jacq, I just returned from a 4 hour trip to Austin to meet the group responsible for convincing Austin Energy to:
20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020;
Conservation goals to reach 15% by 2020, for a combined total of 35% by 2020.
Solar goals of 15 MW installed by 2007, 30 MW by 2010, 50 MW by 2050, and 100 MW by 2020.
Solar rebates at $5/watt, which should begin in the next few months.
Solar demonstration projects at middle schools (with curriculum), libraries, and community centers.
An affordable, zero-energy home subdivision of at least 100 homes, to begin in 2004.
It was a great bunch of people, and the meeting was at the house of an architect who has 3.2 kilowatts of solar with battery backup at his own house, and designs efficient and solar houses for others. Here's a writeup about the plan in their paper...
Solar energy plan good move for Austin
Editorial Board
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Austin Energy, the city-owned utility, startled the renewable energy world last week by recommending to the City Council a long-range energy plan that, at the last minute, incorporated a broad, new commitment to developing solar energy for use by its customers. The council approved, and in doing so, it did the right thing.
Specifically, the new energy plan commits Austin Energy to buying 100 megawatts of solar energy a year by 2020, an amount that would be enough to supply 14,000 homes. In terms of the 2,700 megawatts of power the city now uses annually, 100 megawatts is insignificant. And solar energy today is such a minor player that the entire nation consumes only about 240 megawatts a year.
There's a simple economic explanation for that diminutive role: Solar is about five times more expensive than other forms of energy. For a long time to come, natural gas, coal and nuclear power will remain the principal sources of U.S. energy for generating electricity.
So why bother with solar? For two reasons: Natural gas shows every sign of getting more expensive for the foreseeable future; the United States has plenty of coal, but it needs "scrubbing" to minimize air pollution when it's burned, and it has to be transported hundreds of miles; and few Americans would welcome a new nuclear power plant to their neighborhood. As solar technology improves and price comes down, it will become more competitive, as has wind power, another renewable energy source.
Secondly, while it seems as if practically every university town and metropolitan area in the nation has decided that biotechnology is the next wave of the future to catch, few have spotlighted renewable energy as a promising technology whose development could pay off in a big way locally over the next few decades.
Why shouldn't Austin, capital of the biggest energy state in the nation, step out in the lead? We have a fine university engineering school here, an entrepreneurial spirit and a surplus of sunshine, especially in August. Hundreds of Austinites have even proved willing to pay a bit more for electricity generated by renewable sources, primarily wind power, through Austin Energy's GreenChoice program.
The plan adopted by the council does not yet require any financial commitment, and if the price for solar proves too outrageous, the city can always scale back.
But any investment by the city in solar would have to try hard to prove worse than its experience with the South Texas nuclear power plant, of which it owns 16 percent and was started in the 1970s. The 16 percent was supposed to cost Austin ratepayers $160 million, it ended up costing more than $1 billion. Even now, about one-third of every monthly Austin electric bill goes toward paying for the nuke, said Roger Duncan, Austin Energy's vice president for governmental relations and environmental policy. The plant won't be paid for until 2025.
There are no guarantees. Maybe some genius will figure out how to burn coal and gas without polluting the atmosphere or worsening the global greenhouse effect, or how to make spent nuclear fuel rods non-radioactive. Until then, the city is right to place a bet on solar.
Del |
