Biomass plant a win-win for area
By Jody Jones – Register-Guard Guest Viewpoint – April 7, 2009

In 1953, my father, Aaron Jones, founded Seneca Sawmill Co. and focused on making the most of each log to manufacture high-value products. As a result, our mills produce more lumber and fewer chips and sawdust than other mills. Today, I am proud to say, we are recognized as an industry leader in sawmill technology. Seneca owns 24 patents on innovative sawmill processes that have enabled us to become the most efficient lumber manufacturer in the United States.

We apply advanced technology in every aspect of our mills. Our research and development program continually increases the quality and quantity of wood fiber recovered from each log. We analyze, streamline and perfect production through regular collaboration among our work force. We are always looking for ways to improve.

That’s why we began investigating renewable biomass cogeneration more than a decade ago. At that time, we didn’t feel the technology was advanced enough. Today, it is. So, we are moving forward with plans to build a renewable power facility that replaces natural gas as the heat source for our dry kiln and produces electricity for more than 13,000 homes.

This plant will also contribute to our goal of making the best use of each log we process. Some 75 percent of the woody biomass to fuel our electricity generator will come from bark, sawdust and shavings from our mills, with the other 25 percent from slash that we would otherwise burn in the forest. We can supply 100 percent of our cogeneration project needs.

Some have suggested that we might cut trees and use them to fuel our plant. That is untrue. It would be the equivalent of a fisherman burning his fishing pole for a campfire to cook his fish. How shortsighted that would be. Our forests are a very valuable asset to us, and we harvest only to produce lumber. If there’s no market, we don’t harvest. We will only create electricity with material that cannot be converted into lumber or studs.

Woody biomass-generated electricity has long been defined as renewable power by federal and state governments. It’s also firm power, which means it can be produced regardless of weather conditions. This type of power provides a reliable source of energy. Solar and wind power can be generated only when the weather cooperates. Additionally, when the Eugene Water & Electric Board held a public process on energy sources, its customers identified woody biomass as one of the preferred options.

Erik Silverberg’s April 2 guest viewpoint focused quite a bit on forest practices. He clearly doesn’t understand forestry, and has no accurate information about our company or our lands. Contrary to Silverberg’s assertion, the quality and quantity of timber on our lands has significantly improved over time. We have owned and operated a 165,000-acre tree farm since 1993. During that time, in addition to maintaining a sustainable harvest level, the amount of timber growing on these lands has increased by 70 percent.

Our foresters are diligent in their efforts to sustainably manage our forests, while protecting and providing habitat for fish and wildlife, clean air and water, soils and recreational opportunities. We take care of the land, because it provides the resource we need to continue to operate our mills, provide jobs and create renewable building materials.

Our cogeneration plant will reduce our community’s dependence on fossil fuels. Each year, Seneca burns about 70 million cubic feet of natural gas to produce steam to dry lumber in our kilns. For every 20,000 cubic feet of gas burned, one metric ton of carbon is released. Thus, using fossil fuel currently releases 3,500 tons of carbon per year, which will be reduced to zero once the project begins.

Those charged with the responsibility of designing carbon-regulation programs, such as the Western Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, consider woody biomass carbon-neutral, similar to other renewable technologies.

Woody biomass lessens greenhouse gas emissions when it replaces fossil fuels, because live, carbon-sequestering trees balance the carbon dioxide released when woody biomass is burned. When biomass power offsets carbon emissions from natural gas or coal plants, there is a net positive impact on reducing greenhouse gases. That is the case with our plant.

Bottom line: The more energy we produce locally, the less natural gas and coal we need to import to Oregon.

Currently, the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency is reviewing our air quality permit. Of our project’s $45 million cost, almost $11 million will pay for pollution control technology. In many instances, we are doing more than is required by current rules. We also will reduce traffic from our mills, because we will be keeping byproducts on-site to fuel the co-gen’s boiler.

I’m proud to be a part of a company that can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases, create firm, local renewable power, and continue to increase the value of each log we harvest. Our co-generation project is a true win-win for our community.

