In an ideal smart grid system, energy users have a “smart meter” that tracks their energy consumption (and how much it’s costing them) in real time and allows them to make adjustments accordingly.  In addition, ample renewable power is available on the grid, and renewable power producers can sell their excess power back to the grid easily through “net metering.”  As smart grids slowly emerge across the globe with a patchwork of features, we discover some exciting new projects and programs, as well as some generous room for improvement.

The Southeast Asian island city-state of Singapore recently announced that its Energy Market Authority (EMA) is launching a three-year pilot project aimed at helping households and businesses save more on electricity bills.  EMA’s “Intelligent Energy System” project will develop smart electric grid solutions including the deployment of more smart meters that provide households with real-time information on electricity usage. Such information can help residents shift demand away from peak periods. The smart grid also will ensure reliability in electricity supply, using renewable energy sources, and will allow electric cars to be used as an energy storage system to feed power back to the grid during peak periods, also known as V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid).

As far as generation of renewable energy goes, according to AsiaIsGreen.com, Singapore has been putting in much effort to attract renewable energy companies to Singapore, yet the local adoption of renewable energy has been lackluster. There are no renewable energy targets specified by the government and the lack of subsidies for the technology means that renewable energy is still not price competitive with conventional forms.  The government prefers to have local adoption of renewable energy (as opposed to piping it in) because they believe it is an investment for the future, ensures energy security and retains talent, creating jobs.  Perhaps one of the key hurdles in Singapore is the intense urban density of the city, which offers few viable places to erect solar panels and wind turbines.

Meanwhile, American cities are making their own strides toward a smart grid.  As far as smart metering goes, as of January in 2009, smart meters represented 4.7% of installed meters in the U.S., up from 1% in 2006, according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report on demand response and advanced metering programs.  In February of 2007, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the largest municipal utility in the U.S. with close to 1.5 million customers, announced that it would expand its advanced metering infrastructure serving its commercial and industrial customers. LADWP had already purchased 9,000 smart meters as part of an earlier deployment initiative completed in 2004.  The utility awarded the new contract to SmartSynch, a provider of wireless smart meters, who will supply 6,000 such meters to the utility, to operate on AT&T’s wireless data network.

While American utilities are beginning to track energy use and are expanding renewable energy production, overall rates of net metering adoption (allowing solar panel owners to sell energy back to the grid) leave something to be desired.  A new report from the Network for New Energy Choices highlights net metering standards for various U.S. states. “Freeing the Grid 2009” (pdf, 2.4 MB) shows that 27 U.S. states received A or B grades in net metering standards, up from 13 in 2007. While Oregon was lauded in the report for its best practices in net-metering, eight states – Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas – still have no net-metering program at all and 15 states received a failing grade.  That means nearly half of all U.S. states fail to provide adequate net metering programs, according to the report.

Clearly if U.S. communities hope to reduce carbon emissions, the utilities will have to adopt policies that encourage the installation of solar and wind technologies (net metering).  They will also have to invest in tools that actually measure how much electricity is being used.  Nearly 95% of all U.S. utilities currently employ energy management practices akin to trying to manage weight without owning a scale. Perhaps by looking to cities like Singapore as a model, American cities can learn how to generate tax revenue via smart metering investments, while Singapore may have to consider renewable energy goals like LA’s, even if it means importing solar power.

A new study finds that Asia’s rising “clean technology tigers” – China, Japan, and South Korea – have already passed the U.S. in the production of virtually all clean energy technologies

Local economies that wish to harvest tax revenues from the burgeoning clean energy sector must turn to federal governments to support policies that encourage investments in clean energy. Upon examining countries that have the potential to bring in significant revenue from new clean energy technologies, it becomes clear which local communities are likely to benefit from the influx of dollars earned through selling solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies.

A major new report released today by the Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, is the first to comprehensively benchmark the competitiveness positions of the United States and key Asian challengers in the global clean energy race. The report – “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant” (pdf, 5.1 MB) – examines the competitive position of each nation in key clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, and nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, advanced vehicles and batteries, and high-speed rail, as well as the government strategies each nation hopes will strengthen their position in the competitive global clean technology sector. The study finds that Asia’s rising “clean technology tigers” – China, Japan, and South Korea – have already passed the United States in the production of virtually all clean energy technologies, and over the next five years, the governments of these nations will out-invest the United States three-to-one in these sectors. These Asian nations will attract a large share of private sector investments in clean energy technology, estimated to total in the trillions of dollars over the next decade.

