It seems like it should be a no-brainer for the utility companies that service Central Oregon to put together a similar program.  And an electrical vehicle charging station designed and built by students from Central Oregon Community College would be natural in an area where, according to the local tourism bureaus, the sun shines over 300 days a year.

# # #

Lane Community College receives first EWEB Greenpower grant
Eugene Water & Electric Board Website – April 18, 2009

Lane Community College received a $100,000 grant from EWEB [Greenpower Grant Program] to build a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station for students and the community. EWEB’s Greenpower customers voted for the LCC project from among five local renewable energy and education projects.

The Greenpower grant will be combined with other funds to build the electric vehicle charging station. A grid of solar panels will be constructed, which will power 36 outlets to recharge plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles on the main LCC campus. Other funding will come from part of a recently passed LCC bond measure.

The LCC project will create opportunities for students to learn about how to install, repair and service the new solar array and vehicle charging station, will lower the community’s carbon footprint, will generate renewable energy, and will help the community learn more about the emerging technology of plug-in vehicles.

EWEB Greenpower customers to award grant
The utility will make up to $100,000 available for a single renewable energy project, with smaller grants planned for fall
By Susan Palmer – The Register-Guard – January 17, 2009

The Eugene Water & Electric Board on Friday announced a series of [Greenpower Grant Program] grants for renewable energy projects and invited its Greenpower customers to vote on who gets the first award.

The local utility will make up to $100,000 available this spring for a single project, with smaller grants up to $25,000 available in the fall, said Tom Williams, EWEB’s key accounts manager.

The money for the projects comes from EWEB customers who buy renewable energy either in the form of $1.50 or $10 blocks of power, or who pay an extra penny per kilowatt-hour to support EWEB’s wind farm and solar power projects.

EWEB invests those revenues back into renewable energy, and decided that supporting smaller-scale local projects could benefit groups such as schools, nonprofit organizations and public agencies that normally wouldn’t have the money to finance them upfront, Williams said.

Letting customers who pay extra for sustainable energy help choose the first project is part reward for participants and encouragement for others to sign up, Williams said.

In 2008, just more than 3 percent of EWEB’s customers, about 3,000, paid the extra charges for renewable energy. Besides the regular customers, Greenpower also got a boost from two special events — the Eugene Marathon and Olympic Trials. Organizers for those events paid the extra premium because they wanted their events associated with renewable energy, Williams said.

Tax exempt nonprofit groups, academic and public institutions are eligible for the grants.

The application deadline is Feb. 15. Once EWEB has narrowed the applications to a handful of choices, Greenpower customers will be eligible to vote for their favorite option either online or by mail beginning in mid-March. EWEB will announce the grant recipient at the annual Earth Day Celebration on April 18.

More information is available at EWEB’s web site, www.eweb.org by clicking on the Greenpower logo or on the “Sustainability” button near the top of the page.

Irrigation canals in Central Oregon are now being looked at as more than just a way to distribute water from the Deschutes River to farmers and ranchers.  Now days, with energy costs rising and the desirability or renewable energy sources, the power of water rushing through the canals is looked at as a source of power and revenue.  The Swalley Irrigation District may have a 1 MW plant on line by April 2009, and Central Oregon Irrigation District’s 3.7 MW plant, reported on below,  is looking at May 2010 for completion date. Both irrigation-based hydro power plants will be located north of Bend.

# # #

Open Solicitation Juniper Ridge 3.27 MW Hydropower
January 23, 2008

Summary:

Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID) proposes to install a hydropower project totaling 3.27 megawatts (MW) approximately seven miles north of downtown Bend. The project is expected to be completed in May, 2010. 

Background:

Central Oregon Irrigation District’s Pilot Butte Canal is an open canal runs for 22 miles from Bend north to the Terrebonne area. As part of the project, COID is piping approximately 2.25 miles of the canal. COID is proposing to install a 3.27 megawatt (MW) hydroelectric project at the terminus of the pipe seven miles north of Bend. The project site is owned by the Oregon Parks Department, but the department has agreed to sell the site to COID. The project will run for 180 days during the irrigation season from mid-April to mid-October. The project, scheduled for completion in April of 2010, is expected to generate 13,435 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity per year, which will be sold to Pacific Power under a standard QF contract. The total project cost is $22,305,593. Because the piping portion of the project carries watershed benefits beyond the ability to generate hydropower, COID has $7 million in grants either pending or secured in support of the project from sources including the city of Bend and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. The piping will eliminate water loss through the canal and place over 20 cfs of water permanently in the Deschutes River. This additional water will benefit the river habitat and the ESA listed steelhead recently reintroduced downstream from Bend. Increased river flows will also enhance water quality conditions of concern to the Department of Environmental Quality under the Clean Water Act.

