Locally Produced Hydro Power vs. “In-Stream Flows”

The following article describes a classic trade-off situation .  The positive efforts to produce electricity locally (Distributed Generation) via hydro could have serious and long-term negative impacts on availablity of water for a healthly fish population as well as creating water challenges as the Central Oregon population continues to grow.

And, as the article points out, there’s the additional concern that serious self-serving, “good-old-boy”, behind-closed-doors negotiations have been happening and that there’s a specific effort to withhold full disclosure from the public.

# # #

Flushed Away: City hydro project could be a drain on Tumalo Creek
Eric Flowers – the Source Weekly – October 28, 2009

You wouldn’t guess it from the rain soaked streets this week or the water gushing down Tumalo Creek, but there are signs aplenty that the upper Deschutes basin is running out of water to meet the demand of farms, cities and fish – all of which have legal, as well as historical and biological, cases for getting their share of water, especially during the parched summer months.

Recent data indicates that well owners are drilling deeper to hit groundwater, hinting that population growth and other high-intensity uses like golf courses may be negatively impacting the aquifer – something that just a few years ago experts said wasn’t likely to happen under the current rules. Meanwhile, pending applications for new groundwater withdrawals are approaching the ceiling the legislature set up when it crafted a series of special rules to stave off a potential development moratorium.

In the case of Bend, conservation campaigns have done little to curb residents’ thirst. The city still ranks significantly higher than similarly sized cities in the valley for per capita water use. And the city council recently spiked a proposal to address the problem with a tiered-rate structure that would have charged big-time water users more than conservation-minded residents. Still, the city has prided itself on being a leader on the basin’s water issues, working collaboratively with groups like the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, the Deschutes Resource Conservancy (DRC) and the local irrigation districts on river restoration efforts designed to restore habitat and pump up traditionally meager summer flows on the Deschutes River and its tributaries.

That’s why the city’s latest water initiative has left some environmental advocates puzzled. Buried inside Bend’s massive surface water treatment plan, which emerged last month, is an initiative that could more than double the city’s withdrawal from Bridge Creek, potentially wiping out some of the summer and winter flows downstream in Tumalo Creek, a major tributary to the middle Deschutes that has already had millions of dollars invested in restoration efforts to offset the effects of erosion and excessive water withdrawals.

The city has yet to release the exact details of its diversion plan, though a feasibility report was due out last month. One of the major elements of the plan, however, is already raising a cautionary flag with some observers. Specifically, the city is proposing to add a small hydropower project to its water supply when it replaces a pipeline that funnels a sizeable chunk of the city’s drinking water from Bridge Creek to the Outback storage facility. The city estimates that by pushing drinking water through a turbine system before funneling it into the storage tanks, it could generate $1.8 million worth of electricity.

The only problem: nobody, except maybe the city, knows just how much surface water – one of the basin’s most scarce and precious resources – the city would have to divert to meet those estimates. And right now the city isn’t talking. According to the Department of Water Resources, Bend holds certificates for about 36 cubic feet per second (cfs) of surface water in Bridge Creek, or about 16,000 gallons per minute. However, the city diverts only about 14 cfs of that on any given day. The rest of the water is set aside for irrigation and “in-stream” flows – the water that is left in the river for fish and all other manner of life that depend on the river for sustenance.

Oregon’s Energy Tax Credits Under Fire

State lawmakers target energy tax credit costs
Benefit to large wind-power projects is likely to be reduced
By Nick Budnick – The Bulletin – September 3, 2009

Lawmakers and state regulators plan to put new restrictions on a state tax credit that has helped Central Oregon’s renewable energy businesses.

Lawmakers for the Senate and House revenue committees met last week in Salem to discuss the state’s budget picture, including the business energy tax credit, or BETC, which encourages investment in alternative energy, recycling and energy conservation measures.

Lawmakers were told that the tax credit is estimated to cost the state $168 million over the next two years. That’s a jump of $24 million over the previous estimate, and about $100 million more than it cost the state in the last two-year budget cycle.

Earlier this year, lawmakers had tried to curb the tax credit, shaving about $20 million by limiting the benefit provided to large wind-power projects.

But that legislation, House Bill 2472, was vetoed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Now, however, legislative observers think lawmakers will muster the two-thirds supermajority necessary to override Kulongoski’s veto when they return to Salem for an expected special session in February.

