Author Archives: Frank Jossi

Next big thing for LEED planning? Sustainable neighborhoods

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Uptown Circle in Normal, Illinois. (Photo courtesy Uptown Normal)

Uptown Circle in Normal, Illinois. (Photo courtesy Uptown Normal)

The Uptown neighborhood of Normal, Illinois, boasts an enormous traffic circle enclosing a popular civic space surrounded by what is likely the largest concentration of LEED buildings in downstate Illinois.

It’s among several neighborhoods around the Midwest that have been designed as “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development” (LEED-ND) projects. From the site of a former St. Louis housing project to a master-planned Chicago suburban train hub, the concepts behind LEED-ND have begun transforming not only buildings but also blocks into sustainable enclaves.

Sponsored by the United States Green Building Council, the LEED-ND program awards communities for planning that reduces dependence on cars while encouraging green construction, energy efficiency, storm water management, mass transit and urban agriculture. →

Despite a tarnished reputation, advocates for small wind still see opportunity

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(Photo by Mike Gifford via Creative Commons)

(Photo by Mike Gifford via Creative Commons)

Matt Rankin, who runs the one-man renewable energy company Prairie Wind and Solar in Wyoming, would love to sell more small wind turbines to customers.

But these days, he sees solar power as a more viable market for home-based systems, where better incentives, longer warranties and potentially higher energy production attract buyers.

Small wind, Rankin says, has burned him too many times. He was once facing lawsuits from two clients upset over poorly performing turbines built by a company that went out of business.

Small wind “was once a very lucrative, promising, joyful and plausible business to be in,” Rankin said. “It’s not anymore. We need more competition with reliable products, lower prices overall and we need to restore consumer confidence that has been destroyed by all the charlatanism in the industry.”

But that lack of confidence isn’t the only issue facing small wind. Tax incentives in many states have fallen off, and projects also struggle with zoning issues, opposition from neighbors and a lack of uniform standards. →

CapX 2020 transmission project enters final stretch

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Courtesy of CapX2020

Correction appended.

After years of planning, debate, and regulatory procedures, one of the largest transmission projects in the country is on track to be completed by 2015.

CapX2020 reached a major milestone in receiving an approval from Wisconsin officials in May, while igniting an ownership battle over a related line in the Badger State.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission in May gave approval to the final CapX2020 leg, which crosses the Mississippi River at Alma, Wisconsin, before heading south toward LaCrosse.  Prior to that, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the state’s final portion, from Hampton to Alma, in April.

Although landowners and individuals opposed to CapX have raised objections, the Wisconsin PSC denied all 14 petitions by a 3-0 vote last week. Minnesota’s PUC will soon hear two petitions against the project. →

Report: Hydro emissions can rival those of natural gas

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The Seven Sisters Dam in Manitoba. (Photo by Miss Barabanov via Creative Commons)

As states grapple with the question of whether to count hydropower as renewable energy, a recent report says dams can emit greenhouse gases at a rate far greater than wind and solar, and can nearly reach those of natural gas combined-cycle plants in their first years of operation.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. found that large scale hydropower using reservoirs have lifecycle emissions, as measured over a 100 year span, in excess of wind, solar, and run-of-the-river hydro. Reservoirs in northern climates can add substantially to GHG emissions if they cover land that is filled with boreal forests that serve as carbon sinks.

Commissioned by the Conservation Law Foundation, “Hydropower Greenhouse Gas Emissions: State of the Research” does not suggest hydropower pollutes more than traditional fossil sources such as coal, natural gas or diesel. But in the short term the GHG emissions from hydro – in at least three of the first 10 years of operation – exceed those of a natural gas combined-cycle plant, said Christophe G. Courchesne, staff attorney for the CLF’s Concord, N.H. office.
→

Canadian hydro producers eye growing U.S. market

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Transmission towers near the Seven Sisters Dam in Manitoba. (Photo by Miss Barabanov via Creative Commons)

Electricity produced by Canadian dams is finding a growing market in the Upper Midwest as energy providers seek out new low-carbon electricity sources.

Two Midwest utilities – Minnesota Power and Wisconsin Public Service – have signed contracts within the past six months with Manitoba Hydro for a total of 350 megawatts.

Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, also has a long-standing relationship with Manitoba Hydro for 850 MW and inked a deal for 125 MW last year. In 2010, Minnesota received 14 percent of its electricity – mostly hydropower – from Canada, while Wisconsin imported 3.4 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“We’ve had a long history of selling energy into the Minnesota and Wisconsin markets,” said Glenn Schneider, public affairs manager for Manitoba Hydro. “We’ve had agreements before. For three or four years now Wisconsin has been looking for a big and renewable source of power that has a low carbon impact and meet the state’s renewable targets. In Wisconsin they don’t have a lot of options.”

