8 Nov 2010

Hawaii Rolls Out Feed-in Tariff for Distributed Renewables

by | Date: 8 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The Hawaii Public Utility Commission moved ahead with the state’s feed-in tariff for projects under 500 kW, overruling objections from the state’s largest utility:

The decision came despite requests from Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) to postpone the program over concerns that added distributed generation resources could destabilize the islands’ power grids.

…However, none of HECO’s objections “appeared to be fatal flaws that warranted any further delay in the development and implementation of the FIT [feed-in tariff] program,” according to statement released by the PUC.

The prices for the feed-in tariff program are as follows, with 20-year contracts:

 

Tier Technology Eligible System Size Rate
Tier 1 Photovoltaics Less than or equal to 20 kW $0.218/kWh
Tier 1 Concentrating Solar Power Less than or equal to 20 kW $0.269/kWh
Tier 1 On-Shore Wind Less than or equal to 20 kW $0.161/kWh
Tier 1 In-line Hydro Less than or equal to 20 kW $0.213/kWh
Tier 2 Photovoltaics Greater than 20 kW, less than or equal to 500 kW $0.189/kWh
Tier 2 Concentrating Solar Power Greater than 20 kW, less than or equal to 500 kW $0.254/kWh
Tier 2 On-Shore Wind Greater than 20 kW, less than or equal to 100 kW $0.138/kWh
Tier 2 In-line Hydro Greater than 20 kW, less than or equal to 100 kW $0.189/kWh
Baseline FIT Other RPS-Eligible Renewable Energy Technologies** Maximum size limits for facilities $0.138/kWh

The prices assume that the producer will take the Hawaii renewable energy income tax credit (35%). 

The program is capped at 80 MW of production: 60 MW on Oahu, 10 MW on the Big Island, and 10 MW for Maui, Lanai, Molokai combined.

Utility helps developers find capacity

The largest utility on the islands, HECO, has also published Locational Value Maps (LVM) to help developers identify places of greatest capacity on the existing grid.

… Read More
8 Nov 2010

Cost of Fossil Fuels Makes Renewables a Harder Sell?

by | Date: 8 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This story on Sunday suggests that utilities are pulling back from investments in renewable energy over concerns about the cost. 

Invenergy…had a contract to sell [wind] power to a utility in Virginia, but state regulators rejected the deal, citing the recession and the lower prices of natural gas and other fossil fuels.

“The ratepayers of Virginia must be protected from costs for renewable energy that are unreasonably high,” the regulators said. Wind power would have increased the monthly bill of a typical residential customer by 0.2 percent.

Based on what price forecast?  The following chart illustrates the complexity of relying on fossil fuel prices when making decisions about renewable energy.  Note that wind and solar prices are relatively stable (i.e. zero).

The chart does a good job of showing the futility of predicting natural gas prices, but the timeline smooths out coal price changes, particularly by region.  Here’s a closer look at coal prices since 2007, courtesy of the federal EIA:

Utilities that are making shortsighted decisions about renewables based on current fossil fuel price trajectories are going to get burned, and so are their ratepayers. 

… Read More
5 Nov 2010

Provincial Feed-in Tariffs Spurring Community Power

by | Date: 5 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

With its feed-in tariff, the Canadian province of Ontario is set to become the leading community renewable energy center in North America. 

In an Oct. 12, 2010 report, [Ontario Power Authority] said that it has signed contracts for 264 megawatts of community-owned projects, and another 120 megawatts of projects owned by Ontario’s aboriginal peoples. The contracts represent 16 percent of Ontario’s 2,500 megawatts of feed-in tariff contracts to date.

No other jurisdiction in North America has made such a concerted effort as Ontario has to guarantee that a portion of the new renewable generating capacity to be built will be owned by its own citizens and native peoples through the province’s innovative feed-in tariff program.

This is in addition to Ontario’s microFIT program (a small renewable energy project program under the umbrella of feed-in tariff programs), which assures connection for homeowners and farmers wanting to generate electricity with solar panels for sale to the grid. There are 20,000 applications for microFIT contracts.

It’s noteworthy that despite Ontario’s success, Europeans still have significant leads based on their longstanding feed-in tariff policies.

…One-half of all wind generation in Germany, or more than 12,000 megawatts, is owned by local investors. The percentage of local ownership is even higher in Denmark and the Netherlands.

But North Americans are learning.  Vermont recently adopted a feed-in tariff, and the several other U.S. states and the Canadian province of Nova Scotia are also considering it.

Nova Scotia begins hearings Nov. 8, 2010 on the province’s community feed-in tariff program. The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board will determine feed-in tariffs for large and small wind, biomass, and tidal power that will go into effect on April 4, 2011. Projects in the 100 megawatt program are set aside for Nova Scotians.

