Wind Energy Hung Up in the Queue

Originally published for Sun and Wind Energy Magazine:

By Lisa Cohn and Reid Smith

An overabundance of renewable energy should be good news in the US. However, in many renewable-rich areas, the clean energy cannot be integrated into the grid – due to long transmission queues. The solution will likely come from many fronts.

In many ways, the Southwest Power Pool in Arkansas, which manages transmission in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, finds itself in an enviable position: It has more than enough renewable energy for its own needs. In fact, it has enough to transmit it to other parts of the country – if only that were possible. “We have about 48,000 MW of wind and a little bit of solar in the queue, with an annual peak load of 43,000 MW of wind resources. Just looking at the numbers it is easy to see that the supply could far exceed the demand”, says Les Dillahunty, Vice President of regulatory policy at the Southwest Power Pool. However, without transmission, the clean power will go unused. “Wind has developed in these remote areas and we don’t have sufficient transmission to move it to areas where it’s needed. We don’t have a national energy policy, so where is this power going to go?”, asks Dillahunty.

An overabundance of renewable energy should be good news in the US. However, in many renewable- rich areas, the clean energy cannot be integrated into the transmission grid – due to long transmission queues and no avenues for moving power between regions. Nearly 270,000 MW of wind projects are hung up in transmission queues in the US, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Washington, D.C.

“The problem is government underinvestment in transmission infrastructure for the past 25 years”, says Ray Wuslich, partner at the law firm Winston & Strawn in Washington D.C. With the US focus on fighting climate change and bringing cleaner forms of energy online, solving transmission challenges should be a top priority for the US government, industry members say. “Wind developers will say transmission capacity is the main constraint”, says Dwain Rogers, Deputy Commissioner for renewable energy at the Texas General Land Office in Austin, Texas.

A chicken-and-egg situation

With Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) across the country mandating utilities to bring more renewable energy online, transmission constraints become even more pressing. In most areas of the country, there are not enough transmission lines to bring power from rural areas – where the resources are most abundant –into populated areas.

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The Power of Savings

Originally published for Environmental Risk Magazine

By Elisa Wood

US commodity brokers expect the energy efficiency certificate or ‘white tag’ market to grow dramatically in the next few years as more states begin to treat efficiency as a tradable commodity. Elisa Wood investigates

Energy efficiency advocates are fond of saying that the cheapest megawatt is the one never used. But in the US, the true value of that saved megawatt is only now becoming clear, as an energy efficiency commodity market begins to take shape.

Following the lead of the UK, France and Italy, three US states have set up rules that allow trading of energy efficiency certificates or ‘white tags’, as they have been dubbed by Georgia-based energy efficiency marketer Sterling Planet. Several other states and members of Congress are contemplating the concept.

A certificate represents one megawatthour (MWh) of electricity saved – perhaps through the installation of efficient lights in an office building, advanced motors at a factory or fuel-saving cogeneration units attached to a university. Utilities and other retail electricity sellers buy the certificates to comply with a state-mandated energy efficiency portfolio standard (EEPS), an enforcable energy savings requirement.

Craig Lilly, an attorney who handles clean energy deals from the California Silicon Valley office of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, describes the rules as a kind of “financial engineering to establish an energy efficiency market”. And so far the engineering seems to be working in Connecticut, the first state to push forward with the approach. Connecticut instituted an EEPS in 2007 that requires utilities and retail sellers to secure certificates equivalent to 1% of their retail electricity sales.

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Growing up green: US colleges witness an environmental groundswell

Originally published by Renewable Energy World Magazine

by Elisa Wood

A surge of interest in renewable energy and sustainability in general is prompting educational establishments to respond, not just by improving campus environmental performance, but by offering the courses and training that match a growing marketplace. Elisa Wood reports.

Climate change is the ‘space race’ for this generation, US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tells young voters. Democratic rival Barack Obama urges them to be the leaders who prevent ‘global catastrophe’, while John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, praises young people for taking on an issue larger than themselves.

As election fever grows in the US these candidates are wisely tapping into a growing pro-green sentiment on college campuses. The groundswell is reflected in the burgeoning number of renewable energy clubs, an array of new class offerings on sustainable practices, and the large number of graduates heading into clean energy jobs.

As a result, students are lobbying administrators to make green energy purchases, erect wind turbines and install solar panels. And administrators are listening, creating strong opportunities for renewables at the nation’s 4100 colleges, which together create a US $317 billion industry.

