Pierre Bull's Blog: Moving Beyond Oil

Clean Energy Promises Abundant Opportunities for Job Growth and Farm Revenues in Arkansas — the 'Natural' State

2009-11-19T17:00:35Z

(From the new Arkansas Clean Energy Report, Figure 1: Mean wind density at 100 meters)

". . . Arkansas has the opportunity to build a strong long-term economy on the solid foundation of its bountiful renewable resources."

Today we released the third installment of our State Clean Energy Economy Issue Papers - Arkansas. The table below (Table ES1) summarizes the net positive job and economic impacts on top of carbon emission reductions that can be achieved by developing Arkansas' renewable energy potential.

And if the future prospects of in-state jobs, local economic benefits and carbon emission reductions are not enough to propel you in supporting clean energy development, perhaps the costs of today's status quo - with an energy ‘current account' ratio (imports to exports) at an imbalance of 5:1 - will give you some pause:

Each year Arkansans spend a total of $10.1 billion on gasoline and other petroleum fuels, natural gas for heating, power, and industrial use, and coal for electricity production. That translates to more than $3,500 in energy costs for every person in Arkansas-and 78 percent of those Arkansas energy dollars (or nearly $8 billion) leave the state, never to return.

The bottom line is that developing Arkansas renewable energy and energy efficiency resources sustainably - protecting undisturbed land, conserving water, air, and wildlife and ecosystem services - can be done at a profit for farmers and local entrepreneurs today; ultimately benefitting future generations of Arkansans.

Geothermal Gets Big Boost from DOE via ARRA

2009-11-02T21:55:12Z

Perhaps befitting its name by remaining "beneath the radar" from clean energy development coverage by the press, geothermal energy got a major boost of support by the Department of Energy (DOE) in a major announcement last week by Secretary Chu opening up $338 million in ARRA funding in a competitive solicitation that will fund 123 projects in 29 states.

The DOE announcement summarized the funding across six categories:

Innovative Exploration and Drilling Projects (up to $98.1 million): Twenty-four projects have been selected focusing on the development of new geothermal fields using innovative sensing, exploration, and well-drilling technologies.
Coproduced, Geopressured, and Low Temperature Projects (up to $20.7 million): Eleven projects have been selected for the development of new low-temperature geothermal fields, a vast but currently untapped set of geothermal resources. This includes geothermal heat found in the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells around the U.S., where up to ten barrels of hot water are produced for every barrel of oil.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems Demonstrations (up to $51.4 million): Three projects have been selected for the exploration, drilling and development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to validate power production from deep hot rock resources using innovative technologies and approaches.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems Components Research and Development / Analysis (up to $81.5 million): Forty-five projects have been selected to focus on research and development of new technologies to find and drill into deep hot rock formations, stimulate enhanced geothermal reservoirs, and convert the heat to power.
Geothermal Data Development, Collection and Maintenance (up to $24.6 million): Three projects have been selected for the population of a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource database to help identify and assess new fields.
Ground Source Heat Pump Demonstrations (up to $61.9 million): Thirty-seven projects have been selected to demonstrate the deployment of ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling of a variety of buildings for a variety of customer types, including academic institutions, local governments and commercial buildings.

This announcement came on the heels of the DOE finalizing The Geothermal Technologies Program (GTP) Multi-Year Research, Development and Demonstration (MYRDD) Plan, which describes the planned research, development and demonstration (RD&D) activities for geothermal technologies through 2015, with additional information on potential program activities through 2025 for the GTP.

Geothermal Primer

Geothermal is a term that captures three general types of technologies that vary significantly in scale and output. We explain this resource and technologies used to capture it on our Renewables for America website.

Geothermal Tomorrow

Recent studies indicate that an even larger potential of geothermal energy lies a little further down in the earth's crust (3-10 km down) and is available throughout many parts of the U.S. Although it will require developing new technologies for drilling and heat transfer, "enhanced" geothermal systems (EGS) has the potential to deliver upwards of 10 percent of today's U.S. electricity supply.

Geothermal and Localized Earthquake Risk

Among some of the environmental disruptions that can occur resulting from drilling, constructing and operating utility-scale geothermal, the biggest problem appears to be around localized earthquake risk that results from drilling into bedrock containing superheated water & steam. This is an issue we will continue to monitor closely. The New York Times Energy and Environment press has covered this issue recently and provides a summary of recent projects reported on here.

