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The Southeast doesn't have solar or wind resources that are on par with other parts of the nation, which is one of the reasons the recent attempt at passing a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) failed, but that doesn't mean that the region has to remain on the sidelines of the renewable energy game. Governments, non-profit groups, universities and utilities across the region are making efforts to move the Southeast toward renewable energy.
"Biomass will be a key to meeting any standard but we will need a more economical way to select feedstocks and transport the fuels. There will certainly need to be a large mix. No one technology is going to be able to solve the problem. Given the resources, I don't think an RPS is unachievable. But there will have to incentives for companies to look at alternatives."
--Brent Bailey, State Facilitator: Southeast, 25x'25
Brent Bailey is a State Facilitator for 25x'25, an organization that works on the state level to promote renewable energy legislation. According to Bailey, the organization is looking for incentives, not mandates, and that any such incentives will have to bring all sides together in order to work properly.
"We'd like to see industry and consumers come together to make it happen. Industry needs economic pressures to make it happen. And state governments need to put incentives in place to make it happen," Bailey said. "Consumers are going to have to make the demand for renewable energy. The Southeast generally has lower electric costs than the rest of the county, so until consumers are uncomfortable with the amount they're paying, they won't demand a whole lot."
While 25x'25 works on a grassroots level to create support for incentive legislation, they are not the only ones in the region working to make renewable energy a reality. John Clark is Director of the South Carolina Energy Office, which currently manages a renewable energy development fund and is about to unveil a new effort.
"We work with legislators and interest groups to put in good tax incentives. We provide incentives for both purchasing equipment and providing energy. We are also working with the three investor owned utilities in South Carolina," Clark said. "We've formed a non-profit organization called Palmetto Clean Energy, it's modeled after North Carolina Green Energy and we're kicking it off this spring."
Utilities in the Southeast worked hard to block the national RPS in December but not because they don't support renewable energy. Southern Company is making investments in wind, solar and geothermal across the country and biomass gasification in the Southeast.
"We're in favor of renewable energy," said Mike Tyndall, corporate spokesman for Southern Company. "But we feel it should be implemented on a state by state basis, and it should be done in the best interest of a region. The Federal RPS would have required 15 percent of our electricity production to come from renewables. To get biomass on that scale would be exorbitantly impractical."
Duke Energy is also making investments in renewables partially in order to meet the 12.5 percent Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard passed in North Carolina in 2007. The company has both wind and solar projects online and in the development stages and has recently issued an RFP for a renewable energy project to be located in North Carolina.
"We love renewables, but they have to meet certain criteria for reliability and dependability. And that's why we've issued the RFP," said Tom Williams, spokesman for Duke Energy.
While Biomass and small wind projects are the main renewable sources currently being exploited in the Southeast, other sources may come online down the road to not only meet the growing number of RPS laws but also growing populations around the region. Offshore wind, wave, solar, landfill gas to energy and tidal energy projects may all become part of the mix.
Ocean energy may also be a possibility. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University are currently working on a pilot project intended to test the viability of the Florida Gulf Stream as a source of tidal energy. The program will use a 20-kilowatt underwater turbine to send back data about the current's power. The environmental impact of the project will also be studied.
"Given the resources, I don't think an RPS is unachievable. Biomass will be a key to meeting any standard but we will need a more economical way to select feedstocks and transport the fuels. No one technology is going to be able to solve the problem. There will certainly need to be a large mix," Bailey said.
Southern Company in conjunction with the Georgia Institute of Technology is looking into those alternatives by studying the offshore wind resource possibilities off the coast of Georgia. The South Carolina Energy Office has also look into wind power.
"In South Carolina we don't have much onshore wind. So that leaves you with a theoretical potential future for offshore wind once the cost comes down. We've got good offshore wind energy resources as far as NREL tells us. We have a shallow continental shelf, which could be good for cost effectiveness. But from everything I have seen it's still costly," Clark said.
WHILE I APPRECIATE YOUR ARTICLE ABOUT THE SOUTHEAST, LET ME INCLUDE FLORIDA WHERE WE DO HAVE SUPPORTING SMALL WINDS FOR WIND POWER.