Jody Jones, along with her father and sisters, is a co-owner of Seneca Sustainable Energy.

Could the map for a Path to Green Energy affect development of renewable energy facilities in Central Oregon?

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Maps That Draw a Line on Energy Projects
By Matthew L. Wald – New York Times – April 1, 2009

An overused metaphor in arguments about the environment and electricity projects is “drawing the battle lines.’’ But that is exactly what the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Audubon Society did  on maps managed by Google, for 13 Western states covering about half the land mass of the continental United States.

The idea was to tell companies that want to develop renewable-energy projects what locations were likely to provoke a fight. Although wind and solar projects do not add to air pollution or global warming, their equipment and the associated power lines can hurt endangered or threatened species, environmentalists say.

And while the battle lines are quite literally available with a few mouse clicks, the intent is not entirely hostile, with the national groups recognizing that the issue is environmental balance, pitting prairie species like the greater sage-grouse against animals like the polar bear, which lives on ice that is melting because of global warming, some of it probably caused by coal-fired power plants that wind and sun could partly replace.

“The impetus, at least for the Natural Resources Defense Council, was in large measure the number of renewable-energy developers I was meeting in my work who kept saying to me, ‘please tell me where not to go,’ ’’ said Johanna Wald, a senior attorney with the group. Plant developers want minimum hassle, she said.

The wind industry publishes photos of cows grazing placidly around towers, and argues it is compatible with nature. But Brian A. Rutledge, executive director of the Audubon Society of Wyoming, said wildlife and domesticated species were different. “We have species of birds, for example, that won’t nest within 200 yards of a road, period,’’ he said. Some prairie birds will not venture anywhere near a vertical object like a tower or a power-line pylon, he said, probably because they are genetically imprinted to avoid natural vertical features, like trees, where predators perch. The lesser prairie chicken, he said, will not cross under a power line, even between widely spaced towers. “It becomes like a river down the middle of their population base,’’ he said.

Matthew McKinzie, of the N.R.D.C., said that his group had provided data on 173 species that were threatened or endangered, some of which had only a small habitat remaining. The list includes fish species.

The maps, part of Google Earth, show wilderness areas, areas where roads are banned, national parks, wildlife refuges, areas under consideration for wilderness protection, and many areas that lack legal protection but are prime territory for vulnerable species.

The effort by Google and the environmental groups comes soon after the Western Governors Association posted a draft map of “renewable energy zones,” and the new secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, ordered that a federal task force be formed to increase use of public lands for production and transmission of renewable energy.

At the American Wind Energy Association, Laurie Jodziewicz, a spokeswoman, said the wind industry was involved in the governors’ mapping effort. She predicted that the new Google Earth offering would also be useful, but said that the data was sometimes too coarse to base decisions on, and that it would take inspection of the sites to determine if there was really an environmental issue — just as it takes inspection and testing to see if there is a renewable energy resource. And the issue is not just wind, solar and geothermal, she said; oil and gas development is still going on in the West, she pointed out.

The environmentalists are focused on oil and gas development, too; they say they would like to see such developments around existing gas wells, coal strip mines that have been filled in and other rural areas that are already industrialized.

1. # #

Maps That Draw a Line on Energy Projects
By Matthew L. Wald – New York Times – April 1, 2009, 3:22 pm
An overused metaphor in arguments about the environment and electricity projects is “drawing the battle lines.’’ But that is exactly what the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Audubon Society did Wednesday, on maps managed by Google, for 13 Western states covering about half the land mass of the continental United States.

The idea was to tell companies that want to develop renewable-energy projects what locations were likely to provoke a fight. Although wind and solar projects do not add to air pollution or global warming, their equipment and the associated power lines can hurt endangered or threatened species, environmentalists say.

And while the battle lines are quite literally available with a few mouse clicks, the intent is not entirely hostile, with the national groups recognizing that the issue is environmental balance, pitting prairie species like the greater sage-grouse against animals like the polar bear, which lives on ice that is melting because of global warming, some of it probably caused by coal-fired power plants that wind and sun could partly replace.

