U.S. Air Force Leads the Nation in Green Power
Purchases
The members of the organization buying the most green
power in the United
States often wear green themselves—camouflage green, that is. In 2004, the
largest U.S. buyer of
green power was the U.S. Air Force, which bought more than 321,000
megawatt-hours of renewable energy, with bases in California,
Texas, New Mexico,
Washington, and North and South Dakota leading
the way. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) list of the top
25 buyers of green power participating in its Green Power Partnership,
released last week, also includes the U.S. Navy, the EPA, DOE, the U.S.
General Services Administration, and the World Bank. The top companies on
the list include Johnson & Johnson, Whole Foods Market, and WhiteWave Foods. Together, the top 25 EPA Green Power
Partners are buying more than 1.6 million megawatt-hours of renewable power
each year. See the U.S. Air Force
press release, the EPA
press release, and the EPA's top 25 list.
The Air Force's green power purchases are hardly a fluke, in fact, a
report released in March by the Department of Defense (DoD)
concluded that green power purchases can provide its largest source of
renewable energy, although the DoD prefers the energy
security benefits of on-site production of renewable energy. The study
found the potential for 70 average megawatts of wind power at 109 DoD facilities as well as three or four possible sites
for geothermal power plants, six to eight possible sites for geothermal
heating systems, and 430 locations where some form of solar energy use is
practical. See the "DoD Renewable Energy
Assessment" (PDF
168 KB) and for background information, see the DoD
Renewables Assessment Web site. Download
Acrobat Reader.
District of Columbia Adopts a Renewable Energy Requirement
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Under the new law, solar panels will become a more
common sight in the District of
Columbia. Credit: Byron Stafford, NREL
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The seat of power in the United
States will draw increasingly on
renewable energy in the years to come, thanks to a new bill signed by
District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams in January. Following a
congressional review period, the bill, the "Renewable Energy Portfolio
Standard Act of 2004," officially became law on April 12th. The new
law requires electricity suppliers in the district to draw on renewable
energy for 4.5 percent of their electrical supply in 2007, increasing
gradually to 11 percent in 2022. Power suppliers must also draw on solar
power for 0.005 percent of their electrical supply in 2007, increasing to
0.386 percent in 2008. The law differentiates between "Tier 1"
renewable sources—defined
as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and ocean energy, or fuel cells
powered by biomass energy—and
"Tier 2" renewable sources, which include hydropower and
waste-to-energy plants. Although Tier 2 sources are allowed to provide more
than 60 percent of the renewable energy requirement in 2007, their
contribution is phased out by 2020. According to the Solar Energy
Industries Association (SEIA), the new law will result in 32 megawatts of
solar power in the district by 2022. See the text of the law (PDF
22 KB), its official
status, and the SEIA
press release. Download
Acrobat Reader.
Renewable energy requirements, often referred to as renewable portfolio
standards (RPS), are being adopted by an increasing number of U.S.
states. The New York Public Service Commission (PSC), for instance,
approved an implementation plan for the state's RPS in mid-April. However,
some states are falling behind on their requirements. In Massachusetts, for example, utilities
fell short of a 1.5-percent-renewable requirement in 2004, resulting in $15
million in alternative compliance payments that will be invested in new
renewable energy projects. Despite such shortcomings, a new report from
Global Energy Decisions projects that 52,000 megawatts of new renewable
energy capacity will be needed to meet RPS requirements over the next 15
years, with wind power providing more than 40,000 megawatts of the needed
capacity. See the press releases from the New York PSC (PDF
26 KB), the Massachusetts
Division of Energy Resources, and Global Energy
Decisions.
Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack chose to celebrate
Earth Day by directing Iowa
state agencies to conserve energy while increasing their use of renewable
energy. Governor Vilsack issued Executive Order
Number 41, which directs state agencies to obtain at least 10 percent of
their electricity from renewable energy sources, to buy energy-efficient
equipment, and to reduce their energy use in buildings by 15 percent by
2010, relative to their energy use in 2000. It also requires the state's
light-duty vehicle fleets (the vehicles other than heavy trucks) to consist
of either hybrid-electric vehicles or vehicles running on alternative fuels
by 2010, with the exception of law-enforcement vehicles. The order requires
bulk diesel fuel purchased by the state to contain 5 percent renewable fuel
(such as biodiesel), by 2007, increasing to 20
percent renewable fuel by 2010. All Iowa
agencies will be required to submit quarterly reports on their progress
toward the goals of the new executive order. See the governor's press
release and the full text of the executive order (PDF 970 KB).
