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DENVER, Colorado, US, September 28, 2005
(Refocus Weekly)
A coalition of states in the western U.S. has
started to examine the actions needed to develop 30,000 MW of
renewable and clean energy by 2015.
The 18 states in the Western Governors' Association want to
source that capacity from solar, wind, geothermal and biomass
resources, as well as energy efficiency, clean coal and advanced
natural gas. The governors created the Clean & Diversified Energy
Advisory Committee (CDEAC) last year to oversee the work of eight
task forces on those technologies, and to examine the feasibility of
and actions that will be needed to develop 30,000 MW in the west by
2015, ensure adequate transmission and increase energy efficiency
20% by 2020.
The first round of task force reports have been released for public
comment, with 30-day deadlines ranging from October 7 for wind,
geothermal and biomass, October 14 for solar, energy efficiency and
Combined Heat & Power, and October 19 for clean coal. A task force
on power transmission will develop its report after analyzing
potential transmission needs associated with the recommendatoins of
the other task forces.
Lead governors for the initiative are Bill Richardson of New Mexico,
Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming and
John Hoeven of North Dakota. CDEAC is chaired by William Keese,
former chair of the California Energy Commission, and Bill Real of
Public Service Company of New Mexico.
“We would like to thank the task force members for all of the effort
that they have put into their reports so far,” says Real. “The CDEAC
process has collectively benefited from the input of over 250 task
force members that come from all backgrounds and experience.”
“Now it is important that the task forces hear from the public so
that these reports will provide the CDEAC with a fully accurate
picture of each of the resources and the means to bring them on
line,” adds Keese.
Comments on the draft reports will be considered by the task forces
for the final reports in early November. Those final reports will be
reviewed by CDEAC to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations
for the governors to consider at their annual meeting in June 2006
in Sedona, Arizona.
The governors believe there is “long-term wind energy potential in
the western plains and mountain states, but that a more aggressive
effort to develop this energy resource is needed,” and a
comprehensive study of development and transmission of wind energy
is necessary. The wind task force has been directed to document the
current wind capacity and estimate the current wind production
costs, and estimate both current and future wind production costs.
It will estimate a supply curve for wind generation in the western
region assuming a continuation of existing federal and state tax
incentives, and also examine the impact of a loss of the federal
production tax credit. It will identify risks from wind generation
on wildlife and “identify barriers, and policies to overcome such
barriers, to utility scale wind development, taking into account
both reliability and capacity issues.”
For solar, the governors “have long recognized the vast and largely
untapped potential for solar powered generation in the region,” and
are evaluating an initiative to construct 1,000 MW of concentrating
solar power generation in the region. The task force on solar has
been told to conduct the same analyses as their wind counterparts,
and to estimate a cost curve for solar generation that would include
at least 1,000 new MW of CSP by 2015.
It will estimate the location of the lowest-cost solar generation
and an estimate of transmission cost to move the power to load
centres, and identify risks associated with solar generation, such
as the potential environmental impacts from increased solar power
production and provide recommendations for mitigating these impacts.
It will also identify barriers and policies to overcome barriers to
utility scale solar development, and “identify strategies and any
recommended policies to implement such strategies to overcome the
intermittent nature of solar energy, and integrate it into the
electric power system, including potential electricity storage
technologies.”
For geothermal, the task force identify changes in policies and
practices needed to maximize the use of the transmission system to
deliver geothermal output, such as changes in transmission imbalance
penalties, policies governing interconnection of new generation,
limitations in the types of transmission service products available,
and will identify land use and siting issues that must be overcome.
WGA is an independent organization representing the governors of 18
states and three U.S.-flag islands in the Pacific.
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