Meanwhile, Minnesota Power’s decision came down to offering “a really low cost and carbon free energy resource” to several mines currently open and proposed for the Iron Range, said spokeswoman Amy Rutledge.

Rutledge said the arrangement calls for a new 500 kilovolt transmission line from Winnipeg to a substation in northern Minnesota’s Iron Range and a 345 kV line to Duluth, where the power could be sold into Wisconsin and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) market.

The cost of the first leg would be shared between the two utilities, Manitoba Hydro and Minnesota Power, while the line to Duluth would be a partnership between Minnesota Power and American Transmission Co. Rutledge said Minnesota Power would share the costs of building both lines, which together will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Minnesota Power plans to bank energy, via pumped hydro storage in Manitoba, produced by its Bison Wind Farm in North Dakota during times of low demand at night. During the day it would get back electricity dependent on need.

The Manitoba advantage

The U.S. is Manitoba Hydro’s premier market. Eighty-four percent of its exports are to the U.S., mostly to the Midwest, with the rest going to adjacent Canadian provinces.

Export purchases peaked in 2006, when high rivers and big demand lead to $827 million in net revenues from exports, in sharp contrast to last year’s $398 million take.

The company has major agreements with seven U.S. utilities – the biggest being an ongoing $1.7 billion contract with Xcel Energy, followed by Minnesota Power, WPS (which has an existing 108 MW agreement) and Great River Energy (which trades 150 MW on a seasonal basis).

Manitoba Hydro expects to add $4 billion in revenues annually after 2020, when the new purchases kick in.

In order to meet growing demands in the export market, the provincial government announced last year the construction of the 695 MW, $5.6 billion Keeyask Generating Station in partnership with four tribes.

The reason? Midwest power contracts, according to the provincial government’s own press release on the project.

Schneider said the company has other potential hydro projects in the offing, including the Conawapa Generating Station, which will be double Keeyask’s capacity and open in 2024. Keeyask is a result of a government requirement to add a new supply of electricity by 2019, he said, but it will produce more power than the Manitoba can absorb.

Manitoba’s provincial government has just one coal plant left, with plans to retire it soon, and has publicly stated it wants to become the one of the most sustainable energy providers in North America, according to the government’s 2008 Beyond Kyoto report.

MISO declined to comment for this article, but its spokeswoman, Jennifer Lay, said the organization is working on a report on the impact and opportunities of Canadian energy.

Meeting renewable standards

In general the appeal for American utilities is that Manitoba Hydro offers reliable, low cost and low-carbon energy, although there’s dispute over whether hydropower should be included in state renewable standards. Minnesota’s law currently excludes large hydro projects, Wisconsin added out-of-state hydropower into the state’s RPS last year.

Green energy advocates object to Canadian hydro’s inclusion because it potentially diminishes the creation of domestically produced renewable technology.

Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, argued against the Wisconsin bill, saying the inclusion would likely “crowd out opportunities for utility-scale renewable energy development opportunities” (RENEW Wisconsin is a member of RE-AMP, which funds Midwest Energy News).

Some Wisconsin hydro firms also tried to stop the Legislature from allowing Canadian hydro in, saying it hurts their business.

A bill in the Minnesota legislature would change the state’s renewable standard to include large hydropower, but for Minnesota Power, such a change isn’t necessary.

“This is a really low cost, carbon-free energy resource for our customers,” said Rutledge. “We don’t need to change the law to meet the Minnesota Renewable Energy Standards because we’re doing that through low-cost wind.”

Xcel Energy representatives say the company is on track to reach RPS goals by 2025, but it has advocated in the past for the allowing Canadian hydro to count toward renewable credits.

State officials have no complaints about Canadian power so far, at least. Mike Rothman, Minnesota’s Commerce commissioner, called the recent agreements “of importance” to the state’s energy mix and suggests they won’t be the last.

“We are aware of interest on the part of Manitoba Hydro and Minnesota utilities to extend and possibly expand this trading relationship,” he wrote in an email.

A growing industry

Wisconsin and Minnesota aren’t the only states buying Canadian hydro. The New England market has had a long, established relationship with Hydro-Quebec, the largest exporter of electricity in Canada, according to Jacob Springer, president of the Canadian Hydropower Association in Ottawa.