Our Next Steps

While geothermal energy may not grab clean energy headlines, it is an important renewable energy resource that we think should be further developed with continued emphasis studying the impacts on localized earthquake risks. Stay tuned as we prepare to include more information for you on geothermal resource potential on our Renewables for America Flash map in the coming weeks.

Indiana Primed to Be a Renewable Energy Hub For America

2009-10-07T20:40:13Z

Today, NRDC released the report, "A Clean Energy Economy for Indiana: Analysis of the Rural Economic Development Potential of Renewable Resources". The report shows that Indiana is poised for a major clean energy job creation boom, which would be a plus for the Hoosier State, particularly for the struggling rural areas in the state.

This concise report contains helpful maps and tables that summarize just how great this opportunity truly is for Indiana (see table below).

A recent number of green job and clean energy resource potential studies have been published that take a "top-down" research approach. What sets this report - and similar report we did for Missouri - apart is the meticulous detail and open transparency provided on how the research and calculations were conducted by lead author Martin R. Cohen. In my opinion it is a true "bottom-up" analysis of Indiana's renewable energy potential.

Below is an excerpt of what I provided to the press at a teleconference earlier today (or you can listen to the 30-minute recording including lead auther Martin Cohen and other ag-economy stakeholders here):

And the job opportunity impacts extend beyond Indiana's rural economy as well. Gary is a steel town, and a shift to renewable energy means jobs security for local workers. It takes more than 250 tons of steel to make just 1 single wind turbine (Frances blogged about this on her visit to Indiana this summer).

Comprehensive clean energy & green jobs legislation such as American Clean Energy and Security Act passed out of the U.S. House of Rep. and the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act recently introduced by Senators Boxer and Kerry in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee represent the necessary overarching framework that our nation needs to sustainably grow these promising renewable energy industries to take advantage of the vast potential of renewable resources our country is blessed with.

But Indiana can progressively move ahead with developing its clean energy economy without solely relying on federal clean energy legislation and other national-level incentive programs like the $50 billion funding made available for new clean energy projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (this information provided in the report). We encourage the State to pursue an aggressive statewide renewable portfolio standard that includes only clean and truly renewable energy resources. 29 States and D.C. have moved forward with these policies and are seeing dramatic growth in their renewable energy industries. Indiana also has excellent potential for energy efficiency, which is the cheapest and quickest way we can meet the climate challenge; NRDC works with many electric and gas utilities throughout the country to develop policies that make efficiency and renewable energy development a profitable enterprise that helps the environment and saves customers money.

Potential Bio-Energy Resources Are Plentiful in Florida - Let's Develop Them Right

2009-08-11T16:45:38Z

I recently presented at the 2009 Florida Farm to Fuel® Summit (airing on the Florida Channel this Thu, Aug 13 at 8 AM) with the message that bio-energy development - including biofuels and biomass, which is potentially very abundant in the South and Florida - should happen only when benefiting four crucial aspects: (My colleague, Nathanael Greene, provides an excellent primer on these four principles here.)

(1) Energy Security

(2) Greenhouse Gas Emissions

(3) Biodiversity

(4) Sustainability of the Food Supply

Our message is not popular, especially among those who feel that our position sets too high of a standard for bio-energy producers to meet. It is not our intent to be "against bio-energy development". Instead, it's what science tells us - essentially concluding that the environmental trade-offs for significant bio-energy growth can easily come at a cost to any of the four aspects above.

A recent paper published by Jason Evans and Matthew Cohen of the University of Florida School of Forest Resources and Conservation, titled, "Regional Water Resource Implications of Bioethanol Production in the Southeastern United States", models the land, water, and energy requirements that would be needed to meet the massive new biofuel production targets legislated by the 100+ billion gallon renewable fuel standard in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) 2007.

This target implies an appropriation of regional primary production for dedicated feedstocks at scales that may dramatically affect water supply, exacerbate existing water quality challenges, and force undesirable environmental resource trade-offs. Using a comparative life cycle approach, we assess energy balances and water resource implications for four dedicated ethanol feedstocks - corn, sugarcane, sweet sorghum, and southern pine - in two southeastern states, Florida and Georgia, which are a presumed epicenter for future biofuel production. . . .

