Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:November 12, 2004

News and Events

• DOE to Help Install Concentrating Solar Power in the West
• Colorado Voters Approve Renewable Energy Requirement
• Voters in 11 States Pass Transit Measures
• Pennsylvania Awards $5 million in Clean Energy Grants
• Study Finds Low Impact from Massachusetts Offshore Wind Farm

Site News

• Clean Energy States Alliance

Energy Connections

• Russian Ratification Brings Kyoto Protocol Into Effect
  

News and Events

DOE to Help Install Concentrating Solar Power in the West

DOE announced last week that it will support efforts to install a total of 1000 megawatts of concentrating solar power (CSP) systems in seven western states by 2010. CSP systems involve focusing and collecting the sun’s heat and converting it into electricity, and are best suited for hot, sunny desert climates. With that in mind, the Western Governor’s Association (WGA) is backing a five-year, $1,860,000 effort to encourage CSP installations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. Through a cooperative, cost-shared agreement with WGA, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy will provide $90,000 for the first year and offer its CSP expertise over the life of the project. WGA and the involved states will provide $61,690 toward the project in the first year, and WGA expects to provide additional funding in the future.

During the project’s first year, participants expect to form a stakeholder group, develop a process by which stakeholders in the region can achieve the 1000-megawatt goal, and possibly form a utility consortium. The effort supports on-going projects in several states, including a 1-megawatt CSP plant being built in Arizona, a 50-megawatt CSP plant slated for Nevada in 2005, a New Mexico task force to determine the most appropriate CSP technology for the state, and a California task force that is developing a wide-ranging strategy to advance solar energy. See the DOE press release, and for more information about CSP technologies, see DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Web site.

Colorado Voters Approve Renewable Energy Requirement

Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative last week that requires the state’s largest utilities to draw on renewable energy for 10 percent of their power needs by 2015. The measure is the first voter-approved statewide renewable energy requirement in the United States, and is a clear indicator of public support for renewable energy. The measure also requires solar power to provide 4 percent of the renewable energy, and half of the solar power must be located at customers’ facilities. To encourage their customers to install solar power, the utilities must offer a rebate of $2 per watt for systems up to 100 kilowatts in capacity, and must allow the customers’ solar power generation to earn credit against their power use, a concept known as net metering. The initiative requires the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to initiate a rulemaking process before April 1st and have the new rules in place a year later. See the press release from Environment Colorado or download the full text of the initiative (PDF 24 KB).

According to Platts, an energy information company owned by McGraw-Hill, the Colorado renewable energy initiative will require a total of 1,200 megawatts of wind power capacity in Colorado by 2015. Although biomass, geothermal, and solar energy also qualify to meet the requirement, as well as fuel cells powered with renewable-generated hydrogen, Platts argues that wind power is the lowest-cost choice for the state. Platts also estimates the measure could result in 80 megawatts of new solar power in the state. See the McGraw-Hill press release.

Voters in 11 States Pass Transit Measures

Voters throughout the country showed their support for transit systems on Election Day. Of 31 transit-related ballot initiatives in 12 states, 22 were approved and 2 remain too close to call, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence (CFTE), a non-partisan policy research center. At least one transit measure passed in each of 11 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. See the CFTE press advisory and summary of ballot measures.

Among the winning measures is a plan to improve bus service and add 27 miles of light rail in Phoenix, Arizona; a measure to expand train service and develop express bus and bus rapid transit systems in San Bernardino, California; a 12-year plan to expand bus service, add bus rapid transit, and build 119 miles of new light rail and commuter rail in Denver, Colorado; and an effort to convert existing railroad track into a commuter line in Austin, Texas. But one measure that passed was actually a defeat for transit, and one measure that failed was a victory: Florida voters approved a measure to stop high-speed rail development in the state, while voters in Seattle, Washington, defeated a proposal to stop the Seattle Monorail project, thereby allowing the project to move ahead. See the summaries of the Phoenix, San Bernardino, and Denver plans; the press release from Austin’s Capital Metro Transit; and the Florida High-Speed Rail and Seattle Monorail Project Web sites.

Pennsylvania Awards $5 million in Clean Energy Grants

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced last week its award of $5 million to 34 advanced energy projects, marking the second round of funding for the state’s Clean Energy Harvest initiative. The grants will go toward a wide range of projects, including a variety of biomass energy projects, four small wind turbines, a wind-driven composting facility, eight projects to install a variety of solar power systems, a solar- and wind-powered water pumping system, a solar-powered greenhouse with a corn-fired furnace, a solar desiccant heat pump, a green roof installation, a high-performance green school, a truck stop electrification system (which helps avoid unnecessary idling by trucks), and a microturbine fueled with methane recovered from the mouth of a coal mine.

The biomass energy projects include six anaerobic digesters; an effort to provide heating, cooling, and power from advanced anaerobic digesters at five industrial sites; a project to recover energy from a wastewater treatment plant effluent; a landfill gas system; the installation of a wood-fired heat and hot water system; an effort to turn trap grease into motor fuel and heating oil; an attempt to convert mushroom compost into ethanol and electricity; and a project to build the market for biofuels in the state. See the DEP press release.

Study Finds Low Impact from Massachusetts Offshore Wind Farm

Cape Wind LLC’s proposed wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts will have minimal environmental impact, according to the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released yesterday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The 3,800-page report is the product of three years of scientific, environmental, and economic analysis and includes the input of 17 federal, state, and local agencies.

Cape Wind first proposed the 454-megawatt wind facility in Nantucket Sound in 2002. To examine possible alternatives, the Corps identified 17 other possible locations for the wind plant, then narrowed that list to the four best alternatives. According to Cape Wind, the study finds the Nantucket Sound site on Horseshoe Shoal to be technically, environmentally, and economically preferable to the other sites. See the announcements from the Corps (PDF 28 KB) and Cape Wind, or go directly to the draft EIS.

Site News

Clean Energy States Alliance

The Clean Energy States Alliance is a multistate coalition of clean energy funds that develops and promotes clean energy technologies and creates and expands markets for these technologies. Twelve states have established funds to promote renewable energy and clean energy technologies. The Clean Energy States Alliance provides information and technical services to these funds and works with them to build and expand clean energy markets in the United States. See the Clean Energy States Alliance Web site.

Energy Connections

Russian Ratification Brings Kyoto Protocol Into Effect

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law last week to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which will soon bring the international agreement into effect. The Protocol contains legally binding greenhouse gas emissions targets for 36 industrialized countries, requiring them to reduce their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent by 2012, compared to 1990 levels. According to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the final step in the ratification process will be the deposit of the formal instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations in New York, an event expected to occur in the coming weeks. The Kyoto Protocol will enter into force 90 days after that. Although the United States is not participating in the Kyoto Protocol, the agreement is expected to result in an international emissions-trading system among developed countries and will encourage those countries to finance sustainable energy projects in developing countries. See the UNFCCC Web site.

Russia’s ratification came just before Monday’s release of the Arctic Climate Impact Report, a four-year scientific assessment commissioned by the International Arctic Science Committee and the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council is a ministerial intergovernmental forum comprised of the eight nations that ring the Arctic, including the United States and Russia, plus six organizations representing the indigenous Arctic tribes. The study finds that the Arctic is warming at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the globe, causing the impacts of global warming to be in greater evidence there. See the report and associated press releases on the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program Web site.

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