Manitoba Hydro is the second-largest energy trading partner with the United States, he said, and an active market among U.S. and Canadian utilities exists on the West Coast, too. Hydro-Quebec’s website reports 8 percent of sales are to the U.S., but those purchases represent 32 percent of the company’s net income.

The numbers are expected to grow as Hydro-Quebec lobbies with New Hampshire power officials to share construction of the 1,200 MW Northern Pass transmission project that would serve the New England market. The company would potentially provide power for a large, privately funded transmission project to bring Canadian power to New York City.

In 2009 Hydro-Quebec announced $10.4 billion in new hydro plants, and $7.8 billion in transmission lines, both indicators not of explosive domestic growth but rather a large and willing international partner to the south.

Canada, said Springer, has everything hydro needs – water, fast moving rivers, a legacy of involvement in hydropower.

Springer says the country has potential to add 163,000 MW of hydropower – which would more than double its current generating capacity from all sources combined.

“We have the third largest amount of surface water in the world,” he said. “We have a lot of rivers, we have a lot naturally attractive options, a lot of sites due to topography were attractive. Stretch that over the second largest land mass in the world and you’d expect there’d be a lot of opportunities.”

St. Paul journalist Frank Jossi writes about politics, business, energy and the environment. His website is www.jossi.biz.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a bill to add large hydro to Minnesota’s renewable energy standard hasn’t been heard at the legislature. It was recently discussed before a Senate committee.

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As smart meters roll out, opponents get organized

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(Photo by Portland General Electric via Creative Commons)

January 24, 2012

By Frank Jossi

The prosperous Chicago suburb of Naperville might seem an unlikely spot for a large protest against “smart meters” that utilities have begun installing across the United States.

Yet in this normally quiet community, foes of the city’s $22 million smart grid program managed to deliver a petition with more than 4,200 names that calls for the city to hold a referendum to halt its program. A nasty battle has ensued since the petition was delivered last year with charges and countercharges over the validity of the names in a typical Chicagoland political fight.

“We have four main objections,” said Lisa Rooney, an organizer with Naperville Smart Meter Awareness. “The cost, the security, health and privacy – all of those fall under the guise of freedom of choice and personal property rights. We want the freedom to choose what type of technology is installed on our homes.”

That message increasingly resonates with smart grid opponents as utilities take advantage of President Obama’s $4.5 billion initiative in 2009 to help develop and upgrade the nation’s electrical infrastructure.

Why smart meters?

Smart meters are seen as linchpin of a smarter grid. They allow utilities to begin instituting time-of-day pricing, offering consumers an opportunity to save money by cutting power use during periods of peak demand.

In some scenarios a consumer could even have a utility manage their electric use in return for a break on bills. Utilities, meanwhile, could improve management of power distribution – including responding to outages more quickly — and potentially avoid making large investments in new generation capacity.

Naperville isn’t the only city facing a backlash over new metering technology. In St. Paul, Minnesota, a program to install wireless water utility meters met with resistance over health concerns that led to an opt-out option for homeowners.

In Michigan, where more than 600,000 meters are being installed by DTE Energy, four communities with a collective population of 311,000 have asked the Michigan Public Service Commission to provide an opt-out to consumers and to investigate various concerns over the smart grid program.

In California, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has installed 8.7 million smart meters but was forced by the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to allow consumers to opt out.

A national website, StopSmartMeters.org, tracks the budding movement and has reported 47 communities have halted their installations.

Industry advocates, however, say the concerns of protesters are largely unfounded, and the size of the protests indicate few people have complaints even after more than 20 million smart meters have been installed.

“I think the protests are small compared to all the people in the United States and the meters in the U.S.,” said James W. Morozzi, president & CEO of The Washington, D.C.-based Gridwise Alliance, which lobbies for smart grid technologies. “It’s a very small percentage that has voiced any issues or complaints.”

Heath questions

In St. Paul, where the city’s water utility is spending $18 million to install 94,000 new digital meters that will largely remove the need for a staff of meter readers.

Similar to smart meters, the water meters emit a short low frequency radio wave every 14 seconds which carries data on the water usage of a home or building. A water utility vehicle passing by once every three months, on average, will take a reading and a bill will be sent based on usage.

St. Paul homeowner Petra Bokken and her allies said the main objection to the program has been over health concerns regarding the nearly constant microwave pulse the meters emit.  Some residents with meters have complained of headaches and other illnesses they believe have been caused by microwave pulses, she said.

Bokken and others also cite a World Health Organization press release last May, which suggested cell phone signals could be classified as a “Group B” carcinogen, as evidence the low frequency microwave signals could lead to cancer.