… Read More
4 Nov 2010

Public Utilities Finding Smart Grid Success

by | Date: 4 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

While there have been prominent news stories of smart grid cost overruns and customer dissatisfaction with programs run by investor-owned utilities, municipal utility smart grid programs are enjoying success.  Earlier this week, Public Power Daily featured three municipal utilities whose smart grid efforts are paying off. 

In two cases, city-owned fiber optic broadband networks are providing crucial information and revenue to support the smart grid.  In every case, customer satisfaction ranks much higher than rate of return on investment (although every investment will pay back).

EPB, the municipal utility serving the Chattanooga [Tennessee] area, is close to completing its rollout of a fiber optic system that will make the utility the first Internet service provider in the nation to offer 1-gigabit-per-second service (see the Sept. 16 Public Power Daily)…the utility is preparing to install new reclosers on its distribution system that will use its fiber optic network to measure current and voltages, locate faults and open and close switches…The IntelliRupter reclosers and software made by S&C Electric Co. “will play a critical role in helping us reach our goal of a 40% reduction in customer outage minutes,” Wade said. Based on an Energy Department study, outages cost Chattanooga an estimated $100 million a year, he said…The information gathered by the new reclosers should help with transformer load management, cutting down on transformer maintenance and allowing the utility to replace transformers with smaller ones, Wade said.

In 2008, with the help of a consultant, the [Leesburg, FL] utility put together a smart grid business plan that projected operational savings of $900,000 for the city’s electric system and an additional $400,000 for the water system, he said. Then, in 2009, Leesburg became one of 33 public power utilities to win smart grid grants from the Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The utility received $9.75 million (which it must match) for its smart grid project, plus a $1.4 million energy efficiency and conservation block grant…With the grants, Leesburg is installing smart meters for all of its 23,000 customers, plus more than 4,000 energy management systems that will allow customers to program when they operate their electrical appliances such as air conditioners and water heaters. With the goal of reducing peak demand, the utility will look at a variety of incentive rate plans… Leesburg plans to give its customers a guarantee that those opting for an incentive rate will not pay more than the utility’s flat rate, he said. “The folks that want to participate, we want to reward,” he said.

Ponca City has 155 miles of fiber that connects eight towers, a wireless mesh system with 500 WiFi radios, and 28,000 electric and water meters, said Technology Services Director Craige Baird. That robust communications system provides a variety of benefits. After the utility replaced all of its meters, it found a lot of losses and recouped almost $500,000 in the first year in back sales, he said.

For more on the value of publicly-owned broadband networks, see Muninetworks.org, run by our ILSR colleague Christopher Mitchell.

… Read More
2 Nov 2010

Is Focus on Bigger Projects Holding Solar Back in the U.S.?

by | Date: 2 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

An article in the New York Times last week suggested that a dearth of financing is holding back solar power in the United States. In particular, the authors note that “the country needs to build large plants covering hundreds of acres,” projects that can cost $1 billion. These large solar projects are languishing without financing, they assert, in part because of the lengthy process to claim federal government loan guarantees and because “Bankers generally prefer smaller, less risky projects and shorter-term loans than the 20-year terms solar plants typically need.”… Read More
1 Nov 2010

Focus on Big Holds Solar Back in U.S.

by | Date: 1 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

An article in the New York Times last week suggested that a dearth of financing is holding back solar power in the United States. In particular, the authors note that “the country needs to build large plants covering hundreds of acres,” projects that can cost $1 billion. These large solar projects are languishing without financing, they … Read More
1 Nov 2010

The Irrationality of Complicated Subsidies

by | Date: 1 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

But assuming we can agree that there’s good reason to subsidize solar power, as well as other forms of low-carbon electricity (including nuclear), you have to ask — is this hodge-podge of loan guarantees, federal funds and ratepayer support an efficient way to do so? Wouldn’t it be better to enact a steep carbon tax, and then let all forms of energy compete? Should a friend of mine who lives in upscale Los Altos and put a $35,000 solar system on his roof be subsidized by the rest of us? Is this going to lead us to a sustainable energy future, one in which we can collectively make smart choices? I don’t know. But somehow I think not.

A great argument for a feed-in tariff as well.

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1 Nov 2010

Largest Parts of the Electric Grid are the Most Vulnerable

by | Date: 1 Nov 2010 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

A recent study in the journal Safety Science suggested that the most vulnerable parts of the grid were the smallest, like neighborhood substations. 

“That’s a bunch of hooey,” says Seth Blumsack, Hines’s colleague at Penn State.

Hines and Blumsack’s recent study, published in the journal Chaos on Sept. 28, found just the opposite. Drawing on real-world data from the Eastern U.S. power grid and accounting for the two most important laws of physics governing the flow of electricity, they show that “the most vulnerable locations are the ones that have most flow through them,” Hines says. Think highly connected transformers and major power-generating stations. Score one point for common sense.

And score one point for distributed generation. 

… Read More

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