Download
Acrobat Reader.
North Dakota Adopts Incentives for Wind, Hydrogen,
Alternative Fuels
North Dakota Governor John Hoeven signed
several bills into law on Earth Day to accelerate wind power, hydrogen, and
alternative fuel technologies in the state. The wind energy provisions
reduce the siting application fees, lessen the
regulatory burden for siting wind plants, allow
the sale of renewable energy credits to other states, and promote new
investments in transmission lines. A pending bill will also cut in half the
assessed value of a wind plant for tax purposes. One bill also creates a
sales tax exemption on hydrogen used to power either an internal combustion
engine or a fuel cell.
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The new legislation will encourage the production and
sale of alternative fuels throughout North Dakota.
Credit: Warren Gretz
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Several bills relate to ethanol and biodiesel
production. The ethanol-related bills provide $3.25 million in incentives
for new and existing ethanol plants in the state, $1.35 million in
incentives to expand existing ethanol plants, and a 20-cent-per-gallon tax
incentive for retail sales of E85 (a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15
percent gasoline), an incentive that must be passed on to the consumer. The
biodiesel provisions include $1.2 million to buy
down interest on new biodiesel production plants,
income tax credits for fuel suppliers and retailers, and a sales tax
exemption for equipment that allows a facility to sell biodiesel
blends. New ethanol and biodiesel production
plants will also earn a 30 percent investment tax credit.
In addition, the new legislation creates an Office of Renewable Energy
within the Division of Community Services at the North Dakota Commerce
Department. The new office will assist in the development of renewable
energy within the state and promote the conservation of energy and the wise
use of energy resources in both the public and private sectors. See the governor's
press release.
Idaho Provides Financing, Tax Rebates for Renewable
Projects
Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne signed two laws
in April that will promote renewable energy development in the state.
Senate Bill 1192, signed into law on April 6th, allows independent
developers of renewable energy projects in the state to request financing
from the Idaho Energy Resources Authority, a new state bonding authority
that was created by a separate bill, House Bill 106. That bill, signed by
the governor in March, aimed primarily at creating a bonding authority that
would work with utilities to develop new electric generation and
transmission projects. See Senate Bill 1192 and House Bill 106.
On April 12th, Governor Kempthorne signed
House Bill 110, which provides a rebate of sales or use taxes to purchasers
of machinery and equipment used to generate power from clean energy
sources. The rebate applies to facilities at least 25 kilowatts in capacity
and using as their principal source of power either fuel cells, low-impact
hydropower, cogeneration, or wind, geothermal, solar, or biomass energy
sources. See House Bill
110.
Thirteen developing countries hold the potential for thousands of
megawatts (MW) of solar and wind power, according to the preliminary
results of a study by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). The UNEP announced in mid-April that its
Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) project has found the
potential for 26,000 MW of wind power in Sri
Lanka, as well as 7,000 MW of potential wind power in
Guatemala and 2,000 MW
of potential wind power along Ghana's
border with Togo.
The project has also carried out studies in Bangladesh,
Brazil, China, Cuba,
El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras,
Kenya, Nepal, and Nicaragua. The $9.3-million
project, largely supported by the Global Environment Facility, started in
2001.
One specific result of the project was the finding of significant wind
power potential in Nicaragua,
prompting the Nicaraguan National Assembly to pass a decree that gives
wind-generated electricity priority over other options when fed into
electricity grids. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency and Inter-American
Development Bank have subsequently launched wind energy feasibility studies
in Nicaragua,
and two wind projects totaling 40 MW are now moving ahead. See the UNEP
press release and the SWERA
Web site.
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) is contributing to the project, which uses satellite data,
ground-based instruments, and computer models to assess wind and solar
energy resources in the 13 countries. Results from six of the countries are
available on the NREL Web
site.
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