Duck River making
easy switch to green power
TSI Staff Writer - Aug 7-2008 - Manchester Independant Tennessee USA
If you think alternative energy sources like solar and wind power are a good idea, and want to more of the electricity you use in your home to come from these sources, TVA and its local power suppliers like Duck River Electric have an easy way for you to make it happen. By participating in TVA's Green Power Switch program, electric customers can help subsidize the development of wind farms and solar generators.
The Green Power Switch program is a voluntary program started by TVA which allows members of local electric cooperatives to purchase 150 kilowatt-hour blocks of energy at a rate of $4 per block.
"These funds are used exclusively by TVA in their generation of power utilizing renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and methane gas," said Charles McDonald, spokesman for Duck River Electric Membership Cooperative.
"I think in the years to come, we're all going to be faced with the issue of making greener choices," McDonald said. "As everyone knows, it's more expensive to bring these power sources online, and the cost for each killowatt hour is higher than that for coal, hydroelectric or nuclear. Because of the added expense, it is programs like these that allow them to get involved in solar, wind and methane gas."
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So far, Green Power Switch customers have helped build 15 windmills on a mountain near Oak Ridge which generate up 29 megawatts of power, enough to power 3,780 homes. They have also helped build 16 photovoltaic solar systems at various locations in the Tennessee Valley, which can generate over 88,000 killowatts when the sun is shining. And, they have helped modify a coal-fired steam plant to use methane from the City of Memphis' wastewater treatment system, saving 20,000 tons of coal a year.
And that's with just a tiny fraction of eligible customers taking part in the program. Duck River Electric currently has 205 members participating in the program, purchasing a total of 937 blocks of energy.
Of the 937 energy blocks purchased, 404 blocks are being purchased by 199 residential members, 34 blocks purchased by small commercial members and 499 blocks being purchased by 3 large commercial and industrial members, including The University of the South, McDonald said.
It's easy to take part in the Green Power Switch program. You can get involved by contacting your local electric provider and asking them to sign you up. Or, you can go online to
You will be asked how many 150 kilowatt-hour blocks per month you want to purchase at $4 each. 150 killowatt hours is about 12 percent of a household's monthly use.
Your blocks won't, of course, be comprised solely of electricity generated from one of the green power sites; but the green power sites you help subsidize will be added to the total electricity flowing into the power grid.
Alternatively, if you have a solar system or wind generator of your own, you can sell electricity to TVA as a Green Power Switch partner. TVA will pay you 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, and residential power customers may qualify for a $500 incentive to help with the costs of starting up their own wind or solar generation.
Solar's future looking brighter
The
Tyler Hamilton
Still, as much as it's
encouraging to see a few points
of light, there's nothing to
brag about — yet. Given enough
support, hundreds of points of
light could emerge from this
province, creating a bright
future for an industry just
itching to prove itself at home
and abroad.
Winds of change
AAER Inc (AAE) is a Quebec-based producer of high capacity wind turbines.
Western Wind Energy Corp. (WND) of Vancouve plans, develops and helps finance wind energy facilities.
Naikun Wind Energy Group Inc. (NKW) is developing an offshore wind project in Northeastern
http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/breve.php3?id_breve=667&lang=en Tuesday 22 July 2008
Greece will continue to utilize lignite while, at least until 2020, it does not plan to include nuclear energy in its energy planning, declared Development Minister Christos Folias after the first informal meeting under the French European Union Presidency of the council of ministers of Environment and Energy.
To a question on Greece’s position concerning nuclear energy and the attempt on the part of France to promote the advantages of constructing nuclear power stations he responded "our position is clear. Of course France has a long tradition with nuclear power stations and it is natural that it should want to sell them. I want to make clear yet again that nuclear power is not included in Greek energy planning up to the year 2020". According to the Development Minister "the great strategy that we have forged is the attempt to develop renewable energy sources."
Solar thermal technology heats up
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209100185&cid=NL_eet
George Leopold EE Times(07/15/2008 1:00 PM EDT)
SAN FRANCISCO — Solar thermal technology that attempts to harness the efficient phase change from water to steam is emerging as the preferred alternative energy technology in the race to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources, experts agree.