However, the release merely calls for further research, saying the WHO has found little evidence connecting radio waves to cancer. Other products classified as Group B carcinogens include coffee, pickled vegetables, and carageenan, an ingredient commonly found in ice cream.

Morozzi says all smart meters being installed in the U.S. abide by Federal Communications Commission standards for radio waves, as well as within guidelines set by international organizations. A 2011 review [PDF] conducted by the California Council on Science and Technology found existing standards were adequate to protect public health.

PG&E’s website points out that one of its smart meters would have to be on 1,000 years to produce as much exposure to radio waves as average cell phone users get in a month. Many consumer appliances, such as microwave ovens and wi-fi routers, have equal or greater power density per square centimeter than smart meters, according to the FCC.

Opt-out programs

Smart meter opponents, such as this shop owner in California, have posted signs asking for meters not to be installed. Some have gone so far as to bolt or chain their meters to their homes. (Photo by Jason Tester via Creative Commons)

Unlike many other smart grid rollouts, Naperville’s is being conducted by a city-owned utility. The program will install 57,000 meters in homes and businesses in the city, with half that cost paid for by the federal government, and the rest from the utility. Installation starts this year.

Opponents, such as Rooney, say the utility did not properly inform the public about the program, and they question whether it will save consumers money, or simply allow utilities to make more money. Utilities will hold too much information over how homeowners live their lives, she said, and that could be sold to marketing companies.

However, no reports exist of utilities having sold personal consumer information, and Naperville passed a strict ordinance last February prohibiting its utility from selling any customer data.

Nevertheless, many Naperville residents, some of whom have gone so far as to physically bolt their existing electrical meters to their homes, want at least a chance to opt out. The council has suggested an upfront fee of $68.35 and a charge of $24.75 a month to continue to have a non-digital reader.

“That’s punitive, and significantly higher than other opt-out programs around the country,” said Rooney.

In California, PG&E asked for a $270 upfront charge and a $14 monthly charge to pay for meter reader visits, or $135 upfront and $20 a month. The state’s PUC suggested $90 upfront, $15 a month, while low-income and elderly would pay a flat $5 a month. A decision will be made soon.

In St. Paul, where more than 300 homeowners called the city to consider opting out, the water utility offered two options. One allowed for a digital reader installed outside the home instead of in basements, where most of them are located. The other option, a touchpad, costs $48 annually, and would require a water department employee to read it.

Early experience with opt-outs suggests few customers will take advantage of it. Central Maine Power, which has 450,000 customers, charges $12 a month for an analog meter after an initial $40 fee. About 8,000 customers expressed interest in the opt-out but when confronted with fees the figure dropped by 10 percent, according to a November GreenTech Media article.

Lessons learned

Even advocates of smart meters agree their rollout has been less than a stellar.

“Many customers and stakeholders felt they weren’t asked whether they wanted these meters – they were given no information and no choice,” wrote smart grid authority Dr. Peter Fox-Penner in a Harvard Business Review blog post last year. “Combined with misinformation about the intent, cost, and impact of smart meters, this ‘top-down’ has bred something of a backlash that isn’t surprising, even if it is regrettable.”

Another mistake utilities have made is suggesting they will monitor the second-by-second electrical use of homeowners, said Bruce Wallenberg, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Electric Energy.

“You couldn’t ask for a bigger fight than by doing it that way,” he said. “I wouldn’t want a record of every current in my (electric) line transmitted to anyone.”

Jennifer Stahl, another leader in the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group, said the utility’s own studies revealed only 15 percent of customers “planned to participate” in time-of-use pricing and other programs.

“It sounds great, it was a hook for me in the beginning but I’m a stay-at-home mom and I’m not going to do laundry at 10 at night,” she said. “Behavior is what changes energy use — a smart meter isn’t going to change energy use.”

St. Paul journalist Frank Jossi writes about politics, business, energy and the environment. His website is www.jossi.biz.

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At green business summit, a call for direction on energy

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Wind farm development is expected to grind to a standstill if federal incentives aren't renewed this year. (Photo by Randy and Sharon Green via Creative Commons)

Green tech business leaders say the uncertainty of federal production tax credits (PTCs) set to expire at the end of the year, along with a lack of a federal energy policy, have begun to hurt their future prospects.

Meeting with Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum in St. Paul on Tuesday, a group of businesspeople said the lack of a clear, dependable energy policy has slowed their growth, particularly now, with the looming PTC extension deadline.

As green company representatives ticked off a list of concerns – the loss of subsidies, the declining American leadership in renewable energy, the influx of imported solar panels in U.S. markets, the lack of a coordinated energy policy – McCollum called for them to get politically involved.

