In this issue
		Energy Services Bulletin home page
		Utilities offer loans to promote residential solar
		Utility contracts fund Ellsworth AFB's award-winning energy program
		Tri-State, Columbus create irrigation and motor workshop for growers
		Topics from the Power Line: Drip irrigation may provide energy, water savings
		Energy shorts
		Calendar of events

• Western customers make NREL top 10 green power programs
• Roseville Electric teams with Christopherson to build BEST homes
• Basin Electric supports 25 x '25 initiative for renewable energy
• College and university presidents pledge climate-neutral campuses
• Wind integration study finds grid can handle up to 25% wind

Western customers make NREL top 10 Green power programs

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory released its annual ranking of leading utility green power programs, and several Western customers appeared on the lists. 

The voluntary programs allow consumers to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as solar and wind. More than 600 utilities across the United States offer these programs.

Using information provided by utilities, NREL develops "Top 10" rankings of utility programs in the following categories: total sales of renewable energy to program participants, total number of customer participants, customer participation rate and the lowest price premium charged for a green-pricing service using new renewable resources.

Ranked by renewable energy sales, Basin Electric Power Cooperative placed sixth for its wind program.  Sacramento Municipal Utility District's program, which offers power from wind and landfill gas, was seventh in sales.

SMUD placed in every category, ranking fourth for total number of participants, fifth in customer participation rate and 10th in pricing. Los Angeles Department of Water & Power held seventh place for total participants. 

Western customers made an impressive showing for customer participation rates. The City of Palo Alto Utilities topped the category with 16.9 percent customer participation, followed closely by Lenox Municipal Utilities with 16.6 percent. Following SMUD's 6.2 percent participation rate were Silicon Valley Power with 6.1 percent and Holy Cross Energy with 5.6 percent.

Customer choice programs are proving to be a powerful stimulus for growth in renewable energy supply. In 2006, total utility green power sales exceeded 3.5 billion kilowatthours, about a 30-percent increase over 2005. More than 500,000 customers are participating in utility programs nationwide, up more than 10 percent from 2005.

NREL analysts attribute the success of many programs to persistence in marketing and creative marketing strategies, including in some cases, utility partnerships with independent green power marketers.

Also, the rate premium that customers pay for green power continues to drop. "Higher prices for conventional energy sources, as well as increasing environmental concerns, are focusing greater attention on renewable energy options," said Blair Swezey, NREL principal analyst.

Roseville Electric teams with Christopherson to build BEST homes

A partnership between Roseville, Calif., Electric and Christopherson Homes will build 127 energy-efficient houses with integrated rooftop solar power systems.

The agreement is part of the municipal utility's Blueprint for Energy Efficiency and Solar Technology Homes. Recently approved by Roseville's city council, the BEST Homes program offers incentives to ensure 10 to 20 percent of new homes built over the next decade in Roseville will be energy-efficient and generate power.

The homes Christopherson plans to build in West Roseville will include rooftop photovoltaic solar systems, highly efficient air conditioning, insulation and water heating systems as well as Energy Star-certified appliances. Those features can reduce residents' energy consumption by as much as 50 percent.

Christopherson Homes and other participating developers can receive as much as $8,530 in rebates for every home built with BEST standard options. The rebates are equal to about half the cost of the rooftop solar system and energy-efficient features. Money for the BEST Homes program will come from Roseville Electric's public benefits fund.

The BEST Homes program is part of Roseville Electric's long term strategy to protect the environment by reducing energy demand and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. Over the next decade, Roseville Electric anticipates that building 3,200 BEST Homes will save up to 14 million kWh of energy annually. Energy savings realized from the program will mean new residents will not generate 62,000 tons of emissions. The environmental impact is equivalent to planting 44 million trees.

Basin Electric supports 25 x '25 initiative for renewable energy

At their February meeting, Basin Electric Power Cooperative's directors passed a resolution endorsing the national "25 by '25" initiative for renewable energy.

The "25 x ‘25" Initiative sets a voluntary goal for 25 percent of the nation's energy sources – electric power, transportation fuels, industrial and commercial – to come from renewable resources, including hydropower, by the year 2025.