While some U.S. firms will benefit from the establishment of joint clean tech ventures overseas, jobs and tax revenues generated by these investments will flow primarily to these Asian countries, enriching their communities and stimulating even more economic growth. The U.S. may eventually wean itself off of Middle Eastern oil, but if the country doesn’t start investing in clean energy technologies more aggressively, the U.S. may find itself addicted to clean technologies imported from Asia.

The Solar Expansion Project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. In March, the Forest was given $400,000 to add 250 additional solar panels to a facility that already had 50 previously installed. D.J. Group from Beverly, Ohio was awarded the contract. Photo by Alex Snyder

According to the New York Times, the Indian government approved a plan last week that aims to increase energy production from solar technology to 20 gigawatts (20 million kilowatts) by 2022, up from six megawatts (6,000 kilowatts) today.  Compare that with 530,000 kilowatts of direct current solar (kWdc) connected to the grid in California and you begin to understand where India stands in the world and where it wants to go.  The Indian government will spend about 43 billion rupees ($922 million) in the first of three phases of the program, and the total cost for all three phases could approach $20 billion.  Moreover, India isn’t just setting goals, but taking action on the ground.  As I wrote in a previous post, Indian cities are partnering with U.S. cities to bring more solar power online.

While all of this seems to point to major progress in solar adoption, government officials in India estimate that they will fall 20% short of their target for new power capacity for the five years that end in 2012, according to the New York Times.  Much of the country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power has been for water pumping, to begin replacing India’s four to five million diesel powered water pumps, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting. Some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km² area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, enough to generate 700 to 2,100 gigawatts.  However, Indian policy makers are adamant that they will not agree to any mandated reductions in emissions.

So what determines if countries and regions will be able to meet their goals for renewable energy?

According to a new report (pdf, 4.2 MB) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. states with strong renewable energy portfolio standards or goals tend to outperform other states in adding solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy production facilities.

Some statistics from Environmental Leader:

• Standards: To date, 36 U.S. states have renewable energy portfolio standards or goals, and 43 have net-metering laws.
• Solar: California has close to 530,000 kilowatts of direct current solar (kWdc) connected to the grid, followed by New Jersey (70,000 kWdc), Colorado (35,000 kWdc), and Nevada (34,000 kWdc).  All these states have renewable energy portfolio standards goals of at least 20% renewables by 2021.
• Non-hydro Renewables: Excluding hydroelectric renewable energy, California leads at 24 million MWh, followed by Texas (10.2 million), Florida (4.3 million), Maine (4.2 million) and Minnesota (3.9 million).  All of these states have goals of at least 20% renewable energy by 2025, with Maine already at 30% (since 2000) and aiming for an additional 10% by 2017.

Incentives in other countries may also be driving solar installations.  Germany and Spain – where solar has been booming in recent years – now have “feed-in tariffs” that allow property owners that are producing solar power to sell it back to the grid.  Spain goes even a step further by offering the option of incentives for sales into the wholesale electricity spot market as well as fixed incentives.

In addition to other incentives, financing mechanisms are a key component of getting more solar online.  As noted in a previous post, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden recently announced that the solar financing plan that was inaugurated in Berkeley in 2007 will become a national model. The program, called Recovery Through Retrofit, creates a framework for cities, counties and states to set up tax districts that allow residential and business property owners to install solar panels and make other energy efficiency improvements. The investment will be paid off over a 20-year property tax assessment.  Moreover, the economic stimulus in the U.S. is playing its part in stimulating the solar market.  According to Reuters, the U.S. federal government this month fast-tracked more than 2.4 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in California, which may help them clear regulatory hurdles in time to qualify for stimulus funds.

Incentives, renewable portfolio standards, and financing mechanisms are proving crucial to the growth of the renewable energy market.  If nations and states don’t create standards as well as financing mechanisms for the local level, they may see their lofty goals in powerpoint presentations at UN gatherings, but they will not see the corresponding solar panels, wind turbines, etc. in the cities on the ground.

Denver is notorious for its urban sprawl.

At the G20, President Obama said he would phase out fossil fuel subsidies as a way to combat climate change.  Recent reports from the International Energy Agency and other institutions point out the scale of those largely hidden subsidies and how they contribute to global warming.

According to Steve Kretzman’s of the Institute for Policy Studies, on an annual basis, globally, there are at least $250 billion dollars in global fossil fuel subsides, and some people think that number is closer to $400 billion. Kretzman believes the discontinuation of such subsidies will be quite profound for climate change mitigation.  He points to a study from OECD earlier this year that showed that if the $300 billion dollars in subsidies identified in the study were taken away, you would get a 10% – 12% reduction in global greenhouse gases.

Kretzman says that on the production side, a recent study shows $70 billion dollars going to the fossil fuel industry on an annual basis, while solar, wind, and energy efficiency get about $12 billion. That’s a massive market distortion.