CATCH THE WIND, INC. WILL SOON OPEN IN FORT LAUDERDALE TO INTRODUCE, SELL AND INSTALL TWO TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE FORM OF VIRTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINES DESIGNED FOR RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS. BOTH UNITS AREEFFICIENT AT LOW WIND SPEEDS AND WELL DESIGNED TO FIT ASTHETICALLY INTO THE NICHE THEY FILL. SINCE 90% OF THE FLORIDA POPULATION LIVES WITHIN 25 MILES OF THE OCEAN OUR WIND SOURCE IS ADEQUITE TO MAKE THESE UNITS FEASABLE FOR USE HERE.
WE ARE CURRENTLY FINISHING OUR BUSINESS PLAN AND BUILDING STAFF. WE HOPE TO HAVE OUR FIRST UNIT INSTALLED BEFORE MARCH 1ST.
Mark Thomas:
I am working with Tennessee legislators to explore ways to promote more renewable energy deployment in the TVA service grid area. The current assumption in TN government is that an RPS cannot be mandated by the state because TVA is the sole electicity provider in the state. We would welcome your thoughts on any way to change this.
Joe Schiller
931-387-4071
I believe this would classify as double talk, i.e., "I really, truly am in favor of Renewable Energy, just NIMCY (Not In My Coal Yard)."
It certainly is chauvinism. Student organizations and other advocacy groups are challenging their filthy coal politics that assumes a disregard for life as we know it on the planet.
I second the comment about kudzu above. Kudzu is not the only plant to produce wildly useful biomass, but it is a dramatic one. David Blume says it makes huge underground massess which can be harvested, and the plant barely notices, just makes more.
Blume has also come up with an interesting completely natural pre-emergent weed -suppressing substance, and it is not corn gluten.
My son did some research to TA in an alternative-energy class and turned himself from gloomster to enthusiast. He ran in to a prominent professor to say we would maybe someday be driving cars powered the way grass-fed cows are: breaking cellulosic bonds to make energy. The prof famous for poo-pooing things confessed he had bought an old Mercedes and commenced making biodiesel in his basement with a friend. Changes are afoot. The meanies cannot police every thoughtful individual in the country.
"Maybe we could also burn influence peddlers thus turning them into a useful energy source."
this IS a grand idea ! Stockholders in the big energy companys need to grow a conscience...pull their money out and invest in the future, If we are all to have a future. Sadly, too many people with the means to invest, ONLY consider quick profit. Those folks should look their children in the eyes and explain why they aren't important (which their actions confirm) On the other hand, if the future of their children does count....the long term investment will secure that environmentally & monetarily. If REASON doesn't return to America...and SOON,
THE SPECIES (US) IS IN FACT DOOMED
Nick, Bioten is alive and well. I work with the current ownership group of the technology developed in TN. They are putting together their development company and looking to re-install initially the plant that you speak of. They have a good plan to commercialize additional plants. Bioten works in the marketplace with a decent PPA which is attainable in certain states.
Yeah Andy,
It strikes me as kinda odd that the argument is.
"We don't have enough sun to do solar, but we have enough sun to do biofuels."
Meanwhile you get hundreds of times less energy per unit area with biofuels than you do solar.
It just doesn't make any logical sense.
Then again I guess the argument is "Well biofuels can store solar energy"
Well SolarThermal can store solar energy too.
http://greyfalcon.net/solarthermal
It's not a lack of sun, it's a lack of $$$. If money were no object, I could put solar panels all over my roof. Since I can't afford them I don't install.
Power companies have limited funds as well. If they could make money generating solar power, they would install it. If they can't make money, then there is no business to generate power.
Lack of funding and state support for renewable energy projects is a major hurdle in Alabama and other states in the southeast. The dollars invested have to make sense or you are not likely to get funded. We have to come up with some unique and economically viable ideas. Business, education, government and concerned citizens must work together to make renewable energy a practical reality.
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