For decades, consumer-owned electric co-ops have blazed trails when it comes to developing renewable energy. Today, more than 80 percent of the nation’s 900-plus electric co-ops supply electricity produced by wind, solar, hydro, biomass (including landfill gas, livestock waste, timber byproducts, and crop residue), and other “earth-friendly” sources.
A special report published in RE Magazine offers new details about some of the innovative electric co-op projects to develop, promote and increase renewable energy. You can find the full report in “Related Links” box.
Highlights
Clean Renewable Energy Bonds
Embarking on a new “green wave,” two dozen co-ops in 20 states recently received a total of $270 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) from the U.S. Treasury to develop renewable energy projects involving wind, geothermal, closed-loop biomass (trees grown expressly for electricity production), open-loop biomass (sawdust, tree trimmings, farm byproducts, animal waste, landfill gas), small hydropower (less than 25 MW), and solar systems.
Electric co-ops have submitted more than $500 million in applications since CREBs were first authorized.
Co-ops and wind energy
As projected by EPRI, wind power will lead the renewable parade. Currently, 150 electric co-ops either own wind turbines or buy output from wind farms, amounting to 608 MW, or about 5.2 percent, of U.S. wind generating capacity.
Basin Electric Power, serving 120 electric co-ops and about 2.5 million consumers in nine states, draws 136 MW of wind energy from purchase power agreements with two commercial wind farms in North and South Dakota and two small projects jointly owned with sister G&Ts Central Power Electric Cooperative in Minot, N.D., and East River Electric Power Cooperative in Madison, S.D. It has also set a goal of voluntarily meeting at least 10 percent of its peak demand requirements from clean and renewable energy sources by 2010.
Underground power
One Last Frontier State electric co-op moving toward a geothermal option, Naknek Electric Association in Naknek, located along Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska, has seen electric rates for its headquarters town of 1,000 climb toward 34.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The Naknek Electric board outlined an ambitious plan to reduce retail electricity prices “by at least 70 percent” in Naknek, South Naknek, King Salmon, Egegik, 21 other villages, as well as Dillingham, the other “big town” on the bay. They propose replacing dozens of isolated diesel generators with central station geothermal power.
Construction of a 25-MW geothermal power plant, 425 miles of transmission line, and 17 or 18 substations will begin next winter, with a 2009–10 completion date. The first phase will serve Naknek, Dillingham, and four or five villages.
Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative in Portola, Calif., taps into geothermal power as an associate member of the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) in Roseville. NCPA operates a pair of 110-MW-capacity power plants at The Geysers.
“In 2006, approximately 5 percent of our power mix came from geothermal energy,” states Jessica Nelson, Plumas-Sierra REC manager of energy services.
Light bright
Westminster, Colo.-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, in conjunction with EPRI, national energy labs, and other utilities, has begun looking into the feasibility of constructing a CSP plant in New Mexico that will produce anywhere from 50 MW to 500 MW.
In another potential role for solar, the Cooperative Research Network (CRN) has released a report, Solar Options to Enhance Combustion Turbines, that evaluates the viability of cooling natural gas-fired peaking facilities using solar troughs.
“More than 140 co-ops around the country provide summertime peaking power using simple-cycle gas-turbine plants and could take advantage of renewable resources to cool them,” cites CRN Executive Director Ed Torrero. “As temperatures go up, combustion turbines lose efficiency, causing reduced output and challenging the utility. A solar cooling system that combines parabolic troughs with absorption chilling could improve turbine capability and count toward a co-op’s RPS share.”
Three electric co-ops—Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative in Willcox, Ariz., Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative in Lihue, Hawaii, and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos, N.M.—have received CREB funding for various-sized solar ventures.
Back to nature
Green Power Electric Membership Corporation, a partnership of 36 Georgia electric co-ops, has entered into a 15-year agreement to purchase 20 MW—enough to meet the needs of more than 15,000 homes—from the Peach State’s first poultry litter-burning power plant, constructed by Earth Resources, Inc., near Carnesville, Ga., about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta.
In scattered cases, G&Ts even use farm byproducts as supplemental fuel for coal-fired power plants. Generally, such items are much more expensive than coal because of their low energy output and the additional labor required to collect, load, and transport the feedstock.
Central Electric Power Cooperative in Jefferson City, Mo., one of six G&Ts that owns Associated Electric and which supplies wholesale power to eight distribution co-ops over 22,000 square miles, last year tried burning corncobs at its 72-MW Chamois Power Plant in Chamois, Mo. A mixture of 98 percent coal and 2 percent cobs was tested.
Household refuse also plays a power supply role for many co-ops. East Kentucky Power offers 15 MW of landfill-gas electricity to 14 member distribution systems packaged under the brand “EnviroWatts: Earth-Friendly Alternatives.”
In Indiana—where renewable sources will provide 10 percent of the electricity used in government buildings by 2010—power will be supplied by Indianapolis-based Wabash Valley Power Association landfill-gas plants. Since 1999, Wabash Valley Power, a G&T, has steadily increased its renewable capacity through a deal with Waste Management. The wholesale power supplier to 28 electric distribution co-ops in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio now owns eight landfill gas plants capable of generating 3.2 MW each, with two more under construction.
Washington Electric Cooperative in East Montpelier, Vt., produces power from the Green Mountain State’s largest landfill. CREB financing allowed the 10,000-member co-op to boost capacity at the landfill plant earlier this year to 6.4 MW, more than half of the amount needed to meet non-peak demand.
Water world
Among renewable energy sources, hydropower boasts the lowest cost and greatest reliability. About 8 percent of all electric co-op power requirements are met through hydro generation—mostly from large state- and federally operated facilities. The country’s four federal power marketing administrations, for example, ship hydropower to rural electric systems in 33 states, with rates paid by co-ops and public power entities covering all costs.
One co-op facility—the 21-MW, two-unit, run-of-river Raystown Hydroelectric Project, William F. Matson Generating Station (Raystown), operated by Harrisburg, Pa.-based G&T Allegheny Electric Cooperative—recently became the first in the Keystone State, and 23rd nationwide, to earn low-impact certification. Electric co-ops are also looking to the world’s oceans to create electricity. Kaua’i Island Utility in Hawaii has been working with EPRI to study the feasibility of wave motion as a power source.
Another G&T, PNGC Power in Portland, Ore., will provide $500,000 for a 2-MW wave-power plant that Ocean Power Technologies plans to install 2.5 miles offshore from Reedsport, Ore. A phase-in plan already approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could eventually increase output of the project to 50 MW. PNGC Power, which supplies wholesale power to 15 electric co-op distribution systems serving consumers in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming, will purchase all 2 MW and has an option to obtain more output down the road.
Excerpted with permission from the October 2007 issue of Rural Electric Magazine © National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.