McCollum said there’s no reason for an ideological split on green energy since these companies create high paying jobs and renewable industries have been growing quickly. After the next election, McCollum predicted the Minnesota delegation would work together to support the PTC and other subsidies to help solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable energy sources.

A 2009 report, The Clean Energy Economy, and looked at data from 1998-2007. The Pew Environment Group, which sponsored the discussion, said its own recent study showed clean energy jobs grew 9.1 percent last year nationally, compared with 3.7 percent for all jobs. In Minnesota, green jobs grew by 11.9 percent, compared to 1.9 percent for all jobs.

But those figures could see a steep decline if a host of government subsidies go away and if more policy planning fails to fall in place.

WindLogics, Inc. chief executive officer Mark Ahlstrom said his wind forecasting company was “seeing a huge falloff” in the number of projects this year. He’s had to trim his staff to deal with drop in business and he’s concerned wind won’t have much of a future if the PTC elapses.

“Without the production tax credits we won’t see any new projects next year,” said Ahlstrom. “We need to find a way out of this and we need a long term policy but we’re not there yet.”

Judy Poferl, president of Northern States Power, a division of Xcel Energy, Inc., highlighted Xcel’s recent announcement of a pullback in wind energy purchases. Part of it was due to having exceeded state mandates for renewable energy generation, she said, but the lack of a guiding federal policy on wind played a role in the decision, too.

Large utilities planning for the future have difficulty when the policy landscape keeps shifting, she said. Xcel has been “out in front” on buying renewable energy but “if the rules change, you could be in a bad spot,” she said.

First created in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 1992, the PTC offers wind developers a 2.2 cent per kWh tax credit. The solar industry’s version of the PTC – called the “investment tax credit” – doesn’t expire until 2016.

Another program that just ended, the Section 1603 Treasury Grant Program, gave manufacturers a cash grant of as much as 30 percent of the cost of a project in lieu of tax credits. The attendees agreed that the program, along with others, largely pay for themselves with more jobs and tax payments to the government.

McCollum said the coal, natural gas and oil industries all have significant subsidies which rarely get highlighted in Congress or the media. The full cost of pollution from those industries in terms of higher health care costs is never accounted for, she said.

The partisan nature of the debate doesn’t make sense, said McCollum, because many conservative states, such as Texas, have huge green economies. But in Washington today green businesses “are seen as a drag on the economy,” she said, something she hopes to change.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this post misstated statistics from the Pew Environment Group.

Midwest making strides in advancing ‘smart grid’

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November 16, 2011

By Frank Jossi

Over the next year Naperville, outside Chicago, will become the first large town in the Midwest to have smart meters in all 57,000 homes and commercial buildings.

Those meters will transmit data to the city’s municipal power company every 15 minutes and eventually allow for two way communication between residents and their home heating and cooling systems.

“Next year we’ll begin to offer time-of use rates for the customers, and we think that’s going to be good,” says Mark Curran, who leads the city’s smart grid project. “The way it’s set up, customers will have an e-portal online and they’ll be able to see their power usage the past day or over the past three or four years. With programmable thermostats they can use an iPhone app to leave their temperature in summer up a few degrees and then cool it down before they get home.”

Those are just a few advantages of the rapidly growing field of “smart grid” technology, which promises everything from more efficient power lines and increased capacity for renewable energy to consumer empowerment and new market pricing mechanisms. The Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability manages a $3.4 billion budget of the Smart Grid Investment Grant program.

And with the nation’s electrical structure aging, more opportunities to employ this new technology are emerging.

A closer look

A stronger grid could create 200,000 jobs around the country and make for a much more efficient energy system, according to Massoud Amin, director of the Technological Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota. Amin is a highly regarded expert on the topic — he was dubbed the “father of smart grid” by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2011.

Dr. Massoud Amin of the University of Minnesota gives a smart grid presentation in 2009. (Photo by Ed Yourdon via Creative Commons)

A “stronger” and “smarter” grid could save up to $70 billion each year through reduced outages and increased efficiency. Emissions of all particulates, as well as carbon dioxide, would drop 12 to 18 percent a year, predicted Amin, when compared to emissions created by the current grid.

“From every angle – reduction of cost of outages, integration of renewables, by increasing the overall system efficiency, reducing CO2 emissions – smart grid makes sense and we must do it,” said Amin. “We must find ways to push it forward.”

Not that it’s going to be cheap. A smart grid covering the country will cost from $340 billion to $480 billion over 20 years, said Amin.

