Energy EFFICIENCY new buzz word

Energy efficiency should get as much attention as green power



09/17/2009


from the Kennebec Journal




from Gordon Weil

Everybody seems to be agog about green power.

It will reduce dependence on polluting electric power, create thousands of new jobs and even make us independent of foreign oil and natural gas. At least, that's what we are promised.

Green power is a good idea, but it is oversold.

Let's look at some of the myths about green power.

1. Green power is such a good idea that it is beyond controversy.

There has never been an energy resource without opponents.

Nuclear power scares people. Hydro power prevents fish passage. Wind power kills birds, is unsightly and makes noise. Tidal power interferes with commercial fishing. Oil-fired power makes us too dependent on imports. Natural gas needs some liquefied imports, but the terminals are too large, and the tankers could be blown up. We don't have enough sun to waste time with solar power.

That's what opponents say. It makes you wonder what source is acceptable to people who want the lights to go on, computers to work and industry to provide jobs.

Green power will happen, but not without a fight with someone.

2. Green power will reduce the cost of electricity, because it is renewable and local.

Green power will raise the cost of electricity.

New transmission lines need to be built to allow wind and tidal power to get to the grid. Developers want to roll the transmission costs into everybody's electric rates. Otherwise, the consumers of green power will have to pay.

Given the variations in wind and tidal power, they require conventional and more reliable backup power, and that will add to the cost.

Green power developers receive the same rate paid to the most expensive resource used to supply even the smallest part of the market. Even if they have no fuel cost, they will be paid as if they were using natural gas.

So every time legislators require more green power, they also are raising electric rates.

3. Green power will be a boon to the economy.

About a half dozen places in the United States, including Maine, have been told they are "the Saudi Arabia of wind."

The Saudi princes got rich from oil, so we ought to get rich from wind, right? Of course, the princes own the oil and we don't own the wind.

Federal taxpayer-financed green power projects will create jobs. The timing is good as a way to combat the recession. But the impact will only be relatively short-term.

Without subsidies, green power will be less attractive. And only a handful of people are needed to operate green power facilities after they are built.

4. Green power will transform our energy supply mix.

No credible observer believes that wind, solar and tidal power together will amount to even 10 percent of our total energy supply. There is simply not enough wind or other resource opportunities.

Meanwhile, hydro power, the classic American green resource, is in decline as dams are being torn down to increase fish passage.

New hydro power seems to be out of the question.

Probably the only non-fossil fuel energy resource that could cover a substantial part of our needs is nuclear power, which has a limited future, because of failure to agree on how to dispose of radioactive waste.

Does all of this mean that green power is not worth the effort?

On the contrary, green power can help us deal with the pressing problem of global warming by reducing emissions. This is a worthwhile public objective, and it is worth paying for. That is just what will happen as green power is increasingly used.

We should not overlook a much less dramatic approach to making the country more energy independent and reducing emissions. It can have a major impact.

It is the more efficient use of energy. When we use less or can match our energy use to times when electricity supplies are readily available, we can avoid building new power plants and power lines.

People don't want to wash clothes at 3 a.m. Fortunately, we won't have to go such extremes, thanks to "smart grid."

It is the remote control of power usage so that it has almost no discernable negative effect on human activities.

Smart grid and other efficiency measures can deliver everything that green power offers with less transmission cost. They leave more green in our pockets.

Legislators and regulators need to focus now as much on promoting and funding less glamorous energy efficiency as they do on green power.

Gordon L. Weil, a weekly columnist for this newspaper, is an author, publisher, consultant and former international organization, U.S. and Maine government official.