs in the rural parts of the state with a total annual payroll of over $15 million. Focusing on the 17 projects already in existence, said Center for Renewable Energy Director David Loomis, allowed the study to steer clear of assumptions based on forecasts, thus making the numbers less vulnerable to being called into question.
According to the study, the projects benefit local communities by generating $11.4 million in annual property taxes and $4.36 million per year in extra income for Illinois landowners who lease their land to developers.
The study employed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s latest Jobs and Economic Development Impacts economic model, also known as JEDI.
In his remarks at a press conference announcing the release of the report, Loomis explained the range of wind farms’ economic impacts, from increased activity at quarries and cement plants (for turbine foundations) to increased household spending.
One key driver of wind energy development in Illinois, the study notes, was the 2007 passage of the Illinois Power Agency Act, which included a renewable electricity standard of 25 percent by 2025, 75 percent of which is to come from wind. The study suggests that its results will be helpful in the dialogue on renewables policy going forward. Speaking to Wind Energy Weekly, Loomis confirmed that it has implications not only in state policy but in the federal-policy debate as well. “This study gives further evidence that a Federal [renewable electricity standard] will spur job creation and economic growth,” he said, pointing to the impact of Illinois’s standard.
Research for the study was funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Source: AWEA Wind Energy Weekly, 7/20/09
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary (DOE) Steven Chu today announced more than $162 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. Under DOE's State Energy Program, states and territories have proposed statewide plans that prioritize energy savings, create or retain jobs, increase the use of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
"This funding will provide an important boost for state economies, help to put Americans back to work, and move us toward energy independence," said Secretary Chu. "It reflects our commitment to support innovative state and local strategies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy while insisting that taxpayer dollars be spent responsibly." Read more. Source: DOE EERE Progress Alerts, 7/20/09
Following the Bush Administration's goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, the Obama Administration is now encouraging Americans to invest in green power initiatives through an integrated resource plan that Guam is excited to take part in. The main goal behind the Guam Power Authority's integrated resource plan is to reward those who submit bids that contain renewable energy contracts.
And with the first of a two-phase project to be completed in 30 months, that means Guam will be benefiting from some kind of green power in a little over 2 years time. John Cruz, the manager in charge of GPA's Strategic Planning & Operations Research Division expounds.
"We approached this project of obtaining renewables in 2 phases. The first phase is to go out with requests of power purchase agreements where the vendor would take all the risks of building the plants and we would just purchase power from them on a kilowatt-hour basis," he said.
The second phase would be for renewable energy projects that can be completed in 5 years time that calls for wind monitoring data. "There is an area near Leo Palace, Pulantat, it happens to be on government land and our preliminary studies show there is probably up to 30 to 40 MW of wind resources in that particular area," he said.
So in addition to obtaining renewable energy bids, GPA has also applied for a grant through Guam EPA to conduct an exploration on the viability of geothermal resources on Guam. "We have had several firms come up to us, GPA, and they are convinced that geothermal resources are on Guam. Whether or not they are commercially viable, we need to start drilling holes to determine that," he said.
In the end Cruz says Guam is off to a positive start with obtaining at least three bids of renewable energy technology that includes a 20-MW wind farm and a couple of photovoltaic farms. All of which will now undergo evaluation and pre-qualification for the next step of GPA's price proposal review. Source: KUAM Channel 2, 7/20/09
Learn more about marketing and research.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu today announced plans to provide up to $22 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support the planning and installation of utility-scale community renewable energy projects in up to four communities nationwide. This funding opportunity directly supports the Obama Administration's goals of developing clean, renewable energy supplies, and creating new jobs and economic opportunities.
"American families and businesses are struggling in a recession and an increasingly competitive global economy. The Recovery Act was designed to rescue the economy from the immediate dangers it faces while rebuilding its fundamentals, with an eye toward new industry and opportunity," Secretary Chu said. "To help meet these challenges, the Recovery Act invests significant dollars to put people to work to spur a revolution in clean energy technologies." Read the full story. Source: EERE Progress Alerts, 7/15/09
As part of the Renewable Energy for Federal Agencies program, Western Area Power Administration is seeking requests for proposals for renewable energy certificates. RFPs must be submitted no later than 4:30 p.m. MDT, Aug. 7, 2009, to be considered. Read more. Source: Western Area Power Administration, 7/20/09
Learn more about funding solicitations.
This news item comes to you as a service of Western's Renewable Resources Program.
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