“That’s sensors, communication and control devices, and that includes electrification of transportation devices,” he said. Another 42,000 miles of new high voltage lines will cost $85 billion, but will be capable of managing 40 percent of the country’s transmission needs.

But Amin says every $2 investment in smart grid will result in $6 in new spending in the economy. And now is the time to act on a smart grid, he argues, because electricity use is growing slowly at no more than 1 percent a year, offering a window of opportunity.

“The good news is demand has been growing slowly – it was 10 percent in the 1950s, 2.5 percent in the 90s, and in the last decade as a consequence of the economic slowdown we have been at 1 percent growth a year,” he said. New smart grid technologies, he added, could make better use of current generating capacity, eliminating some of the need for new power plants.

The ‘Perfect’ system

Progress on smart grid in the Midwest is starting to move at a rapid pace, no more so than in Illinois, where the state legislature and Gov. Pat Quinn have been in a vitriolic dogfight over a new $3.2 billion energy law. Passed by veto-proof majorities in late October, the legislation will help Commonwealth Edison and other Illinois utilities pay for smart meters and improvements to the electrical grid.

Quinn vows to fight the measure due to rate increases the utilities built into the law. But many proponents see it as a far-sighted measure that could move Illinois into the forefront of research and in attracting businesses in the nascent field.

“This is a very large-scale implementation of smart grid — it will be the largest deployment in the world,” said Andrew Barbeau, managing director of the Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The smart grid legislation and Chicago’s focus on sustainable technology are reasons why the Windy City has managed to attract more than 125 clean tech companies who have formed the Illinois Smart Grid Regional Innovation Cluster at IIT.

IIT itself has become a laboratory of innovation for smart grid by teaming with Galvin Electricity Initiative and the DOE on a project called “The Perfect Power System.” Billed as the first energy distribution system of its kind in the country, the $12 million project is expected to pay for itself in the first five years.

The “System” creates microgrids throughout the campus bolstered by intelligent system controllers and recovery mechanisms that eliminate the need for a new substation and $2 million of upgrades. If one section of the grid fails, power from another microgrid will be shifted automatically.

IIT’s approach plans to employ smart grid on an existing system, but that same technology is part of most new grid expansion projects, too. Great River Energy’s CapX2020, for example, will span 710 miles from the Dakotas to Wisconsin, adding capacity and allowing for more wind power in the Dakotas and Minnesota to reach more populated areas further east.

Sponsored by 11 utilities who are members of the cooperative, the $1.7 billion project is mainly focused not on smart grid but on adding a new network of high voltage lines. But those lines include sensors, fiber optics and other smart grid technologies.

The project uses trapezoid-shaped lines capable of transmitting 60 percent more electricity than older lines, said Jared Alholinna, regional transmission planning strategist for Great River. The lines will have shields above them to carry fiber optics and protect them from the elements, he said.

If the system fails, power companies can much more quickly determine where and what went wrong through sensors connected to the lines, he said.

No lines are being replaced, he added. “We’re not really replacing anything, we’re making enhancements to the transmission system.”

Not a Star Trek weapon

MISO, which oversees the Midwest grid, rolled out in 2010 a new measurement device called synchrophasors that will be placed in more than 165 different spots within the organization’s 13-state region. The three-year, $34.5 million project, funded in part by the Department of Energy, installs synchrophasors in areas of congestion on the grid.

Chiefly, the synchropasors offer real-time – three times a second — snapshots of the grid, allowing operators to anticipate problems much faster than in the past, says David Zwergel, senior director of regional operations. After power outages occur, operators will be able “to analyze the sequence of events and understand what happened, what was the chain of events.”

With that information, MISO’s members can better design and tweak the grid to make it more likely to withstand challenging circumstances. Just as importantly, the program will bring greater efficiency and “free up room on the transmission system, allowing more wind integration, allowing the most economic generation to run at a given moment,” he says.

MISO’s members will have more accurate information that can allow them to potentially push more power and operate more closely to the grid’s absolute limit, he says. So far there more than 44 synchrophasors installed, with many more on the way, said Zwergel.

“We’re hoping to mature the synchrophasor technology in the grid operations and continue adding measurement devices to realize its benefits,” he said.

In Illinois, meanwhile, the political dogfight remains in the spotlight even as Naperville’s $22 million smart grid program, paid for by federal funds and city’s electric utility, moves forward. The city’s electric company even plans to pay customers to allow it to program their thermostats to raise or lower their temperature during peak demand times.

It’s also planning to train customers on when to recharge electric cars as they grow in popularity.