“The impetus, at least for the Natural Resources Defense Council, was in large measure the number of renewable-energy developers I was meeting in my work who kept saying to me, ‘please tell me where not to go,’ ’’ said Johanna Wald, a senior attorney with the group. Plant developers want minimum hassle, she said.

The wind industry publishes photos of cows grazing placidly around towers, and argues it is compatible with nature. But Brian A. Rutledge, executive director of the Audubon Society of Wyoming, said wildlife and domesticated species were different. “We have species of birds, for example, that won’t nest within 200 yards of a road, period,’’ he said. Some prairie birds will not venture anywhere near a vertical object like a tower or a power-line pylon, he said, probably because they are genetically imprinted to avoid natural vertical features, like trees, where predators perch. The lesser prairie chicken, he said, will not cross under a power line, even between widely spaced towers. “It becomes like a river down the middle of their population base,’’ he said.

Matthew McKinzie, of the N.R.D.C., said that his group had provided data on 173 species that were threatened or endangered, some of which had only a small habitat remaining. The list includes fish species.

The maps, part of Google Earth, show wilderness areas, areas where roads are banned, national parks, wildlife refuges, areas under consideration for wilderness protection, and many areas that lack legal protection but are prime territory for vulnerable species.

The effort by Google and the environmental groups comes soon after the Western Governors Association posted a draft map of “renewable energy zones,” and the new secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, ordered that a federal task force be formed to increase use of public lands for production and transmission of renewable energy.

At the American Wind Energy Association, Laurie Jodziewicz, a spokeswoman, said the wind industry was involved in the governors’ mapping effort. She predicted that the new Google Earth offering would also be useful, but said that the data was sometimes too coarse to base decisions on, and that it would take inspection of the sites to determine if there was really an environmental issue — just as it takes inspection and testing to see if there is a renewable energy resource. And the issue is not just wind, solar and geothermal, she said; oil and gas development is still going on in the West, she pointed out.

The environmentalists are focused on oil and gas development, too; they say they would like to see such developments around existing gas wells, coal strip mines that have been filled in and other rural areas that are already industrialized.

The letter to the Editor below reflects the feelings of a number of people about wind farms.  They see them not as a clean source of renewable energy but as something that visually scars the landscape.  Is there a way to both educate those who have a negative knee jerk response to wind farms (and solar plants) and reduce the visual impact of renewable energy facilities?

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Gorge wind farms are shameful
P. Tildesley – Register-Guard Letters to the Editor – April 1, 2009

As a semi-truck driver in this state, I get to travel and see a great many of the beautiful views and vistas around the Western states.

Bald eagles in northern Washington and windmill generator farms south of Los Angeles — very different but each has its merits. We need renewable energy sources, but we should not combine them.

At this very moment some mindless morons from Washington state are allowing a wind farm to be built, not a few miles back, but on the very lip of the Columbia Gorge, one of this state’s most beautiful assets.

I traveled to Pendleton last week and noticed the new generators going up. What an eyesore! I then came back from Yakima down Highway 97, and when I crossed the river at Biggs, I could look down on the construction at the very edge of gorge walls.

I am saddened that our legislators allow such violence to take place. It is nothing less than eco-terrorism. Shame on the lot of you.

It’s developers vs. ODFW for proposed wind farm
By Lauren Dake / The Bulletin – March 06, 2009

Officials from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife are worried that a proposed Crook County wind farm could cause irreversible damage to a nearby sage grouse population.

At a recent Crook County Planning Department public hearing, officials from ODFW advised county officials of the biological risks that wind turbines may have in the proposed area.

While the potential impact of development in the area is still uncertain, officials said they would like to see a three-mile buffer around a sage grouse lek — where the birds strut during mating season.

But the developers of the wind farm said that buffer would destroy their project.

The Crook County Planning Department is scheduled to hold its second public hearing on the West Butte Wind Power Project on Wednesday. Since the project will generate fewer than 105 megawatts of power, the project only requires approval from the county.