Recent months have seen colleges announce myriad green energy projects. Babson College, for instance, has said it will become the first Boston-area college to build an on-site wind turbine, the result of a proposal by three graduate students. Oregon’s Lewis & Clark, which already secures 30% of its electricity from green energy thanks to voluntary student donations, unveiled a partnership with Honeywell International to install solar panels at a campus sports facility. Students at the University of Colorado in Boulder agreed to put $50,000 a year in their student funds toward wind energy.

These are just a few of the hundreds of the college sustainability efforts tracked by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), which helps US and Canadian colleges cultivate earth-friendly practices. AASHE publishes an annual digest of green efforts on campuses and the number of colleges in the digest jumped from 250 in 2005 to 629 in 2006, the latest year available.

The Kentucky-based organization is itself an example of how much interest has intensified. Begun just two years ago, AASHE has seen membership grow from 40 to more than 500 colleges, universities, businesses and organizations. Members include big names such as Harvard, Princeton and Stanford universities and MIT for example.

This growth may be just the tip of the iceberg, according to the Apollo Institute’s New Campus Report, which states: ‘College and university campuses are uniquely placed to affect America’s energy future. The higher education sector is a
$317 billion industry that educates and employs millions of people, maintains thousands of buildings and owns millions of acres of land. It spends billions of dollars on fuel, energy and infrastructure. And the footprint of higher education is widening - enrolment between 2000 and 2013 is expected to increase by 23%.’

Among the 200 colleges in North America with the largest endowments, 37% now purchase renewable energy and 30% produce their own wind or solar energy, according to the College Sustainability Report Card 2008. Published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the report looked at schools with endowments that range from $230 million to nearly $35 billion. It found a ‘green groundswell’ with almost 45% of colleges committing to fight climate change, 59% using green building standards in new construction and 42% purchasing hybrid or electric vehicles.

‘It used to be that the football star won the girls; these days it is the head of the college renewable energy club,’ jokes Ron Kenedi, vice president, Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group. But, as the expression goes, many a true word is spoken in jest.

Clean energy love

Given the rapid installation rate of on-site renewable energy, AASHE predicts that soon more campuses will have green power than not. ‘In many cases, students are the drivers. It is public awareness, largely around global warming and potential energy scarcity that has led to a demand from students for these changes,’ says Judy Walton, AASHE acting executive director.

Students are promoting clean energy not only by creating campus organizations, but also by uniting into multi-college groups. One ‘very powerful’ group, Walton says, is the Energy Action Coalition, comprised of 50 student-led organizations. The group was instrumental in attracting more than 5500 students to Washington, DC, in November for the first youth summit on climate change. Energy Action said it timed the convergence on Capitol Hill to be one-year before the 2008 Presidential election. The idea was to send a message to the candidates and Congress that a growing youth movement wants bold political leadership on green energy.

More recently, on Valentine’s Day, Energy Action members in Michigan sent cards to state lawmakers as part of a programme called Cleanenergylove.com. They asked the legislators to support a renewable portfolio standard of at least 25% by 2025 and increase energy efficiency 2% annually through 2015. The group also pushed for the state to institute integrated resource planning for utilities, which takes into account energy efficiency options. The group also lobbied for a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Michigan.

Energy Action has also called upon students to reject the ritual of heading to the beach to party over the March spring break, due as REW goes to press. Instead, Energy Action members will take a trip to coal country: Ohio and Virginia. The ‘Mountain Justice Spring Break’ offers a chance to help clean a coal-soiled river, protest mountain-top coal removal, and attend workshops on the life-cycle of coal.

‘All over the country students have already set in motion a clean energy revolution on campuses by successfully demanding that their schools phase out dirty energy and commit to efficiency and truly clean energy sources,’ says Brianna Cayo Cotter, Communications Director for the Energy Action Coalition. ‘At Mountain Justice Spring Break youths are making sure that their communities and this country follow suit,’ she adds.

College presidents do seem to be following suit - or perhaps leading the way alongside their students. About 500 college presidents have signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Members agree to set up plans that will make their campuses climate-neutral within a specific time period through energy conservation, renewable energy, offsets and other strategies. Pennsylvania’s Lafayette College joined Climate Commitment in January, shortly after technology students finished a two-semester project on how to make the campus green, which offered ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of the Commitment, college presidents must integrate sustainability into the curriculum. This, combined with the growing number of ‘green collar’ jobs, has led to several new courses and degree-granting programmes that focus on green alternatives.

