New Powerline Study Finds that Local Wind Energy Generation Can Avoid the Need for New Lines

A study released this week in Minnesota shows there is an abundant opportunity for new community-based energy development (C-BED) throughout Minnesota. The study’s conclusions affirm those of a previous utility study that found that significant amounts of wind energy can be injected into the existing transmission system at costs far lower than building new transmission lines to more distant wind farms.

“Local, community-based wind projects lower costs to the ratepayers, keep our energy dollars inside Minnesota and move us toward meeting the state’s renewable electricity standard,” said George Crocker, one of the prime movers behind the previous study and a key participant in the drafting of the state legislation requiring this study.

“The study found that 600 MW of dispersed, community-based wind projects could be integrated across Minnesota into the existing grid system with no additional costs for transmission,” notes John Bailey of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a long time proponent of decentralized power generation. For comparison, the proposed 600 MW Big Stone II coal fired power plant would need to spend about $250 million for new transmission infrastructure, just in Minnesota.

“This study points clearly towards a major shift in electric utility management,” said George Crocker, Executive Director of the North American Water Office (NAWO), a non-profit organization that has worked on energy issues for more than 25 years. “The old way of doing business was to hook up a few very large central station power plants, mostly coal and nuclear, to high voltage powerlines to serve energy consumers in distant cities. The new way, as this study documents, is to serve those same energy consumers by strategically locating smaller locally owned dispersed renewable energy facilities.”

This new study complements a similar 2005 study in west central MN that indicated as much as 1,400 MW of dispersed wind energy could be injected into the existing grid just in the west central region with minimal upgrades. "This dispersed generation siting strategy has the potential to allow numerous new renewable generation projects to interconnect to the grid and not be constrained by transmission bottlenecks such as those now existing on Buffalo Ridge," said Mike Michaud, one of the engineers participating in the new study. Interestingly, the study showed that even in a transmission constrained area like SW Minnesota, there is still room for substantial amounts of dispersed, community owned projects to be developed today.

"No longer can old, conventional central-station electric utility thinking claim to provide the cheapest, most reliable electric utility services. In the new paradigm,” concluded Mr. Crocker, “utility services will be delivered increasingly by cleaner, cheaper, more reliable, more secure and more equitable renewable energy projects, owned by ordinary people in communities around the state, with the energy delivered through smart grids, rather than dumb powerlines.”

More:

Dispersed Renewable Generation Study Phase I Report - Minnesota Department of Commerce, June 16, 2008

Report: Concentrating Solar and Decentralized Power: Government Incentives Hinder Local Ownership

Can residential rooftop solar compete with new utility-scale concentrating solar electric plants? Only if federal and state incentives are amended to level the playing field. This May 2008 report explores the economics of solar PV and concentrating solar and shows how local ownership is hindered unless government solar incentives change.

Large, remote concentrating solar power systems are the new darlings of the solar industry. Some observers now see centralized, not decentralized solar as the future. But a new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance reveals that the economic advantage of centralized solar and absentee owned solar arrays rests on federal tax incentives that discriminate against locally owned, decentralized solar arrays.

John Farrell, the report’s author, calls for Congress to change federal tax incentives to give equal benefits to residential solar arrays, instead of favoring commercial and centralized projects.

“Decentralized solar arrays avoid the cost and hassle of building new high voltage transmission lines”, says Farrell. “They also enable local ownership, which should be a goal of public policy.”

Concentrating solar power plants work more like conventional power plants than solar photovoltaic panels. They use large arrays of mirrors to focus sunlight for heat, using the heat to create steam and generate electricity. These plants, mostly built in the deserts of the American Southwest, must send their power over long-distance transmission lines and are much larger than the rooftop solar panels that were previously the dominant form of solar power production.

The size of concentrating solar plants precludes local ownership, a benefit that renewable energy policy must factor in. “Ownership converts citizens into energy producers, which in turn gives them a personal stake in expanding the use of renewable energy,” notes Farrell. “It also encourages them to maximize energy efficiency, because the greater the efficiency the more independent they become, perhaps even becoming a net exporter of electricity.”

Download the full report, Concentrating Solar and Decentralized Power: Government Incentives Hinder Local Ownership