• Just 5 Questions

• The World According
  To Hooter McCormick

EDITORIALS

• TRAILS
• RIDING THE GAP

1. What does the future look like?
   It’s green with a variety of new energy sources from the land cropping up across the Nation. The most popular renewable fuel industry – ethanol – is growing so rapidly that a national Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) adopted as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is already moot. The RFS requires 4 billion gallons of biofuels production in 2006 and 4.7 billion gallons in 2007, increasing gradually to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012.
   
   However, the Department of Energy reports there are currently 101 ethanol facilities nationwide with the capacity to produce more than 4.8 billion gallons of ethanol per year, an amount that already exceeds the requirement for next year. With an additional 41 ethanol facilities under construction and seven expansions projects underway, the industry is in the process of adding nearly 2.8 billion gallons of new capacity. That would provide enough capacity for the industry to produce 7.6 billion gallons of ethanol per year, which would exceed the RFS for 2012.
   
    
2. What’s the status of biofuels in the West?
   Pacific Northwest-based company SeQuential Biofuels is introducing one-stop biofuel shops. The first facility of its kind, located off Interstate 5 in Eugene, OR, offers a variety of biofuel-blended motor fuels under a single, branded canopy, including E-10 for all gasoline vehicles, E-85 for flex-fuel vehicles, B-5 for all diesel vehicles, B-20 for most diesel vehicles, and biodiesel for some diesel vehicles. A portion of the biodiesel dispensed at the station is received from SeQuential-Pacific Biodiesel, a commercial biodiesel production facility in Salem, OR, that produces one million gallons of biodiesel per year from used cooking oil collected throughout the Pacific Northwest and from canola oil grown in eastern Oregon.
    
3. What else is unique about Oregon’s biofuels retail station?
   Adding to the earth-friendly appeal of this fueling station, the facility is partially powered by solar energy. The site has 244 solar panels that cover the fueling islands and 4,800 plants installed in five inches of soil on the roof of the convenience store. The 33kW solar array will provide 30-50 percent of the electrical power that the station will require annually. The “living roof” will help to control rainwater runoff on the site and will help cool the convenience store during the summer. Other eco-friendly design elements include stormwater detention bioswales, where plants will filter pollutants from rainwater that rinses the roadways and parking areas, and will clean the water before it leaves the site.
   
    
4. Will we be seeing more solar powered systems?
   In a word, yes – especially in California, thanks to the California Public Utility Commission’s adoption of a 10-year, $2.9 billion performance-based incentives program. Beginning Jan.1, the California Solar Initiative will offer performance-based incentives for solar energy systems greater than 100 kilowatts in size installed in businesses and other large facilities. For solar systems smaller than 100 kilowatts, incentives for residential and small businesses will be based on each system’s estimated future performance.
   
   Under the program, residential and small commercial systems will receive incentives of $2.50 per watt and will be eligible for additional federal tax credits. Government and non-profit organizations will receive $3.25 per watt to compensate for their lack of access to the federal tax credit. For systems larger than 100 kilowatts, incentive payments over the first five years of operation will be $0.39 per kilowatt-hour of output for taxable entities and $0.50 per kilowatt-hour of output for government/non-profit organizations. The program marks the first phase of the initiative, which is expected to increase the amount of installed solar capacity in California by 3,000 megawatts by 2017. State officials say that by offering incentives for small and large solar energy projects, a sustainable solar industry will be created and solar power’s long-term position in California’s energy portfolio will get a boost.
    
5. What about wind?
   California has been a long-time leader in wind energy. Now a massive wind project has been approved by the Bureau of Land Management on federal land in Idaho. Called the Cotterel Wind Power Project the approval clears the way for the installation of up to 98 turbines on 4,500 acres of BLM-managed public land on a mountain ridge in south-central Idaho’s Cassia County.
   
   Power generated from the project will be distributed through the existing regional power grid. Boise-based Windland Inc., which will develop the project, says the 200 megawatts to be generated on Cotterel Mountain is enough electricity to supply approximately 50,000 homes. The project will be one of Idaho’s first massive, commercial wind energy generators.
   The Cotterel right-of-way grant includes measures for mitigating the effects of wind generation on wildlife resources, including best management practices, offsite mitigation and adaptive management strategies, all aimed to reduce impacts to sage-grouse, raptors, bats, and migratory birds. Federal officials say the project is expected to bring economic benefits to the local area, including $12.5 million in local sales tax revenue during construction activity and more than half a million dollars annually once operations are fully underway. 
   
   Meanwhile, Xcel Energy has also announced the construction of two wind farms near Peetz, CO, which would each produce 200 megawatts of electricity. This is in addition to two other Excel wind farms in Colorado, a 75-megawatt expansion to an existing farm in Lamar, and a 300-megawatt farm in Weld County. The four projects will add 775 megawatts to Xcel’s current total of 282 megawatts of wind energy before the end of 2007.
   The additional megawatts will bring the utility into compliance with Amendment 37, a voter-approved initiative requiring Xcel to acquire 10% of its electric sales from renewable sources such as wind, sun, or plant and animal waste through 2015.