Utilization of existing waste biomass sources may ameliorate these effects, but does not obviate the need for dedicated primary feedstock production. Careful scrutiny of environmental trade-offs is necessary before embracing aggressive ethanol production mandates.

Granted, it's fair to say that not all of the 100 billion gallons will be produced in Florida; but it is reasonable to conclude that with the nearly year-long growing season of Florida's climate, a significant portion of the feedstock for biofuel production could be developed in this state.

Understanding and backing clear scientific evidence of the environmental impacts of bio-energy production is our reason for being deeply engaged in its development today. In developing this important domestic energy resource, we can't afford to compromise our planet's imperiled biodiversity, increase global warming pollution and limit the resources within our globally interconnected food supply.

Repowering our nation’s energy future: The Waxman-Markey Renewable Energy Standard

2009-04-07T19:48:44Z

"A wise [nation] will make more opportunities than [it] finds." Francis Bacon

The Waxman-Markey renewable electricity standard (RES) will put us on a path to achieve 25% renewable energy by 2025 in our nationwide electricity supply. It offers an ambitious challenge to guide a new era of American innovation for the 21st Century that benefits our economy and environment. For example:

Nearly 300,000 new jobs from renewable energy development
$263 billion in new capital investment
$64 billion consumer savings
277 million metric tons of avoided CO2 emissions (45.3 million cars worth!)

In the remainder of this post I have laid out further background and discussion on the structural and functional policy underpinnings of the national renewable energy standard (RES) provision in the Markey-Waxman discussion draft bill (a.k.a the American Clean Energy and Security Act).

Key takeaway: the RES in the draft bill requires an increasing percentage of electricity sold by utilities to come from renewable sources, reaching 25 percent by 2025. This goal is reached through incremental compliance targets per the schedule below:

Broad coverage. Includes retail electric utility service providers -investor-owned, municipals, rural cooperatives - who sell at least 1 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year.

Past RES provisions have excluded publicly-owned utilities (municipals and rural cooperatives) and set too high of a minimum utility size, which would effectively exempt as much as 20 percent of all electric utility service providers.

Compliance flexibility. Allows utilities to meet their obligations by buying, selling, trading and banking federal Renewable Energy Credits (RECs).
Reasonable REC price ceiling. An "alternative compliance payment" (ACP) is set at $50 per megawatt-hour ($0.05 per kilowatt-hour).

Previous RES provisions have set the ACP as low as $30 per megawatt-hour, which greatly diminishes the effective financial leverage of REC's and REC trading.

REC revenue distribution rewards renewable expansion. A "renewable electricity deployment fund" would be established based on the revenue received by the primary auction of REC's from DOE (as well as any revenues from ACP's) to utilities. At the end of each year, this fund will distribute funds in proportion to the percentage of utility-claimed REC's generated from the production of renewable energy from eligible facilities.
Extra credit for distributed resources. Provides three times the amount of RECs for electricity generated by distributed renewable sources such as solar photovoltaics.

Depending on the given location - often within urban locales - clean, distributed renewable energy sources offer superb benefits to both the local electrical grid (e.g. voltage support) and local air quality by forgoing the potential for dirty, oil-fired back-up or emergency power generators to run in response to peak electrical demand.

Protects state RPS's. The bill provides that the federal RES will not interfere with individual states RPSs and associated policies. Absent federal leadership and funding for over a decade, 28 states plus the District of Columbia have set their own RPS goals and accompanying renewable energy development mechanisms to realize the vast economic and environmental benefits afforded by home grown renewable energy development.
Critical lands and habitat protections on eligible biomass. Certain resources, such as old-growth and mature forests, are excluded in order to protect critical lands and habitats.

All previous RES provisions would have allowed harvesting of biomass and biofuels resources from protected federal and state lands. NRDC continues to do extensive work on the issue of renewable energy development and critical lands protection. As my colleague Johanna Wald blogged earlier this week, we cannot simply trade-off critical wildlife habitat and sensitive lands for cheap or easy access to certain renewable energy resources.

Governor's petition. Governors may petition to reduce a utility's RES requirement by up to 20 percent in any given year if all entities in the state subject to the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) established by Title II of the draft bill are in compliance that year.