Swalley Irrigation District’s Ponderosa Hydro Plant Gets Stimulus Funds

Oregon canal piping projects win stimulus funds
From KTVZ.COM news sources – August 20, 2009

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Thursday that the Bureau of Reclamation has identified two Challenge Grant projects in Central Oregon that will receive a $3.3 million share of $40 million coming to Oregon under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  

Through the Challenge Grant Program’s Water Marketing and Efficiency Grants, Reclamation provides 50/50 cost share funding to states and irrigation and water districts for projects focused on water marketing, conservation and efficiency.  Projects are selected through a competitive process, based on their ability to meet the goal of improving sustainable water supplies in the western United States.  The projects include:

Main Canal Piping Project and Ponderosa Hydro plant, Swalley Irrigation District: $2,058,935 for this three stage/phase project that would complete piping of ¾ miles of canal, the design and construction of a 0.75 megawatt hydropower plant, and a solar telemetry project that would allow the District to use solar power for a system that monitors, measures and controls water.

Feed-in Tariffs Gaining Traction in North America

North American feed-in tariff policies take off
by Ben Block – World Watch Institute – August 12, 2009

Clean energy advocates in Europe have long considered the feed-in tariff as an antidote to the industrial world’s fossil fuel dependency. Now, the United States and Canada are starting to catch on as well.

Feed-in tariffs (FITs) guarantee that anyone who generates electricity from a renewable energy source—whether they are a homeowner, small business, or large electric utility—is able to sell that electricity into the grid and receive long-term payments for each kilowatt-hour produced. Payments are set at pre-established rates, often higher than what the market would ordinarily pay, to ensure that developers earn profitable returns.

The FIT is credited for the rapid deployment of wind and solar power among world renewable energy leaders Denmark, Germany, and Spain this past decade. Similar policies have since been adopted by many other countries, leading the FIT to become the most prevalent tool for promoting renewables.

In North America, its adoption has been relatively slow. As public support for renewable energy increases, however, more governments are adopting FIT policies—often as a complement to the widely used Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) that require utilities to purchase minimum amounts of renewable electricity.

Several U.S. states and Canadian provinces began serious consideration of the FIT last year. More than a dozen states, one province, and numerous municipalities have since implemented some form of FIT.

“We’ve reached a tipping point where a feed-in tariff is no longer such an odd idea for America,” said Paul Gipe, the author of several books on wind energy and a FIT advocate. “In fact, it’s the best idea for rapid development of the massive amount of renewable energy that’s needed now.”

New Law Provides Energy Loans to Oregon Homeowners

Bill offers home insulation retrofits
An Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Technology law will provide $15 million in loans in the next 2 years
 
By David Steves – The Register-Guard – August 3, 2009

How would you like to be able to add insulation that keeps your house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter — and then pay for it with the money you could end up saving on your utility bill over the next 20 years?

It may sound too good to be true, but it’s just what new state legislation promises to deliver.

The new Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Technology bill, signed into law in Eugene by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, will provide $15 million in loans over the next two years to Oregon homeowners. Unlike conventional home improvement loans, the money can be repaid with utility bills.

The bill’s authors, including Rep. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, say they fully expect that the reduced energy usage — and lower utility bills — will provide consumers with enough savings to pay back the loans.

Edwards was part of a bipartisan group of House members who came up with the bill and worked it through the 2009 session. It is now awaiting Oregon Department of Energy rule-making so it can be tested in a few areas.

Eugene is one of five places in Oregon to express interest in piloting the program. If it’s included as a testing area, then Eugene residents could be taking out loans and hiring contractors to retrofit their homes for greater energy efficiency or to add renewable energy components by late this year or early next year, Edwards said.

Renewable Energy Shortcoming: It’s Intermittent

Seeking green power solutions for hazy days
Bend Bulletin – August 2, 2009

Portland General Electric got a lesson in one of the shortcomings of renewable energy last week.

With temperatures above 100 degrees in Portland, the company broke its all-time record for summer power consumption Monday, then again Tuesday, and also on Wednesday.

All the while, the company’s Bigelow Canyon Wind Farm 140 miles east of Portland was producing next to no power. The winds that usually suck cool air up the Columbia River and keep summers mild had ceased, baking Portland and idling the turbines at Bigelow Canyon — just when they were most needed.

If wind and solar are going to play a bigger part in meeting the country’s electrical demand, utilities will need to get faster at reacting every time the wind dies down or a cloud moves in front of the sun. Bend’s PV Powered is working on solving a part of the problem.

The federal government recently awarded the company $3 million to get to work building the machines needed to create a future network of thousands or even millions of small-scale solar generating systems.

The Solar Energy Grid Integration System is an initiative of the Department of Energy that seeks to make solar power cost-competitive with other forms of power generation by 2015. Right now, solar power makes up only a tiny fraction of the total energy consumed in the United States, but that could change quickly if current treends continue.