“To be absolutely clear, in this process, ODFW serves as a natural resource adviser to the county’s Planning Commission, that’s all,” said Christian Hagen, the sage grouse conservation coordinator with ODFW. “We have no regulatory authority. We are advising them of what the biological risks are with this development.”

The estimated $220 million project would have 34 to 52 wind turbines, standing about 400 to 574 feet tall, that could generate enough electricity to power about 50,000 homes. The developers estimate it would also bring in about $1 million annually for the county in property taxes. The project would sit on a 10,000-acre ranch, but only occupy about 20 acres.

The sage grouse, a bird Hagen described as “one of the iconic species of the West,” is being considered for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Hagen said data from gas and oil exploration studies generally show that developing near sage grouse decreases their mating productivity. But since the West Butte Wind Power Project could be Central Oregon’s first commercial wind farm, Hagen said its effect on sage grouse is unknown.

“To the best of my knowledge, the development in Oregon (of wind farms) has largely occurred in wheat fields,” Hagen said. “So, we’re in a new era of development. … There are a lot of appealing aspects to having wind farms in the desert … but a lot of uncertainty of how species in these native habitats will respond.”

The project’s turbines would be placed at 5,000 to 5,800 feet in elevation on the ridges surrounding West Butte.

John Stahl, the developer of the West Butte Wind Power Project, said he is willing to work with ODFW to mitigate the impact on the sage grouse. But, he added, a three-mile buffer would “wipe out” the project.

“They came out with a blanket statement,” Stahl said of ODFW. “(The agency said,) the sage grouse were going to leave. The lek would be destroyed, and no sage grouse would be left on the property. … They have no knowledge that is going to happen. The lek could remain active. They are basing their scientific studies off oil, gas and coal studies, and that’s a different, noisier type of project. We don’t think that necessarily equates to wind.”

Heidi Bauer, with the Crook County Planning Department, said Wednesday’s meeting could be the final hearing where the Planning Commission takes public testimony. Bauer said she’s uncertain what the next step will be, but the commission could hold additional meetings to deliberate before making a decision.

Some Companies Thriving in Economy
KOHD.com News – January 29, 2009

In dark times when thousands of Central Oregonians are without work, some local businesses are bucking the trend, making plans to expand. PV Powered in Bend which makes solar-power systems plans to open a new facility on the east side of Bend and hopes to at least double its staff of 50. “Translating that into the number of jobs really depends on the timing of the growth and just overall economic issues that we’re working our way through right now,” said Erick Petersen, Vice President of PV Powered.

So why are some companies doing so much better? They say they found a niche and have customers outside Oregon. PV Powered hopes to expand overseas. “Clean energy is without question the place to be. Wind, biomass, solar, geothermal,” said Petersen.

PV Powered was hit by the downturn in August 2008 when they laid off 10 people as they waited for the federal investment tax credit that wasn’t renewed until September. But now they say they’re cautiously staying positive. “We’re predicting a significant growth in the business year over year, we are growing in the residential market, we’re significantly growing in the commercial market,” said Petersen.

EWEB a pioneer in renewable energy payment plans
By Bill Welch – Guest Viewpoint – Register-Guard – November 25, 2008

Gov. Ted Kulongoski recently unveiled his climate change goals for the 2009 Oregon Legislature. One of the goals — developing a pilot program to allow Oregonians to sell renewable power directly to their local utility — prompted a guest viewpoint by Jennifer Gleason of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (Register-Guard, Nov. 18).

Gleason’s central point was that the success of a pilot program hinges on the need for a renewable energy payments policy, also known as REP. In such a policy, utilities purchase all of the output from customers’ generation systems “at a fair price for an extended period.” She correctly identified several elements to make sure a policy works.

One need not look far to find an example of a successful pilot program. That’s because the Eugene Water & Electric Board already completed a pilot program almost identical to what the governor and Gleason are suggesting. The utility also has an REP in place for customers who wish to install solar or other renewable generation systems.