Smart grid on a wider footprint than Naperville could change the energy equation.

“If we can shave a few percentage points off what our companies produce you would save the equivalent of what a nuclear plant generates,” said Curran. “But this isn’t going to happen overnight.”

St. Paul journalist Frank Jossi writes about politics, business, energy and the environment. His website is www.jossi.biz.

Photo by ume-y via Creative Commons

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Military’s green push could mean big business in Midwest

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The U.S. Navy is purchasing electric vehicles built by e-Ride industries in Minnesota. (Photo by Argonne National Laboratory)

November 1, 2011

By Frank Jossi

Five Minnesota-made electric vehicles with rooftop solar panels will soon find homes at Naval bases in Texas and Mississippi.

Manufactured by e-Ride Industries in Princeton, the low-speed vehicles can travel between 40 and 45 miles on a single charge and have the same power as a gasoline-powered small pickup.

E-Ride is among the many Midwest firms vying for business from the Department of Defense for good reason. The DOD has become a major federal funder of green projects, with $1.2 billion spent in 2010 alone. It’s also funding research through other initiatives, such as a collaboration with the Department of Energy called the Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA-e.

In fact, the military set up a website, DoD Goes Green, just to track all the activity.

Every service branch is participating in green energy procurement and research, according to Phyllis Cuttino of the Pew Project on National Security Energy and Climate.

Released in September, Pew’s report “From Barracks to Battlefield: Clean Energy Innovation and America’s Armed Forces” details the armed services push for greener bases, supply chains and more renewable energy and technology for soldiers in battle.

The Pentagon’s continued support of greener energy is a potential game-changer because of its enormity. The military spends more than $400 billion on goods and services every year, a good portion of it on new technology.

And it has an enviable record of invention ranging from electronics to computing (the Internet was originally a military project), space technology to to satellites, nuclear energy to GPS. Could it do for sustainability what it did space and cyberspace?

Making the military green

The Pew report focuses on vehicle development, advanced biofuels and energy management, including energy storage and building efficiency.  The Midwest’s strength in precision manufacturing, battery storage, solar panel production and biofuel development should make it a contender for DoD money, says Cuttino.

“Innovation is not all located in California or Massachusetts,” she said.

The DoD uses a lot of energy, and its leaders know it. The military consumes 300,000 barrels of oil a day, much of it transported by convoys vulnerable to attack –- more than 1,100 were attacked last year alone in Iraq and Afghanistan, leading to more 3,000 injuries and deaths, said Cuttino.

A typical soldier in battle uses 22 gallons of oil a day, a 174 percent increase over the Vietnam War.

“They have all these problems with costs, with volatility, with operational risks,” she said. “What DoD has said to itself is we have to re-examine the way we approach energy.”

The sheer magnitude of the DoD’s operations begs for more energy conservation. The military has 500 sites containing 500,000 buildings, three times as many structures as Walmart manages. Many large bases had one power meter that would collectively measure all energy use rather than metering individual buildings, she said.

The military buys most of its electricity from utility companies today but the Pew report suggests in the future, bases could become self-sustaining “microgrids” powered by renewable energy.

In all, the military has more than 450 projects involving wind, geothermal, biomass and solar energy, the report noted. Those projects helped the military draw 9.6 percent of its power from renewable sources.

The Midwest steps up

To that end, retired U.S. Navy officer Chip Laingen runs the Small Business Administration’s Advanced Power and Energy Cluster (APEC) in Minneapolis. He’s has been working in Minnesota and the Dakotas with a number of small companies looking to land military contracts.

The APEC is part of the Defense Alliance, which focuses on attracting DoD contracts in a variety of fields, not just energy. So far the APEC has helped companies land $6.6 million in contracts, creating more than 140 full- and part-time positions.

Of the organization’s 82 members, around 25 are actively looking to land contracts involving sustainability, include Fargo-based Packet Digital, a power management software provider; Silicon Energy, a Washington state solar panel manufacturer with a facility in northern Minnesota; Lloyd’s System, a Rapid City, South Dakota, manufacturer of duct cleaning robots; and e-Ride.

A couple of roadblocks Laingen sees for the Upper Midwest is the reality of being in “flyover territory” and a general apprehension with being involved in military projects.

“Some people don’t believe the military cares about this (renewable energy) stuff, but the smart ones look at the military’s investment and say ‘wow, there’s that much money there?’” he says.

The DoD will spend $3 billion on renewables by 2015 and $10 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, the money has flown steadily to improving bases throughout the country and in the Midwest.