For example, Stanford University, University of Michigan and Yale University now all offer joint degrees through their business and environmental schools. The University of California Berkeley has 250 faculty members and 375 classes available that focus on the environment. In all, the university offers 51 graduate and 35 undergraduate environmental degrees, with energy research as a strong component of many of these. The University of Virginia has integrated sustainability studies into architecture, engineering, business and other disciplines in response to strong demand. Meanwhile, several two-year community colleges are dedicating themselves to training the more than 5000 solar installers the US forecasts it will need by 2015.

To read this full story and others by Elisa Wood go to http://www.realenergywriters.com and click on Elisa Wood.

Solar Pool Heating in the USA: Luxury with a Clear Conscience

Originally Published in Sun and Wind Energy Magazine:

By Lisa Cohn and Reid Smith

The U.S. solar pool market – the biggest in the world – has grown 7 to 8 percent per year over the past four years, driven by high energy prices, growth in new housing, and increased awareness about climate change.

Solar pool heating accounts for the largest number of installations in the U.S. and has grown at an average annual rate of 8 % for the past four years,” says the Solar Energy Industry Association’s (SEIA) 2007 US Solar Industry Year in Review.

“Unlike other solar technologies, the pool heating market thrives with virtually no incentives. Altogether, the U.S. solar industry has shipped over 100 million square feet of non-glazed solar collectors for pool heating in the past 10 years.” The sunny states of California and Florida comprise two-thirds of the market, where consumers like to swim year-round, explains Kimia Mizany, director of business development for Solar Depot, based in Petaluma California.

Even with the size of the existing market, there’s much potential for growth. “Fifty percent of in-ground pools in the U.S. are heated; that’s a huge market,” analyses Dave Sizelove, president of Aquatherm Industries, Lakewood, New Jersey, one of the largest manufacturers of solar pool systems.

However, in spite of growth in the industry over the past four years, some areas of the country have seen a dip in sales recently due to the economic downturn. “Right now, with our economic slow down and problems in the housing market we suspect that new pool sales are not robust,” says Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA), Rio Vista, California. Because consumers generally purchase solar systems along with new pools (which most often accompany a new home), a dip in new pool sales equates to fewer solar pool sales, she explains. “But it will come back because so many Californians enjoy swimming and family time in their own backyards. Solar pool heating is a natural complement for those who would enjoy a warmer pool and a longer swimming season,” she adds.

In spite of that setback, new awareness on the part of consumers is increasing the market in parts of the country not usually known for solar pool heating. “There are increased markets in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, and New York,” says Freeman Ford, president and CEO of Fafco Inc., Chico, California.

New incentives are on the way

Other areas are seeing an uptake in sales in response to new incentives. For example, in

Florida, homeowners receive an automatic US$ 100 rebate for installing solar pool heating systems, according to Bruce Kershner, executive director of the Florida Solar Energy Industry Association (FLASEIA), Longwood, Florida.

In Oregon – which offers state tax credits of up to US$ 1,500 after installation is complete – sales are booming, says Brent Gunderson, president of Gen-Con Inc., Portland, Oregon. Many utilities offer additional incentives – up to US$ 1,000, according to Solar Oregon, a non-profit solar education center in Portland, Oregon. “Our sales are off the charts,” stresses Gunderson, “They have gone up since the state introduced new solar incentives.”

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Price parity for US solar: Is the goal within sight?

Originally Published for Renewable Energy World Magazine:

By Elisa Wood

Rising fossil fuel costs and a dramatic up tick in solar installations may at last help the US solar industry achieve its goal of price parity with grid power. Elisa Wood reports on state and federal efforts.

From his corporate headquarters in Maryland, Jigar Shah hears a lot these days about a US$1.8 billion transmission line being planned to push coal-fired generation to his state from West Virginia, 460 km away. As founder of SunEdison, a major US solar services and installation company, Shah thinks about the project differently than others might. ‘If it is not a subsidy to the coal industry, than what is it?’ asks Shah. And, he further posits, what might the price of solar look like if it were to receive such a boon? Or what if distributed resources could meet the state’s energy need without the investment required in transmission?

