Green tags
help purchase wind power for Schriever Air Force Base
by
Kevon Storie
When
Schriever Air Force Base
near Colorado Springs, Colo., became Mountain
View Electric Association's biggest wind power customer,
the electric co-operative and its wholesale power supplier—Tri-State
Generation and Transmission—used green tags to meet
the demand.
Marketing
strategy brings supply to demand
Simply
put, green tag or certificate marketing
splits
renewable energy into two components: electricity and environmental
benefits. The tags represent the environmental attributes of
renewable energy, which the producer can sell to customers willing
to pay the additional costs associated with renewable production.
The producers can then put environmentally friendly electricity
on the grid anywhere in the country and everyone gets the benefits
of replacing energy produced by fossil fuels with renewable
energy.
"The
market for green power is developing at different speeds in
different parts of the country," explained Jere
Bates, Tri-State pricing and forecasting manager. "Green
tags encourage production of renewable energy even when local
demand doesn't match the unit's capacity. It's an excellent
incentive to develop renewable resources in the areas with the
most potential."
Green
power program gets big boost from Air Force sale
Take
the example of MVEA's contract with Schriever. "Our members
have had the option of buying 100-kWh wind power blocks for
an extra $2.50 per month since January 2000. The program has
grown over the years to 975 monthly subscriptions," said MVEA
Engineering Manager Dave
Waldner. "Then, with one contract for 1,500 blocks, our
subscriptions nearly tripled. Green tags ensured that we had
the supply to meet the sudden demand."
The demand
was significant even for Tri-State, which sells 6,700 MWh of
wind power annually to its member co-ops. The total generation
is a mix of direct purchases from the Medicine Bow Wind Project
in Wyoming and green tag purchases.
"Because
wind is an intermittent power source, the trick is to find an
inexpensive and efficient way to deliver it from the point of
generation to the end user," explained Bates. "In that respect,
green tags actually make renewable energy more affordable and
reliable. Our purchase increases the overall amount of clean
electricity on the grid even on days when the wind doesn't blow
in Spade Flats, Wyo.
Large
users find wind power more viable
Reliability
is a crucial issue for customers like Schriever AFB. It is the
home of the Air Force's 50th Space Wing providing command and
control for Department of Defense warning, navigational and
communications satellites. Also housed at Schriever are the
Space Warfare Center and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization,
which supports strategic space systems and missile defense.
The facility's
purchase of $45,000 worth of green electricity from MVEA each
year will power only a fraction of its operations, but it shows
a growing commitment to using renewable energy in government
sectors. North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan included an initiative
in the FY 02 Defense Appropriations Act to fund the move to
wind power.
The initiative
provided $500,000 to the Air Force to purchase 1,500 blocks
of wind power for Minot and Grand Forks AFBs. The Air Force
spent the remainder for wind energy at its discretion. Schriever's
green power contract began in September 2002 and will run through
2006.
Strategies
like green certificate marketing have advanced the technology
required to make wind power a more feasible option for large
users like Schriever. If more large users follow the Air Force's
lead, green tags will help co-ops meet their demand.