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.

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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.

Another Oregon Winery Embraces Solar Power

Oregon wineries go solar
OPB News – November 24, 2008
 
Sun rays hit a spread of solar panels on the winery’s rooftop, and owners Robin and Danuta Pfeiffer watched as their electric meter’s dial spun backward.

They were putting power back on the grid as the sun light converted to electricity and powered both the winery and the couple’s home in the southern Willamette Valley.

The Pfeiffer Winery, which produces about 1,500 cases of wine each year, is one of at least five Oregon wineries to go solar.

Torri Mor Winery, Stoller Vineyards, Schafer Vineyard Cellar and Sokol Blosser Winery have also installed solar panels to power their businesses.

Bend’s Downtown Parking Garage Solar Project Now in Doubt

The following article effectively highlights the influence very large utility companies can have on renewable energy projects and the need for predictable financial incentives that are sufficiently large enough and have a life long enough to allow projects to be planned and completed. 

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Bend’s Big Solar Project Delayed, in Doubt
The Bulletin – James Sinks – August 5, 2008

A high-profile – and high-elevation – green energy project in downtown Bend may still be in trouble, despite a recent ruling by the Oregon Public Utility Commission that seemed to give the green light to privately financed solar projects on public property.

A 200-kilowatt solar energy array is supposed to be installed atop the city’s new downtown parking structure, where photovoltaic cells would perch on steel trellises above the top deck of cars.

Yet, because of the delay caused by the PUC case – which was launched by utility giant PacifiCorp, the parent company of Pacific Power – it is doubtful now that the project can be completed by December 31. That’s when a federal tax credit available for operational solar power projects is due to shrink from 30 percent of the installation cost to 10 percent.

And without that higher federal tax credit, the project doesn’t pencil out financially, said Doug Parsons, the chief executive of Bend-based SunEnergy Power Corp., which would install and own the solar array and then sell the electricity generated.

Two Central Oregon Solar Projects Effected by Pacific Power Inquiry

Clouds cast over 2 solar projects
Public-private partnerships in Bend, Redmond caught up in inquiry
By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin - June 13, 2008

Two Central Oregon solar power projects could find themselves in the dark now that a power company has asked the state to clarify laws related to such ventures.

While Pacific Power says it just wants to ensure customers are being treated fairly, environmental groups and solar companies say the appeal casts dark clouds over an industry that’s just starting to get plugged in.

Solar panels are slated for the Redmond Airport and the downtown Bend parking garage in deals between the respective cities and private companies.

Since governments don’t pay taxes, the federal and state tax credits available for installing new solar systems aren’t particularly helpful. But by partnering with private companies, everyone can win, said Jeremiah Baumann, the program director of the nonprofit group Environment Oregon.

The cities provide space for the solar panels and get reduced-cost electricity from them without having to come up with money for the panels. The solar companies get the tax breaks.

But lucrative federal tax credits could expire at the end of the year. And even if the state Public Utilities Commission rules in favor of the projects, it could take up to two months to reach that decision. That could make it hard for solar companies to finish by the end of the year to get the tax credits before they expire.

Central Oregon Irrigation District Juniper Ridge Hydropower Solicitation

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.

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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. 

Central Oregon Solar Progress Happening…..Slowly

Although the following article from The Bulletin is a bit of a “puff piece” and includes a few “soft facts” and incomplete explanations of how things actually work, it’s good to see The Bulletin take the time to print this important solar energy story and actually put it on the front page – ”above the fold” even.

The article also alludes to the challenges skeptics bring when new ideas – especially those that might rub the skeptic the wrong way ideolically – are presented.  But many other similar solar energy projects have been built and are successfully operating so hopefully the skeptics will be brought around.

     From The Bulletin – December 13, 2007:

Bend and Redmond look at solar energy for city projects

The roof of Bend’s parking garage may be just the beginning of solar power for city government for Central Oregon.

SunEnergy Power Corp., the Bend company that will install the panels on top of the downtown garage, has recently been pitching to cities around the state, including Bend and Redmond, the idea of running wastwater treatment plants on solar energy.

Bend’s Downtown Parking Garage Gets Solar Power

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.

Solar Power on top of Bend’s New Downtown Parking Garage

Tax credits may heat up solar energy use in Bend
SunEnergy plans to give credits back to investors
By Chuck Chiang - The Bulletin - August 16. 2006

With federal and state tax incentives available, the proposed $1.8 million solar power structure on top of Bend’s downtown parking garage could be the catalyst that spurs the region’s renewable energy development, government and business officials say.

Executives from Bend-based SunEnergy Power Corp., the company proposing the project, said they moved the nonprofit firm from the San Diego area partly to take advantage of the Business Energy Tax Credits provided by the Oregon Department of Energy.

With the state incentives and tax credits offered by the federal government, SunEnergy plans to build the project using investors’ funding, then returning those tax credits to the investors. The city of Bend would pay only for the energy generated by the solar cells, not construction or maintenance costs.