15 Mar 2011

Study: Getting Local Buy-in of Renewable Energy Projects

by | Date: 15 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Methodical as ever, a European research group has published a study of “benefit-sharing mechanisms” to help renewable energy project developers gain local acceptance of their projects. 

Summary

Communities have three types of objections to renewable energy projects – environmental, NIMBY, and opportunism.  The study examines eight ways that developers can share benefits with the local community in order to address their objections to renewable energy projects. 

In a sentence: people want to avoid environmental and personal harm and share in the economic benefits of their local renewable energy resources and developers will increase their chances of success by addressing local desires.

U.S. developers should take note that opposition to wind farms may not seem so perverse when seen in the context of trying to use a community’s “free” renewable resource.

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15 Mar 2011

Ontario’s Buy Local Renewable Energy Policy: An Update

by | Date: 15 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In January, we released a report – Maximizing Jobs From Clean Energy: Ontario’s ‘Buy Local’ Policy – highlighting the impressive job forecast (43,000 jobs) from Ontario’s CLEAN Contract (a.k.a. feed-in tariff) program.  News from the province suggests that the program is overcoming hurdles and continuing to grow. Forecasts for 2011 indicate that Ontario could become North … Read More
14 Mar 2011

Distributed Solar PV Beats Grid Prices with “Balance of System” Cost Reductions

by | Date: 14 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Cutting non-module solar PV costs with best design practices could make solar PV cost less than grid electricity for more than 25 percent of Americans. Half of the installed cost of a solar PV array is the solar module, but the other half (the “balance of system”) involves labor, assembly, and other components.  With module prices … Read More
11 Mar 2011

Court Strikes Down Federal Overreach in Grid Planning

by | Date: 11 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

With the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress gave broad powers to the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to identify “congested” transmission corridors in order to prioritize new high-voltage transmission development and to provide higher financial returns to transmission development companies. The decision created a lot of controversy, since FERC … Read More
10 Mar 2011

High Penetration of PV No Issue for Kauian Grid

by | Date: 10 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

As long as the penetration of PV on the grid is low, the utility should have no trouble maintaining power quality as the output from PV systems fluctuate. However, even if overall PV penetration levels in a region are low, it is possible to have local “hot spots” where penetration on a single distribution circuit is very high. In this case utilities have concerns that power quality will suffer on that distribution circuit due to the high penetration of PV. [Kauai Island Utility Cooperative] KIUC is testing that hypothesis to the extreme with its 1.2 MW solar farm, by supplying 100% of a distribution circuit with PV during the day. [emphasis added]

Now for the good news: as the utility monitors the distribution circuit on sunny days and cloudy days, with the PV system turned on and the PV system turned off, they are seeing very little difference in the voltage levels, harmonics, and overall power quality between the different scenarios. These preliminary results suggest that utilities could go to very high levels of PV penetration in localized areas without causing problems for the grid. KIUC is continuing to monitor the system, but the initial results look very positive for the PV industry. [emphasis added]

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10 Mar 2011

U.S Grid Can Handle Lots of Solar PV with Low Integration Costs

by | Date: 10 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

A state such as New York should be capable of absorbing and benefiting from well over 7 GW of high- value PV without having to incur significant integration costs beyond the cost of PV itself, further noting that the storage sizes involved could well be met with a smart deployment of interactive plug-in transportation...the low-cost penetration potential is large enough to allow for the development of a considerable localized, high-value PV generation market worth 100’s of GW in the US.

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10 Mar 2011

Penny-wise or Pound-Foolish Policies for Renewable Energy: Auctions and CLEAN Contracts

by | Date: 10 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Toby Couture is one of the pre-eminent experts on cost-effectiveness of renewable energy policies and his comparative analysis of  auctions (such as California recently adopted for distributed generation) and CLEAN Contracts (a.k.a. feed-in tariffs) is a must-read.

By Toby Couture, E3 Analytics

In his conclusion to a recent speech at the London School of Economics, Lord Turner, Chair of the Financial Services Authority in the UK, introduced an important distinction in reference to the financial crisis: he explained that “Stability matters a lot; minor gains in allocative efficiency matter little.”

The reference is specifically to the unprecedented financial innovation that occurred over the course of the last decade, innovation that was heralded by many within the sector as a means of improving the overall “efficiency” of the financial market. Efficiency in this context means that resources (financial and other) would be allocated in a way that would better promote human welfare.

As the economy continues to reel from the effects of the financial crisis, average citizens may be excused for failing to see the welfare gains that came from all this “innovation;” indeed, two years on, it is now generally acknowledged that this innovation was taken too far, and resulted in a net loss of welfare for society, and for the taxpayers who are now footing the bill.

One of the insights behind Lord Turner’s comment is that, in such situations, it is indeed possible for us to be penny-wise and pound-foolish, to put too much faith in efficiency at the expense of market stability.

Read more at wind-works.org…

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10 Mar 2011

An App for Distributed Electric Vehicle Charging

by | Date: 10 Mar 2011 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

A new iPhone app is networking electric vehicle owners, letting them share their outlets to expand the charging options for new plug-in hybrid and all-electric cars. 

On Monday, Xatori released PlugShare, a free iPhone app that lets drivers and outlet owners locate and offer electricity.

“We want to break down that barrier in people’s minds about where it’s acceptable to charge,” said Armen Petrosian, Xatori’s co-founder and chief technology officer. “We think the infrastructure to charge is everywhere.” [emphasis added]
 

Drivers can punch in their destination to see the availability of shared outlets as well as public charging stations along their route.

People who want to share their electricity indicate what type of outlet or charger they have, how to gain access and their preferred method of contact. Given that most outlets are located in locked garages or otherwise behind closed doors, Xatori expects plug sharers will ask drivers to schedule a time to charge by calling or sending a text message.

A great illustration of how distributed resources can help meet a new technological need.  For more on electric vehicles (in the Midwest), check out our 2009 scoping report, Electric Vehicle Policy For the Midwest – A Scoping Document.

Update 3/16/11: Google added EV charging stations to Google Maps.

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