Although the instant "20% off 'coupon' for utilities" may be overly generous, we think this is a novel idea to reward states and utilities who are meeting EERS compliance targets. It provides corrective utility behavior. Specifically, utilities must work cooperatively together to effectively administer and evaluate energy efficiency delivery so that no single utility falls out of EERS compliance, thus causing all utility entities within the state to forgo the "20% off 'coupon' on each utility's annual RES compliance."

Dear Florida Senator re: FL Renewable Portfolio Standard

2009-03-27T17:05:42Z

Dear [Florida] Senator,

On behalf of the NRDC and its 1.2 million members and e-activists, we urge you to support an ambitious renewable portfolio standard (RPS) of 20% by 2020 as policy tool to create jobs, increase Florida's energy independence, sustainability, and security, insulate ratepayers from energy price shocks and protect Florida's natural environment. Twenty-eight other states have enacted an RPS to strategically position their states to benefit from the coming clean energy economy. There are many reasons why Florida should do the same.

The current economic crisis has hit Florida with a record unemployment rate and exposed a need to expand the State's economic base. The good news is that the renewable energy community is poised to expand that base by investing in Florida and creating jobs to meet the RPS targets. A review of recent economic reports indicates that renewable energy sources such as solar and biomass will create substantially more new jobs than conventional or nuclear energy sources. One megawatt of energy (enough to power about 600 homes) creates between fifteen to thirty direct solar jobs. Biomass-generated electricity creates approximately nine direct jobs per megawatt and 85 percent of the money spent on producing home-grown biomass power stays within a 75-mile radius of the plant - stimulating the local economy.

Additionally, of the three main electric power choices facing Florida - development of natural gas power plants, nuclear plants, and renewable energy - the renewable option ultimately costs the consumer less. Statewide, 2006 average residential rates were 41 percent higher than in 2000, due to our over-reliance on conventional fossil fuel generation sources. Without a meaningful RPS, fossil fuels, especially natural gas with its high risk of significant price volatility, will continue to account for the vast majority of Florida's electric generating fuels: for example, the PSC's Review of 2008 Ten-Year Site Plans, shows that in 2017, natural gas is projected to account 54.35% of total Florida electricity supply, and the total for all fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) is 79.11% [see Figure 1]. Moreover, construction costs estimates for nuclear reactors have tripled in the last several years and are expected to increase - placing enormous financial risk on the shoulders of Floridians.

Figure 1: Past and Projected Electricity Generation Sources for Florida. Source: Florida PSC 2008

The Florida Legislature has already taken actions to ensure that new nuclear energy capacity will be built to help meet the State's long term energy needs. Let's not accept the notion being advanced by utility lobbyists that nuclear reactors should be an eligible resource to meet the 20 percent renewable energy goal. To do so would divert investment away from renewable resources and the associated job creation benefit.

Renewable energy protects electric customers and Florida's economy by diversifying the State's energy mix. Solar resources have no fuel cost and capital construction costs are dropping every year. Likewise, biomass-generated electricity has a stable fuel source and hedges fuel price risk for consumers. This diversification of our energy mix can be obtained with a moderate rate impact, of about 4% on customer bills, which is significantly lower than the rate impacts suffered by Florida citizens since 2000 from conventional utility sources of energy.

Moreover, Florida is uniquely positioned to take advantage of renewable energy because of its vast solar and biomass resources. According to a recent report, Florida Renewable Energy Potential Assessment prepared by Navigant Consulting for the Florida Public Service Commission and the Governor's Energy Office, Florida can reach 24 percent renewables by 2020 [See Figure 2]. Realizing the benefits of renewable energy simply requires that the right policies be in place.

Figure 2: Florida RPS Economic Assessment Potential. Source: Florida PSC 2008

Now is the time to support an RPS rule that will provide 20 percent of Florida's electricity from renewable energy resources by 2020. This RPS rule and goal will stimulate meaningful renewable energy investment and associated job creation in Florida, while greatly enhancing Florida's energy independence and sustainability and improving our environmental quality.

