|
VASHON ISLAND, Washington, US, August 31, 2005
(Refocus Weekly)
An environmental research group in the
northwestern United States says an island near Seattle could produce
all its own energy from renewables within ten years.
Aggressive spending on conservation and renewables could save
US$5 million a year for the 11,000 residents of the 37 square-mile
Vashon-Maury Island, which is accessible only by air or sea, says
the Institute for Environmental Research & Education. Currently,
electricity and natural gas are carried across Puget Sound from the
mainland by undersea lines.
A recent study was positive of the engineering, economics and social
aspects of taking a community to energy independence and operating
on locally-produced renewable energy on a net basis, and the results
“are fully applicable to any Pacific Northwest community, and many
of the results are applicable to the entire developed world.” The
study examined the potential for energy independence over the next
ten years, and looked at three scales: the individual building, the
neighbourhood and the community as a whole.
The cost for fossil energies are rising at 4% to 13% per year,
depending on the fuel type, while renewable energy generation costs
are falling 2.5% per year. Application of existing energy efficiency
technologies (Energy Star appliances, insulation, heat pumps, etc)
can reduce building-related energy use by 70% and achieving these
savings will require a “disciplined, professional, comprehensive
application of the technology” but would provide a Net Present Value
of energy savings of US$95 million for an investment of $35 million.
Once conservation measures have been implemented, the island could
be powered by 15 wind turbines, backed by biomass generators, solar
PV and vanadium batteries with a total capital cost of $40 million.
Although the Vashon-Maury island community supports the concept of
renewable energy, including wind turbines, some “wealthy individuals
off-island express concern with visual pollution,” it adds.
“Transportation energy use is more difficult to address, because
with the exception of biodiesel, no generally available automobiles
are available that run substantially on renewable energy,” the
report notes. “Economic development from implementing the vision of
energy independent communities includes development of many small
businesses, expansion of community colleges and, if fully
implemented, state-wide would provide about 20,000 jobs and increase
the membership of the building trades by over a third.”
“Renewable energy enthusiasts often talk about the amount of wind or
solar energy available in a state or how much area in California or
New Mexico is necessary to power the US grid with solar energy,” it
notes. “This thought process is useful for pointing out the
possibilities, but its focus on concentrated energy sources echoes
the historic siting approach. It does not address realistic siting
of energy facilities so as to provide the power where needed, and it
does not make use of the strength of renewable energy as a
distributed resource.”
The IERE study evaluated the potential for energy generation
appropriately scaled for communities, and was an attempt “to be as
realistic and conservative as possible as it models moving an entire
community to renewable energy.” It reviews the barriers and
opportunities, and brings together all issues at the community level
to provide a model of “community energy independence and bottom-up
economic development, and it is scalable.”
“We conclude that moving to energy independence is not only good for
the environment and the economy but (with the exception of
transportation issues) is achievable and economically attractive
within ten years,” it states.
The first stage would be to change every light bulb to a compact
fluorescent, to add insulation to homes that originally were built
as vacation cottages, and to buy new energy-efficient appliances.
Stage two would be to install wind, solar and other renewable power
solutions, including biomass plants to capture energy from the
byproducts of the island's livestock.
Click here for more info...
Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/
for your international energy focus!!
Refocus © Copyright 2005, Elsevier
Ltd, All rights reserved.
|