Not surprisingly, politicians from oil-producing states immediately began defending such payouts to the fossil fuel industry as “tax incentives,” not subsidies.  However, upon examining the massive infrastructure required for automobiles running on gas, there can be no denying both the fiscal and environmental cost of a society based on the conventional automobile. Below are some statistics for consideration:

From the 2008 BP Statistical Review of World Energy: Americans consumed 6.5 billion barrels of oil in 2008, or 22.5% of world oil consumption.  China was second with 9.6%.

While some may argue that cleaner cars are coming down the pipe, the Umweltund Prognose-Institute in Heidelberg, Germany claims a car causes more pollution before it’s ever driven than in its entire lifetime of driving.

According to Runzheimer International, the environmental cost of one car breaks down as follows:

• Extracting Raw Materials: Produces 26.5 tons of waste and 922 cubic meters of polluted air.
• Transporting Raw Materials: Causes the release of 12 liters of crude oil in the ocean and 425 million cubic meters of polluted air.
• Producing the Car: Produces 1.5 tons of waste and 74 million cubic meters of polluted air.
• Driving the Car: Produces 18.4 kilos of abrasive waste and 1,016 million cubic meters of polluted air.
• Disposing of the Car: Produces 102 million cubic meters of polluted air.

Paved surfaces present another hidden cost of the car-based system.  Concrete or asphalt in roads and sidewalks create water pollution and require drilling, mining and transporting of gravel, cement and asphalt. Forty single-family dwellings require 40 times as much concrete in roads and sidewalks as a 40-unit apartment building on a single lot. Moreover, water, sewer, electrical, phone, cable and other services lie under the street and branch off into each lot, so sprawl housing uses much more of these materials.  If you consider that on

Consider that 233,333 square yards of roads and sidewalks per household are required when housing density is three households per acre.  However, only 7,000 square yards of roads and sidewalks per household are required when housing density is 100 households per acre.  That’s only 3% of what’s required for the less densely built scenario – a huge difference in needed materials and resulting costs.

When you note that citizens living in dense urban centers without a car are heavily subsidizing car users through taxes to pay for all of the required infrastructure, it becomes increasingly clear that such a market distortion bloats costs to the taxpayers and is taking a very large toll on the earth’s atmosphere.  Designing and building cities to be dense, pedestrian and bike-friendly locales with the necessary public transport for human mobility would seem the only way to adequately address climate change and the hidden subsidies of car-centric infrastructure.

Solar developers expect a reverse auction market to spur a large volume of PV projects in the state.

As California looks for strategies to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals, finding ways to cost-effectively install renewable energy systems could be key. One creative approach recently proposed by the California Public Utilities Commission involves letting developers bid on contracts to install green energy projects in California. This “reverse auction market” feed-in tariff is designed to avoid scenarios like the one that developed in Spain when the booming solar market crashed due to the expiration of subsidies and the maxing out of a cap on renewable energy.

In the past, utilities have negotiated contracts for solar power plants that generate hundreds of millions of megawatts, typically located in the desert and taking years for big solar farms and transmission lines to be licensed and built. An auction in California would essentially let the market set electricity rates for photovoltaic projects that produce between one and 20 megawatts in California and can be built within 18 months.

Solar developers expect this proposal to spur a large volume of PV projects in the state. According to Adam Browning, the executive director of Vote Solar, a San Francisco advocacy group, the reverse auction proposal fills a big hole in California’s renewable energy program — photovoltaic projects that generate between one and 20 megawatts and can be built quickly and plugged into the existing transmission grid. Browning said that he think these photovoltaic systems will likely be built on otherwise unusable land, such as railroad rights-of-way or wastewater plants that have lots of roof space.

The proposal calls California’s three investor-owned utilities to hold a minimum of two auctions a year until projects generating 1,000 megawatts are installed. Solar, biomass, wind or geothermal energy projects up to 20 megawatts can be proposed. However, the utilities would not be required to accept bids for those greater than 10 megawatts.

Steven Chadima, vice president for external affairs for the Chinese solar giant Suntech America, said his firm favors the proposal. However, he hopes that the CPUC might consider a separate structure for smaller projects because he has concerns about the potential for a few large solar developers to dominate the auctions and skew the results toward big projects.

Read more: A ‘Reverse Auction Market’ Proposed
(New York Times, 8/28/09)

According to an initial list of partnered Indo-US cities that will participate in a joint training program on energy efficient and green cities, Mumbai (pictured) has been partnered with Los Angeles, Ahmedabad with Atlanta and Columbus; Bangalore with San Francisco; and Delhi with Chicago.

