How to Meet Renewable Energy Goals Without Industrial Wind Turbines

Following is the Executive Summary Energy Plan unveiled yesterday by Energize Vermont, which has been leading the fight against ridge top wind projects.  It shows how Vermont can achieve the legislated goal of 90% renewable energy use by 2050 without destroying the landscape, and citizen's well being, with industrial wind turbines.  The complete plan is here.

Energize Vermont

CLEAN ENERGY PLAN

Executive Summary

Overview

The goal of the Energize Vermont Clean Energy Plan

is to offer the state a pragmatic path forward for

electricity generation that reduces the overall impacts

of generation.

The Plan offers a reasonable balance of resources

and does not unreasonably depend any one resource.

Additionally, it emphasizes increased utilization of

resources that help us achieve the following three

goals:

        1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

        2. Utilize the lowest impact, highest resource

            potential renewables

        3. Meet Vermont’s clean energy goals affordably

Plan Assumptions:

The Plan makes the following assumptions, many of which match those in Vermont’s

Comprehensive State Energy Plan (CEP) from 2011.

        • The Goal of the CEP is to have 90% of our energy use from renewables by 2050. To

            accomplish this we must move our electricity generation sources to non-CO2 emitting

            sources.

        • Vermont’s demand for electricity is relatively steady. The Plan starts with usage at

            6,000GWhs annually at present and grows to 6,500GWhs in 2030.

        • The Plan assumes continued investment in efficiency that will limit demand growth

            over time. Moving our electricity generation to renewable resources is important, but

            we need to first focus on efficiency in our homes and buildings.

        • Vermont’s grid capacity can handle most estimates of plugin electric vehicle (PEV)

            adoption rates if the PEVs are charged at night. Energize Vermont estimates 110,000

            PEVs in Vermont by 2030, and this falls within UVM’s estimates of acceptable grid

            capacity. The Plan offers additional recommendations should demand grow further

            due to the adoption of plugin electric vehicles.

        • Generation technology will improve, but it is impossible to know how or by much. As a

            result the Plan uses no assumed increase in technological efficiency over present day.

Resource Recommendations:

The Plan recommends an overall reduction of CO2 emitting (market) resources of 73% over the next 20 years. It achieves this goal largely by ramping down the State’s dependency on market sources and migrating to local renewable sources. It makes the following recommendations by source to achieve this goal:

• Hydro Quebec - Honor existing contracts, increase if needed for growth.
• Nuclear - Honor existing contracts, ramp down over time.     
• Solar - Support aggressive build-out, achieve 400-500MW in 2030.
• Wind - 3-year moratorium on further ridgeline development, add no  additional ridgeline wind with current technology.
• Local Hydro - Add capacity through retrofit and new plants. Adopt DPS  estimate of 90MW of new potential capacity.
• Biomass - Expand smaller co-gen opportunities as appropriate. Explore one larger (25MW), high efficiency plant with sustainable forestry practices and safe operations as technology permits. 
• Methane - Expand to maximum potential in Vermont. Build out technology for smaller Vermont farms. Add 15MW of capacity from smaller farms by 2030.
• Market Power - Decrease over time to achieve 75% reduction by 2030.

Policy Recommendations:

The Plan makes several important policy recommendations to help achieve the above

resource goals, including:

• the expansion of Group Net Metering by removing utility cap and creating better financing opportunities
• encouraging small-scale and community based projects with better financing opportunities
• creating state sponsored ownership models for community projects, similar to those in Germany
• creating technology siting standards to ensure all projects are “done right
• placing a three year moratorium on utility-scale wind to allow for impact studies and technological improvement
• encouraging the State and local governments to lead by example through renewable projects and PEV adoption

Conclusion:

Vermont can meet our clean energy goals and reduce our GHG emissions without sacrificing

our ridgelines.

Contact Information:

Energize Vermont

www.energizevermont.org

info@energizevermont.org

802-778-0660