Shah’s musings strike to the heart of an issue that continues to beguile the US solar industry – price or ‘grid’ parity – the ability to accurately compare how solar energy prices stack up against grid power and to use that information to create a level playing field. Solar advocates argue that it is difficult to pinpoint because the true cost of grid power is masked. The more established fuels for electricity generation enjoy the benefits of a system built largely to meet their needs. Subsidies are so entrenched – like the transmission line – that they are not perceived as a hand-out to the status quo.

But now, several analysts say price equality may not be far off. US shipments of photovoltaic panels jumped more than 50% between 2005 and 2006, according to an October 2007 report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Such rapid-fire growth is expected to continue, driving down panel costs as production expands. The Solar America Initiative, a programme of the US Department of Energy (DoE), has set a goal of bringing solar to grid parity by 2015 – reducing photovoltaic energy for residential consumers from a benchmark 2005 price of 23 cents–32 cents/kWh to 8 cents - 10 cents/kWh. With the industry expected to emerge from its silicon shortage in two years, analysts say the DoE’s goals look plausible. Morgan Stanley analysts recently reported that solar prices could drop by half in five years. And in a joint paper, the Worldwatch Institute and the Prometheus Institute say a fast drop in costs will make solar a mainstream power option in just a few years.

The deregulation miscalculation

It is not falling prices, alone, that will help solar achieve parity. The true cost of fossil fuel needs to be revealed, say solar advocates. And help is coming, in part, as a result of a miscalculation made when several states liberalized their markets several years ago.

At the time, lawmakers struck deals with utilities to freeze rates in return for various concessions. The thinking was that by the time the rate caps were lifted, deregulation would have worked its magic and customers would have a wide choice of low-cost power products. What the deregulation crafters could not foresee was that a series of hurricanes would cripple the US Gulf Coast in 2005, spiking already rising gas prices.

In a confluence of events unfortunate for the consumer, this was about the same time that price caps began to come off in several states. Utility rates skyrocketed – in some cases to record highs, in such states as Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois and Rhode Island.

The result was the US’ largest hike in electricity rates in 25 years, according to the EIA. While prices rose in all parts of the country, the biggest increases occurred in 14 eastern states, and the main cause ‘was the lifting of retail electricity price caps,’ according to the federal agency. Many consumers blamed deregulation, spurring some states to rollback elements of restructuring.

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Early Start to Good Energy Habits

Originally published by EnergyBiz Magazine:

By Lisa Cohn

In 1977, Ward Eames was a 19-yearold theater student at the University of Minnesota who sported shoulder-length hair, bell-bottoms and clogs. Only a few years had passed since the oil crisis of the early 1970s.

Eames, who specialized in children’s theater, realized one day while performing in front of 600 children that he could capture kids’ attention through theater and educate them about important issues such as energy conservation.

“I saw the power of theater and realized you could educate with this power — and entertain,” he says. “There was something special about the relationship between a live stage actor and the kids in the audience.”

Eames began paying visits to businesses in Minneapolis, and soon had a taker for his idea. Northern States Power, now Xcel Energy, asked Eames to bring into 360 schools a show about electrical safety and energy conservation.

In no time, the college student had added Edison Electric, Seattle City Light, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to his list of clients.

Eames’ company, now called the National Theatre for Children, based in Minneapolis, has grown 20 percent per year for the past five years — due in large part to interest in energy-related issues. Energy shows now make up 30 percent of NTC’s business, attracting utility companies eager to get their conservation, safety and renewable-energy messages into the schools and in front of parents.

NTC’s performances, which cost about $3 per child, feature “silly, funny, adventure-comedy in live interactive theater,” Eames says. For example,

“Boomerang Jack and The Unseen Green Machine” pits Boomerang Jack, an adventure nut who knows a lot about green energy, against The Great Waster, a super villain determined to waste energy.

Such programs, funded by utilities, have proven popular with schools. St. Louis-based Ameren this year offered NTC’s Boomerang Jack program to 200 schools, and the program was oversubscribed within 10 days, says Bill Barbieri, manager of renewable energy for the company.

“One of the main things we wanted to emphasize was education,” Barbieri says. “We thought it was so critical to our customer base. Our customers here in the Midwest probably aren’t as well versed in renewable energy as other customers across the country.”

One of the keys to the NTC programs: They reach parents by including homework that’s supposed to be completed by the child and one or more parents.

“This is geared toward grades kindergarten through 6th grade. Much of the information in that age group still goes home to mom and dad,” says Barbieri. “Parents review the homework. In this age group, this was a means to get the information back home to the parents.”

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