The US Department of Energy and the All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG) have launched a joint training program on energy efficient and green cities in Goa, which will train Indian experts, universities, local governments and civic bodies on helping cities to move to solar powered energy.  According to Mark Ginberg, senior official with the US Department of Energy, twenty cities in India have already been lined up for this program and they will be partnered with cities in the US.  Ginberg notes that if India is able to generate 20,000 MW of solar energy by 2020, sixty Indian cities will be solar powered by that year.

According to an initial list of partnered Indo-US cities, Ahmedabad has been partnered with Atlanta and Columbus; Bangalore with San Francisco; Chennai with Denver, Delhi with Chicago, Mumbai with Los Angeles, Surat with Philadelphia and Vadodara (Baroda) with Edison, New Jersey.

Ginberg pointed out that Barack Obama has marked 60 billion dollars for energy efficiency and renewable energy, with five billion dollars set aside each for cities and states, federal buildings and low income families to migrate to renewable energy sources.

• Read more: 60 solar powered Indian cities by 2020: US energy official
  (The Times of India, 9/8/09)

Bicycles outside Central Station in Copenhagen. (Photo: Flickr - phototram)

There are many things that local communities can do to fight climate change, both in municipal operations and throughout the community. In many cases, these actions save energy and money at the same time. From reducing energy use in buildings and improving waste management to enhancing public transportation and employing smart growth, cities have the power to create the necessary change to address climate change while creating more jobs and a better quality of life for citizens.

This site explores projects, programs and policies in:

• Green Jobs Programs and Crime Prevention
• Green Building Ordinances and Energy Efficiency Retrofits
• Mixed-use Ordinances, High-Density/ Infill Retrofits, and Urban Agriculture
• Public Transit Projects
• Waste Diversion and Zero-Waste Policies and Sustainable Sewage Practices
• Community Choice Aggregation with Renewables
• Sustainability and Climate Action Plan Progress Reports
• Water Management

If local governments are going to overcome some of the largest problems they are facing today, they must take a more holistic approach to policy. High unemployment, a halt in building and diminishing property values are leading to plummeting tax revenues. At the same time, local governments are facing climate change regulation as well as new laws around water usage. With new creative financing tools, cities will be surprised at the dissolving barriers to entry for technologies like solar panels and smart irrigation. With the right policy tools, local governments can stop the bleeding and encourage sustainable growth.

Co-op Power is working to create create community-owned green jobs and green energy.

With 325 members and 5,000 supporters in New England and New York over the past five years, Co-op Power has raised more than $225,000 in Member Equity to support the development of community-scale clean energy projects. Co-op Power Members have received $4,000 in rebates on bioheat, $23,703 in rebates on clean energy systems, and $319,236 in incentives for clean energy systems. Their projects include community-scale solar, wind, biofuel, and biomass projects as well as a variety of small “green job” business development projects.  The organization has installed 30 solar hot water systems and another 25 renewable energy systems generating more than 90 kilowatts of electricity.

Co-op Power has researched a wide variety of corporate structures that enable communities to partner with investors to create community-owned green jobs and green energy. They have built a team of engineers, financial experts, green building specialists, community economic developers, lawyers and business planners who can help groups of people in a community research, design, finance and build their community-owned sustainable energy businesses.  Communities can access these resources on a consulting basis or they can join Co-op Power to gain access to member programs.

Various Projects:

A sustainable biodiesel plant in the Pioneer Valley (Mass.): The plant will make 10 million gallons a year of  biodiesel from recycled vegetable oil (a waste product). They have raised $2.35 million in Co-op Power member equity, grants and loans to build the plant.  They purchased 26.5 acres in the Greenfield Industrial Park for the plant.

A solar electric system: Co-op Power supported the installation of a 30 kilowatt solar electric system on the roof of River Valley Market, a food cooperative in Northampton MA.

Various cooperatives: Co-op Power is working with Alternatives for Community and Environment to build community-owned green jobs in limited resource communities in the Greater Boston area including Roxbury, Dorchester, Chelsea, Cambridge and Boston. Groups are interested in building a solar installation cooperative, a thermal window covering manufacturing and installation cooperative and a green builders cooperative.

Support for worker-owned green job development: Co-op Power is working with ICA Group to provide support for worker-owned green job development in the Northeast region.

Research: Co-op Power assisted municipalities in upstate NY research the feasibility of purchasing several dams. Co-op Power is also working with forest owners, foresters, loggers, businesses, institutions, and consumers in Franklin County to create a sustainable biomass infrastructure that will give a fair price to forest owners and a fair price to consumers while protecting forest resources and local air quality. The group is researching small biomass plant options, a chipping operation, a change out program for old stoves, and bulk purchasing programs for pellets and cord wood.

Learn more at http://www.cooppower.coop