In Minneapolis, the 934th Airlift Wing retrofitted its entire base to reduce carbon emissions and save energy. The 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth installed five wind turbine generators and the Arden Hills Army Training Site set a goal to reduce energy use by 30 percent through district heating, solar thermal and solar electric systems.

Similar projects have been undertaken at bases in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

In Wisconsin, Eaton Corp., along with the University of Wisconsin and ZBB Energy Corp., is working on a microgrid project for the Fort Sill, Okla. Army base. ZBB is also involved in an energy storage system to be installed at a naval base near Los Angeles.

Virent, a 110-person firm in Madison, has a good chance at landing a contract with the Navy to help build $510 million of biorefineries for biofuel production. Helios Solar Works, Inc., based in Milwaukee, will be supplying solar panels to the Army under a contract with Arista Power of New York.

The battery company Dow Kokam -– a partnership of Dow Chemical, TK Advanced Battery, LLC and Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault (Dassault) -– is building a plant that will employ 800 people in Midland, Michigan, funded in part by a $161 million Department of Energy grant. Batteries produced there and in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, will be used by the military for aerospace and land-based operations.

ARPA-e’s list of projects, meanwhile, includes several Big 10 schools, including Ohio State, Minnesota and Michigan.

At e-Ride there’s a sense of optimism based on the potential for more sales as the entire federal government — and not just the DoD — goes green. Erik Crawford, who leads up federal sales, said the U.S. Postal Service is doing a pilot with e-Ride now that could result in significant sales.

The reason for the interest of the postal service and the DoD is that e-Ride’s vehicles are not simply glorified golf carts but instead have the characteristics of small pickup trucks.  Kevin Bauerly, e-Ride’s general manager, said that e-Ride “is in general cheaper than traditional small pickups” and cost less to operate over the lifecycle of the vehicles.

The vehicles have even been used at the McMurdo research station in Antarctica.

So far federal sales have been a small part of e-Ride’s revenue, an issue that could change dramatically, and quickly.

“Our concern is growing too quickly, because the deals we’re in the running for pale compared to the company’s previous sales by quite a bit,” Crawford pointed out. “They could double the size of the company very rapidly.”

St. Paul journalist Frank Jossi writes about politics, business, energy and the environment. His website is www.jossi.biz.

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Algae biofuels: Green gold for the Midwest?

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Algae farms, like this one in Texas, could become a more common sight in the Midwest.

MINNEAPOLIS — Algae seems an unlikely hero in the green energy arena. To most people it’s an aquatic plant life they avoid when swimming and look away from in disgust when viewing it from a boat or on a walk.

Yet to hear the advocates and entrepreneurs at the Algae Biomass Summit this week in Minneapolis, the green stuff could indeed be an important part of the nation’s energy mix. Sponsored by the Algal Biomass Organization, the four-day conference drew nearly 800 people to a downtown hotel to a deep dive into every aspect of algae production, research and commercialization.

There are a few things to know about the algae industry. One is that companies grow the algae in controlled environments through a complex and varied methodology that has little to do with what is seen in lakes and oceans. Just as corn is a crop, so is algae intended for biofuels and other products.

Second, there’s a touch of magic connected to its potential in that algae requires a lot of carbon dioxide to grow. Emissions captured from power plants and other industrial sources could become the feedstock of the algae industry.

Third, real money is being spent by investors and the federal government on algae commercialization. In fact, hundreds of millions of dollars.

And the Midwest has great potential in this area.

While much of the research activity is in California –- industry leaders Solazyme and Sapphire Energy are there -– the Midwest has several promising home-grown firms as well as plants serving clients outside the region. Solazyme just opened a plant in Peoria, Illinois, to grow and process algae.

Great Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. has an ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa, attached to bioreactors built by BioProcess Algae. The ethanol plant supplies CO2 to the bioreactors, which produces feeds for fish farms and livestock. The initial plan was to produce fuel, but the money is in other products –- for now.

Phycal, Inc. does laboratory testing in St. Louis and has a pilot project next to its Highland Heights, Ohio, facility. Its first algae farm, however, will be in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, the University of Minnesota had several researchers who spoke at the conference on panels and attendees got a chance to visit the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory on the Mississippi River. The lab has experimental bioreactors located on the river.

The algal organization is based in Minnesota, and the co-chair of the conference was Todd Taylor, a leading expert in the field and attorney at Fredrikson & Byron, PA.

As the algae industry grows what could emerge is a new cash crop not only for the Midwest, but the entire country, and another source of fuel and plant-based products.

Turns out, algae isn’t so bad after all.

Photo by AgriLife via Creative Commons