Relation to Strategic Plan/Action Plan/Budget:

This project meets Strategic Goal 3, by providing 13,435 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy per year from a renewable resource and Strategic Goal 5, by expanding participation in use of renewable energy by the municipal sector. Funds for the project are included in the approved budget for Pacific Power for the Open Solicitation Program (OSP). It would be our fourth approved hydro project serving as another good example for the market and further demonstrating our willingness to expand our support for small-scale renewables.

Juniper Ridge Hydropower 3.27 MW Project JANUARY23, 2008 2 Technical Analysis The project consists of a Wasserkraft Volk AG turbine with a gross power output of 3,637 kW and 91.8% peak efficiency. The piped canal will serve as the project’s penstock. It will be 108 inches in diameter and run for13,523 feet ending seven miles north of Bend approximately 1 mile south of the intersection of Hwy 97 and Deschutes Market junction. The average annual flow rate is 325 cfs and net head is 107 feet. COID expects the system to generate a net 13,435 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually based on an availability factor of 93.69% for the 50% of the year there are sufficient water flows (during the irrigation season). Benefits Over the first 20 years of the project, the clean power produced by the project will help avoid over 288,853 tons of CO2emissions. To sequester this much carbon would require planting 963 acres of trees. In addition to the quantifiable benefits of the project, staff believes this project will benefit Energy Trust in the following ways.

• The project allows the Energy Trust to fund hydroelectric generation in a safe, fish friendly fashion.
• Because of its benefits for in-stream flows, water quality, the watershed and associated fish and wildlife, the project serves as another example of a multi-partner/multi-benefit project in a water-challenged part of the state.
• The project further develops Energy Trust’s relationship with irrigation districts to promotemore projects.

Economic Analysis:

Capital and installation costs for the project are expected to total $22,305,593. We based our analysis on a system life of 20 years and assumed the project will qualify as a commercial project eligible for a BETC pass-through of $6,365,000. The net capital requirement is also reduced by $7,000,000 in grants. COID is planning to finance the remaining upfront costs with a 15-year loan for $3,772,930 and $5,167,663 in equity financing from its own sources.

The table below summarizes our comparison of project revenues and expenses and calculation of above-market costs. NPV Revenue$9,081,810Minus NPV Equity $5,167,663NPV Project Expense*$3,735,200NPV Principle Payments $1,533,672NPV Net above-market costs ($1,354,725)*O & M, interest on debt, recurring permit fees, insurance, and spare parts fund Energy Trust’s incentive of $1,000,000 will cover 73.8% of the above-market costs of the project. The incentive will be paid upon project commissioning. Energy Trust will take title to the first 75% of the tags for the project over 20 years.

Pacific Power, through its Blue Sky renewable energy program, recently awarded Central Oregon Community College a $160,000 grant that will help pay for a solar array on top of the proposed Allied Sciences Building.

The grant will help fund a 62-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array atop the three-story building.  Assuming a successful November 2008 bond measure vote, construction could begin in 2010. The building would be dedicated to science and health career education and house classes on renewable energy studies. The building itself will be as energy efficient as possible and model renewable energy values.

The students of COCC have dedicated a portion of their fees to ensure that by using Blue Sky, the college buys renewable power equal to 100 percent of COCC’s electricity use. COCC was the first community college in the nation to take such a step.

Although this project has been talked about for some time, city officials say they have finalizing the design of the city of Bend’s first solar energy project.

Work is expected to begin next spring on the project that will sit on top of the Centennial Parking Plaza at 61 NW Oregon Avenue. The city is using a $400,000 grant from Pacific Power’s Blue Sky Projects the city and is partnering with Bend-based SunEnergy Power Corporation to set up the 200 kW project.

With nearly 20 rows of solar panels mounted to steel trusses above the entire top level of the garage, the system will be one of the largest solar installations in Oregon.

SunEnergy, who will own the system, will bear the entire cost of buying, installing and maintaining the solar array, which will produce about 280,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. That energy, enough to power about two dozen homes continuously, will be sold directly to the city.