Along with cost per watt, solar thermal's biggest selling point is its ability to store energy and deliver electricity to consumers during periods of peak power demand. Experts at a solar conference here this week said "concentrating" solar thermal power could allow utilities and other emerging operators to store steam energy for up to six hours. Super-heated steam is used to drive turbines that generate electricity.
Concentrating, or sun-tracking, photovoltaics and solar thermal power collectors like parabolic troughs follow the sun across the sky at one of more axis points, focusing sunlight to improve the efficiency of solar panels.
Experts here noted that solar thermal's so-called "dispatchability" means stored power could be used to generate electricity that could then be sold to utilities during load peaks on electric grids, usually after 5 p.m. The approach would make solar thermal power far more valuable for plant operators than, say, photovoltaic energy that must be used immediately.
"Thermal energy storage is the killer app of concentrating solar power technology," Andrew McMahan, vice president for technology and projects at SkyFuel (Albuquerque, N.M.), told the solar technology conference held Monday (July 14) in conjunction with Semicon West. Solar thermal collector technologies like parabolic troughs have a good track record after more than 20 years of use, McMahan added. "The technology has steadily improved and is being demanded by utilities" when negotiating power supply agreements with solar operators.
Industry analysts like Jim Hines, Gartner Inc. research director for semiconductors and solar, agree that solar thermal appears best suited to large power projects aimed at supplying electricity to utilities. Other technologies like traditional photovoltaics and concentrating PV systems work best in residential and commercial applications, Hines said.
Among the solar thermal projects discussed here were several "power tower" projects that use concentrating solar collectors to refocus sunlight on "solar boilers." For example, solar developer Brightsource Energy (Oakland, Calif.) is building a 400-megawatt solar thermal complex in California's Mojave Desert, a prime location for a number of planned solar thermal projects. Along with other industry executives here, Brightsource CEO John Wo olard noted that the primary challenge for solar thermal is efficiently transmitting power from remote desert locations to population centers.
Still, experts here agreed that for large alternative energy projects, solar thermal for now appears to be the best approach. According to estimates compiled by the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, solar thermal power-generating costs could drop from about $4.25 per watt in 2008 to $2.5 per watt by 2020.
Solar thermal "is an extremely cost-effective technology compared to other [solar] technologies," said Travis Bradford, founder of the Prometheus Institute, although costs may not drop as fast as competing technologies like traditional and concentrating photovoltaics.
BC's Blind Eye to Sun, Wind Power
Published:
July 8, 2008
British Columbia has a global reputation for developing cheap, renewable energy, thanks to its dependence on hydroelectricity.
But what about tapping tides, wind and sun to create power? In those areas, say experts, B.C. lags far behind other places in the world because we refuse to pay high enough rates to foster those alternative energy sectors.
Critics say that failure to support a range of renewable energy options is a black mark on the green reputation the province is trying to build.
Germany, for example, has literally hundreds of thousands of roof top photovoltaic systems, generating 2,000 GW hours of solar electricity per year. That's nearly half the generating capacity of BC Hydro's proposed Site C dam.
"Germany is the world leader on solar," says Guy Dauncey, president of the B.C. Renewable Energy Association.
"And we get just as much sunshine as they do."
And in 2006, Germany's wind capacity was an astounding 30,5000 GW hours, six times the amount BC Hydro is targeting in it's most recent call for clean power.
The power of 'feed-in tariff'
So why does B.C. have zero solar capacity? Why are we still the only province in Canada without operating wind turbines?
It comes down to what we consider green, and what we're willing to pay for it.
While it's true that Germany still relies on coal for the majority its energy, the country is turning its energy economy around very quickly, thanks in part to the participation of individuals and communities.
Its success is credited to the creation of a feed-in tariff for renewables. Anyone generating electricity from hydro, solar photovoltaic or wind gets paid four times the market rate, guaranteed, for 20 years. There are similar tariffs in Denmark, Spain, France, Portugal and Japan, mostly targeting solar.
"It's a massive incentive to get a lot of power produced," says Dauncey.
"In the early days, it was mostly corporations doing it, but now, in Denmark for example, 50 per cent of power projects are cooperatively owned."
Tough bidding process
BC Hydro has procured its clean power, as mandated by the provincial government's energy plan, with calls to the private sector. It's a competitive process, with potential producers bidding to supply a fixed amount.
