Renewable energy? Not to worry. Folks in these parts have it covered. Fact is, we aren’t a bit shy when it comes to developing renewable energy. For evidence supporting that very bold assertion, one need look no further than Initiative 937, a measure that stole the hearts of a solid majority of voters here a mere five years back. Then, too, there’s the State Energy Strategy, a collaborative effort championed by a wide range of extraordinary principles. The House Technology, Energy & Communications Committee, chaired by state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, has a lead role in this important mission. Voices of the Washington State Department of Commerce, the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission, and other state agencies also feature prominently in putting the Energy Strategy together. You won’t be at all surprised to hear that an advisory committee is using contributions from key stakeholders and private citizens. Committee members are working toward development of the 2012 State Energy Strategy, which will be submitted for consideration this coming December.
The draft 2012 State Energy Strategy, dearest blog denizen, can be accessed at the state Department of Commerce website noted above. In fact, you best be marking your social calendar for a couple of very special upcoming public meetings planned to discuss the Energy Strategy. One meeting is planned Wednesday night, Oct. 12, in the Vicky L. Carwein Auditorium of the University of Washington Tacoma campus. UW Tacoma is located at 1900 Commerce St. in downtown Tacoma. Doors open at 5:30, and the meeting will run from 6 to 8. Another public meeting is set for Thursday evening, Oct 20, from 5 to 7 in Academic Center Room 107 of the Washington State University Spokane campus. Doors open at 4:30, and WSU Spokane is located at 412 E. Spokane Falls Blvd.
McCoy and other House Democrats are searching for common ground to make it easier to get small but important projects up and running. Such small-scale energy projects (solar panels up on the roof, say) don’t face quite so many roadblocks in working with electric utilities and local governments. It’s more difficult for larger projects (such as a wind turbine) to obtain city or county permits so they can be integrated onto the electric grid.
Here are some of the options that McCoy is exploring:
* Improve “net metering,” which is a project in which individuals with a solar panel, for example, can put power back onto the grid during a sunny stretch — and get paid for that surplus power. The profit is then put toward their power bill.
* Authorize larger projects by making it easier for folks to clear the permitting of a project, both with utilities and with local governments.
* Allow a third-party investor to develop a project on behalf of a person or group.
The work on developing a distributed-energy policy is a huge part of our state’s energy mix. Materials and recommendations — including additional technical, economic, and environmental analysis by the WSU Energy Program — will be incorporated into the revised and final versions of the updated strategy.
Our state’s Initiative 937 requires that by 2020 electric utilities with 25,000 or more customers must have at least 15 percent of their power supply generated from renewable resources. McCoy said there is “general agreement that launching small, renewable projects is a good idea because it makes such sound financial sense for homeowners, property owners, and business owners. Establishing power-generation closer to the user means less transmission-line needs. Then too, it’s a much more efficient use of space (you might use the top of a warehouse, for example, or agricultural land that isn’t actually being farmed).”
Approved and signed into law back in 2010, House Bill 2658 directed the revision of the State Energy Strategy, which is the state of
Washington’s comprehensive energy plan for meeting future energy needs. The legislation, which was prime-sponsored by state Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney, D- Seattle, says the Energy Strategy must reach this trio of crucial objectives:
1. Defend competitive energy prices.
2. Develop good-paying jobs in a clean-energy economy.
3. Decrease greenhouse-gas emissions.
McCoy’s committee will also discuss this titanic issue in its December meeting, with an eye toward developing pertinent energy legislation for review in the 2012 session. The Snohomish County legislator said that distributed energy encompasses “a range of small power generation and energy-storage technologies that are placed at or near the actual point of energy-consumption. These technologies might include wind turbines, solar-energy systems, fuel cells, combined heat and power systems, district heating systems, load-reduction technologies, and energy-storage devices.” McCoy wants his legislative panel to identify and develop a set of policy actions that will advance distributed energy in the Evergreen State.