According to a 2007 Energy Department report, 5 to 10 percent of electricity customers could be using some form of solar power within 10 years if homeowners continue adding solar panels to their homes at the current rate.

Solar: A Rich Man Only Renewable Energy?

The very last sentence of this article notes that the “Oregon legislature is currently considering a five-year pilot program to try out the [feed-in tariff] model.”  This is potentially good news but until Oregon and all other states adopt a system where energy can be sold to utility companies at a rate that is high enough to make all sizes of solar installations “profitable”,  like Germany for example, solar will continue to lag behind wind and other renewable energy sources.

# # #

Is Solar Power Only A Rich Man’s Renewable Source?
By Rob Manning – OPB News – June 8, 2009

Turning energy from the sun into electricity is one of the keys to saving the earth, according to renewable power advocates, and if solar is going to take off in the Northwest, it will mean re-shaping our relationship with energy.

Solar energy is considered an intermittent resource, although one of the more predictable ones, since you know it produces electricity only when the sun is up.

And solar is about as renewable as it gets – when the sun comes up, the rays get captured in panels and converted into energy.

Even factoring in the cost of producing the panels, solar energy is several times more efficient than fossil fuels. And unlike wind — which can kill birds — or hydro — which can kill fish — there’s no known collateral damage from solar installations.

But right now, solar doesn’t even register as one of the seven biggest sources of electricity in Oregon.

PV Powered Looks to Double in Size

Future is sunny for PV Powered
With new investment, it’s ready for major growth
By Andrew Moore – The Bulletin – June 05, 2009

Thanks to the extension of a crucial government tax credit and a recent multimillion-dollar investment, Bend’s PV Powered is ramping up for growth that could double or triple the company’s size in the next two years and firmly cement Central Oregon as a center for renewable-energy technology, according to CEO Gregg Patterson.

The privately held company, which manufactures electrical devices called inverters that are a critical component of solar energy systems, has recently hired a handful of workers and is likely to hire as many as 10 more in the coming weeks to handle growing demand for its products, Patterson said.

The company laid off several workers in the fall but is now up to 55 employees, the majority of whom work out of a roughly 100,000-square-foot plant in northeast Bend that used to be a lumber products factory. The company currently uses only a small portion of the facility for its engineering and assembly work but expects to grow into the building as demand dictates.

Home Energy Efficiency Upgrade Tax Incentives

New tax credits: What’s out there?
Energy efficiency upgrades can be pricey, but incentives may cover 40 to 60 percent
By Kate Ramsayer - The Bulletin - April 25, 2009

After a winter of paying high heating bills but still living in a chilly house, Tania Piper and Colin Mahood, of Bend, decided to see what they could do to make their house less drafty.

“I want our house to be efficient; I don’t want to be wasting our money or wasting resources,” Piper said. “So for me, it was obvious that it was something that needed to be a priority.”

They hired a company to do a series of tests to find the home’s problem spots and received a list of improvements that would help make the house more airtight, like adding insulation in the floors and sealing leaks around ducts — work that came with a price tag of more than $2,000. But with federal and state tax credits and power company incentives, that cost was cut by more than half.

Energy Efficiency Mortgages are Available

What’s the Scoop on Energy Loans?
by M. Radnich – Cascade Business News – April 1, 2009

Global warming is the most urgent environmental crisis of our time. Studies have shown that 25 percent of carbon emissions are from residential dwellings. 

Energy Loans for homeowners to improve their carbon footprint are becoming a necessity for those who want to be environmentally responsible. A recent analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed that Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM’s) can have a dramatic impact on increasing the opportunities for home ownership. The analysis found than an average 6.8 percent more families would be able to qualify for a mortgage through an energy efficient mortgage.

Energy Efficient mortgages can be used to make significant energy efficient improvements in one out of four existing and new homes, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies (HUD/DOE).

A study published in the Appraisal Journal documented that the market value of a home increases $20 for every $1 decrease in the annual energy costs. A recent analysis by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, building a home to exceed the Model Energy Code would result in an annual savings of $170 to $425. Applying these findings to the analysis published in the Appraisal Journal would equate to an increased home market value of $4,250 to $10,625.

The purpose of the Energy Loan Program in Central Oregon, (also known as SELP), is to promote energy conservation and renewable energy resource development.  This State of Oregon program offers low-interest loans for projects that:
• Save energy
• Produce energy from renewable resources such as water, wind, geothermal, solar, biomass, waste materials or waste heat
• Use recycled materials to create products 
• Use alternative fuels
• The Energy Loan Program can loan to individuals, businesses, schools, cities, counties, special districts, state and federal agencies, public corporations, cooperatives, tribes, and non-profits. Projects must be in Oregon.