The first, in 2002, yielded 14 run-of-river projects, one landfill gas capture project and one wind project (which was terminated in 2005.)
The second, in 2006, resulted in 29 hydro, three wind, two biomass, two waste heat and two coal/biomass projects.
Right now, there is a call for bioenergy, targeting wood residue from the forest industry, including beetle-killed wood, and a call for clean power targeting 5,000 GW hours of electricity per year.
Steve Davis, president of the Independent Power Producers of B.C., says he's aware of 50 to 100 projects, with a total generating capacity of 20,000 GW, that have bid on this latest clean power call.
"In other words, it's a highly competitive bid situation for companies wishing to sell energy," says Davis.
"Three out of four people are going to be losers. They're all going to have to deal very sharply."
This kind of bidding process may keep prices low, but also keeps small players, and higher-priced technologies, out.
Cost of renewable technologies, per kWh:
- Wind energy: 8-9 cents, and falling
- Run of river: 7-9 cents
- Solar: 50 cents, and falling
- Forest biomass: approximately 12 cents
- Nuclear: 20 cents and rising
- Efficiency ("negawatts"): 1-5 cents
- Geothermal: 3-4 cents
"In a competitive bid process you can spend a tremendous amount of money up front and end up with nothing," says Nicholas Heap, a climate and energy policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation.
"If you're a large corporation, that's a calculated risk, but if you're a small co-op or municipality, the risk of putting that much money in to begin with can stop you from even starting."
Revise pricing structure: critics
These were some of the issues the provincial government professed to address with its own version of the feed-in tariff; a standing offer program developed to encourage small renewable projects around the province.
But critics say this program is "weak," and pales in comparison to similar policies in Europe. The problem? It doesn't pay enough, and doesn't differentiate between the varying costs of renewable energy technologies.
The program offers 7.1 to 8.3 cents per kW hour for projects that meet specific criteria: they must use renewable resources, proven technology and be less than 10 MW. The price range is based on region, not technology.
Last summer, BC Hydro held a public consultation process on the design of its standing offer program.
"We intervened early in the process," says Heap.
"We had concerns that there weren't different prices for different technologies. If the point... is to build a renewable energy sector in B.C., that needs to be achieved with different prices to make different technologies viable."
BC's reputation on the line?
Paul Gipe, a renewable energy advocate and one of the principal architects behind Ontario's version of the renewable feed-in tariff, says he was unimpressed by the first drafts of BC Hydro's program.
"What was proposed was pathetic, it was a farce," he says. "They [BC Hydro] were barraged with criticism of the proposal."
Gipe says BC Hydro senior employees consulted him during the development stages.
"[I] laid out a case for how, if B.C. really wanted to stand out with the upcoming Olympics, if the Campbell government and BC Hydro wanted to take a prominent place in North America with renewable energy policy... these are the things they would have to do."
The number one priority, says Gipe, should have been raising the price for renewable energy under the standing offer program.
BC Hydro defends approach
A public affairs officer for BC Hydro said there were some adjustments based on the public feedback process, but no major shifts from the draft version to the one that was officially launched in April.
"The objective of the program is not to subsidize particular forms of renewable energy development," Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources spokesperson Jake Jacobs told The Tyee in an e-mail.
"It is to streamline the process and reduce administrative costs for bringing on new small clean, renewable or high efficiency co-generation projects at a competitive price."
Jacobs also stated that the ministry and BC Hydro are monitoring the program to determine if it's successful in meeting its objectives.
"BC Hydro has the prerogative to say, here's our price point going out, let's see what we get," says Davis.
Davis points out that the price offered in the standing offer contract was based on the average price of the last call for power, issued in 2006.
"Frankly... to issue a standing offer program with a similar price range ignores the fact that since 2006, the cost of building such things has gone up," he says.
"And in the world of natural resources, the cheapest projects are typically built first."
Chasing the sun in Toronto
What are the implications of having a policy that builds the cheapest, most cost-effective projects first?
Some say we're missing out on an important consequence of feed-in tariffs elsewhere: more community, individual and regional participation in power production, using resources that are available locally.
Next Tuesday, we go to Ontario, where that province's feed-in tariff has prompted a group of Toronto homeowners to invest in the sun.
The answer to global warming is blowing in the wind.