The initiative originally began with a group of volunteer farm leaders, but has since gained support from a broad cross section including agriculture and forestry, business, labor, conservation and religious leaders. Today, more than 330 businesses and organizations support the initiative. On a national level, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, 22 governors and five state legislatures have endorsed the initiative.

"This initiative ties in nicely with the renewable objective Basin Electric adopted in 2005 that calls for 10 percent of the generating capacity needed to meet member demands to come from renewable energy sources by 2010," says Ron Harper, Basin Electric CEO and general manager. "We're already more than 80 percent on the way toward reaching that goal, and we're evaluating more renewable energy options to meet that goal by 2010."

 Basin Electric purchases the entire output of three wind farms owned and operated by FPL Energy – one near Edgeley/Kulm and one near Wilton in North Dakota, and another near Highmore in South Dakota; and two other 750-kilowatt wind turbines, one located near Pipestone, Minn., and another near Rosebud, S.D. The North Dakota-based power cooperative also purchases the entire production of four recovered energy projects located along the Northern Border Pipeline.

College and university presidents pledge climate-neutral campuses

Seventy-nine college and university presidents have signed on to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, promising to achieve "climate neutrality" on their campuses. The agreement is modeled after a similar pact made by city mayors across the country.

Signed mostly by the heads of smaller institutions, signers also include heads of larger schools such as University of Florida with more than 50,000 students, the University of Colorado-Boulder with 29,000 students and the University of Hawaii Manoa campus with 20,600 students.

The founding members of the climate commitment effort aim to have signatures on letters of support from more than 1,000 university presidents by the end of 2009.

To reach climate neutrality, campus carbon dioxide emissions must be offset by the use of renewable energy and oxygen released from trees and other plants on campuses. The presidents are working with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, ecoAmerica and Second Nature to achieve their climate neutral goals.

The climate commitment pledge asks universities to develop an institutional plan within two years outlining how they can neutralize their effects on the climate. In the meantime, universities are asked to initiate at least two of six actions to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases:

• Establish a policy to build new campus construction to at least the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver standard or equivalent.
• Adopt a purchasing policy requiring purchase of Energy Star-certified products in all areas where such ratings exist.
• Establish a policy of offsetting all greenhouse gas emissions generated by air travel the institution pays for.
• Encourage use of and provide access to public transportation for all faculty, staff, students and visitors.
• Within one year of signing the document, begin purchasing or producing at least 15 percent of the institution's electricity needs from renewable sources.
• Establish a policy or a committee to support climate and sustainability shareholder proposals at companies where the institution's endowment is invested.

Wind integration study finds grid can handle up to 25% wind

With the right policies, utilities can incorporate wind power into their portfolio, comprising up to one-fourth of their delivered energy, without sacrificing reliability and with minor costs for absorbing the wind.

Those are the findings of the Midwest Wind Integration Study required by the Minnesota legislature to evaluate reliability and other impacts of higher levels of wind generation.  According to EnerNex Corporation and WindLogics, which carried out the study, the total integration cost for up to 25 percent wind energy delivered to all Minnesota customers is $0.0045 per kWh of wind generation. The 25-percent penetration level of wind is predicated on operating in the Midwest Independent System Operator service area, control area consolidation currently underway in MISO, geographic diversity of the wind power and adequate transmission.

"The study is especially significant both because of the amount of wind involved and the fact that it was sanctioned by the Minnesota legislature," said American Wind Energy Association Deputy Policy Director Mike Jacobs. "The Minnesota study shows that, when the wind generation is spread around the state, and MISO markets and operators do what they do best, integration costs are a small concern. Like the studies that have come before, this report shows the relative ease in absorbing the wind—opening the way for wind energy's benefits to be reaped on a large scale for consumers, and for our economy, environment and energy security."

The Minnesota study is the latest in a series examining how utilities can manage ever-larger amounts of wind power on their systems, and it comes at a time of strong growth for the wind industry. Although wind currently provides less than 1 percent of total U.S. electricity, wind has ranked as the second-largest source of new power generation two years in a row, in both new capacity installed and new electricity produced.

The study scope included evaluation of reliability and costs associated with increasing wind capacity to 15, 20 and 25 percent of Minnesota retail electric energy sales by 2020. The study process included a technical review committee comprised of numerous stakeholders from both the private and public sector. MISO was a key study participant, supplying power system data and technical expertise and running much of the system modeling.