Sincerely,

NRDC Renewable Energy Action Team

Floridians Take a Critical Next Step Toward Reliable and Clean Electricity

2009-01-16T17:30:52Z

Last Friday, the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), informed via memo from PSC Staff, unanimously agreed to move forward with a comprehensive Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) rule requiring investor-owned utilities in the State to acquire at least 20% of their electricity supply from renewables by 2020. NRDC and it's Southern Region partner, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), worked to keep the FL PSC Staff and Commissioners well-informed to remain on the correct path. Florida Governor Charlie Crist and his dedicated staff deserve much credit as well, holding firm to the bold and sweeping set of executive orders and introduction of important bills in the FL legislature that began in 2007 and addressed global warming, clean fuels, energy efficiency, and renewable energy development through measures such as this RPS.

But wait!

We're not done just yet. The next step for the RPS rule is to get final ratification in the Florida legislature. I sure hope that the legislature holds to the original intent of the RPS:

366.92 Florida renewable energy policy.--

(1) It is the intent of the Legislature

to promote the development of renewable energy;
protect the economic viability of Florida's existing renewable energy facilities;
diversify the types of fuel used to generate electricity in Florida;
lessen Florida's dependence on natural gas and fuel oil for the production of electricity;
minimize the volatility of fuel costs;
encourage investment within the state;
improve environmental conditions; and,
at the same time, minimize the costs of power supply to electric utilities and their customers.

NRDC has endorsed these principles in FL and advocates for renewables to significantly reduce global warming pollution, adhering to the highest environmental standards and promoting competition for the best suite of technologies to conquer the greatest environment challenge of our time.

Renewables Only, Please

An RPS ought NOT include provisions for non-renewable energy production. One particular political heavyweight, Florida Power & Light, elected to broaden the definition of Florida’s renewable portfolio standard to include nuclear energy under the creative name “Clean Energy Portfolio Standard.” While nuclear power may contribute very little to global warming pollution, serious issues still remain on several fronts:

Nuclear waste disposal
Astronomical upfront capital costs
Long lead times (construction takes 10-15 years)
Significant safety and health risks
Water quality concerns

Further details on these issues surrounding nuclear power are discussed in the recently completed “Keystone Report”: Nuclear Power Joint Fact-Finding.

Let’s hope the Florida legislature stays consistent with its original intentions to benefit all Floridians and stay on a firm path to a truly renewable, reliable, and clean energy future.

Your 2009 Home Energy Makeover

2009-01-02T22:07:24Z

Despite the recent steep decline in prices for fossil energy sources—highlighted by crude oil prices plunging from a high over $145 this summer to less than $40 in December—don’t assume that you’ll see an equal drop in your home or business energy bills anytime soon. (It’s complicated for a variety of reasons, but a more simple question to ask yourself is: Would you ever bet against your utility increasing your rates?) And no one likely feels more pain now than low income families or those who have recently lost a job. Earlier this week Matt Wald of the New York Times and my fellow NRDC blogger, Lane Burt, showed that momentum is gaining for a national goal to weatherize over 1 million homes per year with priority given to residences of low income families. The theory goes that government investment in making 1 million existing homes energy efficient will create nearly 80,000 new green collar jobs and reduce the monthly utility bills for families who already spend large portions of their income on basic utility expenses.

Holding the policy-talk aside, I propose that we seize this golden opportunity to be a part of the green revolution. It's as easy as starting at home! Here are some great tools and sources of information to help get you started:

NRDC’s Simple Steps for quick and easy actions and good habits to embrace.
Rocky Mountain Institute’s Cool Citizens: Household Solutions (My personal favorite). Provides a worksheet tool to help you lay out a long-term cost minimizing strategy to achieve ϋber “cool citizen” status and have greenest home on your block!
ENERGY STAR® for Home Improvement for a broad array of ideas to improve your home’s efficiency and ENERGY STAR for Appliances if you’re looking to replace old and less efficient appliances
Contact a professional to conduct a home energy study (a.k.a. audit). Ask if they are certified through either the Building Performance Institute or Residential Energy Services Network and whether or not they are pricing in savings from rebates and other incentives offered by the government and your local utility provider.
Updated list of rebates from the federal government, as well as state and utility rebates depending on your location of residence.

Finally, don't feel like you need to be humble about your actions (this is America after all)! Keep us posted on your progress, learn from other green citizens, and tell your neighbors how much greener you've become and how they can catch up to you. Have a green and happy 2009!