The World Wind Energy Conference was held in Kingston last week, and I would like to commend and thank Volker Thomsen and the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association for all their hard work in bringing this historic event to Kingston and allowing delegates from around the world to see our great city up close.
I have been involved in the environmental movement to some extent for a number of years. It was exciting to see first-hand and hear directly from the people in the renewable energy fields from around the world how close we are with the political will to totally utilize only renewable energies, whether they be wind power, solar energy, geothermal or tidal power, to name a few.
The shocking thing at this time is with these proven renewable technologies working extremely well in Germany and many other progressive nations, that we are even considering putting more money into the pit of nuclear energy even though it may be "clean" greenhouse gas-wise, nuclear energy has severe environmental and health consequences from the mining of it, right through to the disposal and, heaven forbid, any nuclear incidents in between.
This technology is archaic and very dangerous, and is contributing to the environmental damage occurring on the one and only planet we call home.
It is time that every single citizen of the world demanded of their leaders, true leadership and stewardship of our communities, nations and world.
Here in Ontario, it is mind-boggling that $26 billion is being thrown at the nuclear industry, which, as we all know, is heavily subsidized and a money pit, and takes years to even come on stream, while contributing a paltry $3 million to renewable energies.
It is further ironic that we have in Canada a homemade electric vehicle in the ZENN automobile that could also significantly help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Conference Proves Wind advocates not full of hot air
by Rob Matheson, The Kingston Whig-Standard - July 07, 2008
Allowing them on the roads of Ontario would only help advance the technology. In fact, the improved technology is already available. I highly recommend everyone see the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? It is shocking, disturbing and morally outrageous what has been and is being currently perpetrated. However, it is also reassuring to know that we have the ability, if we choose, to stop polluting and despoiling our air quality the way we are.
The Ontario government has not even bothered to answer the call to allow these vehicles to be sold and used in Ontario, nor has it responded to Kingston's and at least 20 other communities' calls for a moratorium on uranium mining and for changes to the Mining Act. Not even the courtesy of a "thank you for your interest" message has been sent on either subject.
We currently have the technologies to provide all our energy needs renewably, what we lack (at least thus far) is the political will power to implement these technologies, programs, policies and changes.
Imagine if you will the $26 billion being planned to be spent on nuclear, instead being diverted to renewable energy of all kinds local to each community, with each feeding into the grid any extra they are producing, becoming not only self-sustaining, but independent providers and suppliers of energy into the grid. Imagine this money improving our distribution network to allow for this to happen with ease.
Imagine as well zero-interest loans being provided to every homeowner and landlord in Ontario to make their own dwellings as self-sufficient and energy wise as possible, even allowing them to be contributors to the grid.
The results of any natural catastrophe would be largely diminished by making every community and home self-sufficient. Power outages would become a thing of the past, and our ability to put a real dent in the causes of climate change would be real.
Embracing the future and the reality of this renewable technological movement would re-energize Ontario, resuscitate our economy and provide a guiding light to the world in making our planet a better place for all of us.
Above all, it would help our environment and help better our chances of survival as a species on this third rock from the sun.
The solutions to climate change are here: we must reduce, reuse and recycle, we must conserve and we must use renewable energy sources. With the price of gas the way it is, the economic incentives for doing the right thing are only becoming greater. One of the silver linings of peak oil is being reached.
The answer to global warming is no longer just blowing in the wind, it is reality, and we must utilize the answers provided in everything we do moving forward. Write your local members of parliament, the premier and prime minister. Make your voices heard by the decision-makers, and insist and vote in any upcoming elections with hope not fear in your hearts for a better, greener future, and only for individuals and parties that embrace these ideals.
The good news is that a number of MPPs, including our own John Gerretsen and Energy Minister George Smitherman, as well as others, were present at the World Wind Energy Conference.
We can only hope that they too heard the message blowing in the wind and will be prepared to be champions for our children's future on this planet.
As David Suzuki indicated in his opening remarks at this historic event, we are in the 11th hour and 59th minute, and in order to make any impact on the suicidal course we are currently on, we must make the appropriate changes. It may be too late to completely alter the course we are on, but it may not be too late to mitigate the completely destructive consequences.
Rob Matheson is the city councillor for Loyalist-Cataraqui district.