The utility initiated its pilot program, the EWEB Photovoltaic Generation Program, in 2001. EWEB provided access to its electric distribution system, provided 10-year contracts to purchase all the output of photovoltaic generation systems at almost twice the average retail rate, and worked with local contractors to implement the program — all of the key elements Gleason identified.

In 2007, EWEB created a full program modeled after the pilot program. EWEB’s Photovoltaic Generation Program currently is the only one of its kind in Oregon.

Since 2001, EWEB’s customers have installed 24 photovoltaic generation systems using this innovative program. Four additional generation projects are under construction.

Together, the projects will generate approximately 1.8 million kilowatt-­hours of electricity per year. All those kilowatt-hours flow directly into EWEB’s system and are purchased at rates that are set in 10-year power purchase contracts. In 2008, the generation purchase rate is almost twice EWEB’s average retail rate.

An additional 63 smaller renewable generation systems, producing more than 300,000 kilowatt-hours per year, are installed in a net-metered configuration, in which EWEB purchases power that is not used first by the homeowner or business.

EWEB has a board-approved customer generation policy that includes an REP as well as other options to allow customers to generate power. The policy is available on EWEB’s Web site, www.eweb.org, along with examples of power purchase contracts, program information and requirements, and links to tax credit sites.

EWEB is committed to developing renewable resources and energy efficiency to meet the power needs of its customers. For the majority of home­owners and businesses who want to take personal action, the most viable options continue to be efficiency improvements and solar.

EWEB’s existing solar generation program can serve as a model for state, local and utility efforts to create workable incentives for achieving local, renewable energy development.
Bill Welch is the energy management services engineering supervisor for the Eugene Water & Electric Board.

EDCO joins Oregon team at international solar trade show
EDCO – September 1, 2008

Earlier this month, EDCO joined a team of 18 representatives from the private and public sector in Oregon at one of the world’s largest solar power manufacturing shows in Valencia, Spain. The show attracts more than 20,000 professionals from across the globe.

Team “Invest in Oregon” included representatives from the Governor’s office, commercial real estate (Colliers), Oregon Dept. of Energy, investor-owned power utility PGE, University of Oregon, a private engineering and site selection consulting firm, Bend-based solar inverter manufacturer PV Powered, four economic development organizations, local government and a chamber of commerce. Oregon was the only U.S. state represented at the show, which enabled the team to generate significant interest by companies interested in siting new manufacturing operations in North America.

Solar power manufacturers are one of the hottest industries currently on the globe. Typical production facilities can run from $75 million in new buildings and equipment to more than $2.5 billion. Today, Oregon is uniquely positioned with tax credit and property tax programs to lead the nation in attracting these investments and, more importantly, the high-paying jobs that accompany them.

In just the past 18 months, Oregon communities have landed more new solar projects than any other state including industry leader SolarWorld, Solaix, xSunx, Intel’s new solar venture SpectraWatt, and polycrystaline manufacturer Peak Sun Silicon. Homegrown PV Powered is also on the global map as a growing concern and the largest U.S.-based inverter manufacturer. Oregon raked in a large number

Geothermal plant wins land-use approval in Southern Oregon
Posted by The Associated Press – March 27, 2008

Raser Technologies, a Utah company, has won land-use approval for a 10-megawatt power plant using geothermal heat on a farm in Southern Oregon.

The $35 million plant would draw on hot water beneath Liskey Farms south of Klamath Falls, where the owners already use the region’s abundant geothermal heat for greenhouses and a biofuels facility.

A megawatt provides enough power for about 1,000 typical homes, according to the rule-of-thumb calculations used in the utility industry, so the geothermal plant would provide enough power for 10,000.

The Klamath County Planning Commission unanimously approved the company’s proposal this week.

Jeremy Magrath of Raser Technologies said the plant will use six acres, with another 300 acres needed for the wells to feed hot water into the plant and then reinject it into the ground to preserve the energy source.

He said it’s uncertain when construction will begin because the company is working on other permits. He said the company is pushing to get those completed this year so it can take advantage of green-power incentives that expire this year.