Nevada among states pushing ahead with green power

Nevada among states pushing ahead with green power

November 18, 2002

By Doug Abrahms, Reno Gazette-Journal

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Map (VERY IMPORTANT, shown in original online article) shows states that are going green. Map's website address:

http://www.rgj.com/news/files/2002/11/18/18511.jpg.php

WASHINGTON - Nevada wind and geothermal energy production could nearly double in the next three years, spurred by state laws requiring utilities to use increasing amounts of electricity produced from renewable sources.

No large geothermal plant has been built in the state for 10 years, said Richard Hoops, who heads the geothermal program at the Bureau of Land Management in Reno. But the amount of federal land in Nevada leased to produce electricity from hot springs nearly has doubled to 300,000 acres in the last two years.

The surge in renewable power can be traced to the law Nevada passed last year requiring utilities to increase the amount of electricity produced by wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable power sources to 15 percent by 2013.

Efforts to establish similar federal requirements in Washington failed this year because lawmakers couldn't agree on other issues in the energy bill, so states such as Nevada have been taking the lead to promote green power.

California, which was hungrily looking for power to buy two years ago when electricity prices soared, has gone further than Nevada - requiring its utilities to use 20 percent renewable energy by 2017. That law will further fuel a demand for green power, which can be purchased out of state.

Renewable energy cuts down on pollution caused by burning coal and provides an economically stable source of power. But utilities have been reluctant to use it because it's still more expensive than coal and natural gas.

States are primarily promoting green power in three ways:

o Tax benefits for installing solar equipment or fuel cells. About half the states, although not Nevada, offer personal tax breaks for renewable power, according to the North Carolina State University Solar Center.

o A small monthly fee that funds energy conservation and renewable projects. This fee is mandated by 15 states, but not Nevada.

o A mandate requiring utilities to generate a specified portion of their electricity from renewable power. Fifteen states have passed such requirements, including Nevada, Texas, and New Jersey.

"The states have been the most important laboratories in environmental policy," said Ralph Cavanagh at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Some states on their own can make an enormous difference."

Utilities generally oppose mandates that they use an amount of green power or charge consumers a small fee for conservation or renewable energy efforts.

"That doesn't mean we're against renewable energy," said Jim Owen, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents large utilities. "We think it's going to happen on its own."

But Owens acknowledged that state laws have pushed utilities to go greener, which has led to a new boom in solar, wind and geothermal power.

Advanced Thermal Systems of Reno built the state's last geothermal power plant 10 years ago, but now has 14 projects proposed, said Rebecca Wagner, a spokeswoman. Laws in California and Nevada that mandate the use of renewable power have pushed geothermal power forward, Wagner said.

"(Geothermal power) is huge for us in Nevada because there's so much potential here," she said.

Geothermal power uses the Earth's hot water to spin turbines to create electricity. The downside is it's more expensive than producing energy from a natural gas or coal plant.

But the cost of geothermal electricity continues to drop, and it's not only eco-friendly but also reliable, Wagner said. And these new power plants also can provide jobs and a tax base in rural counties, she said.

"If people look beyond a green issue," she said, "it's really an economic development issue."

The state produces about 200 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy sources, mostly geothermal power, which is enough to power up to 200,000 homes. BLM's Hoops said he expects to see up to 175 megawatts added in three years.

"The major constraint we're going to be looking at is transmission capacity," he said.

The BLM office in Nevada has also received 15 applications to lease land for wind projects, he said.

But Nevada lags behind other states as turbine farms have been proposed recently for the mountains of Idaho, the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., and the cornfields of South Dakota.

The American Wind Energy Association expects to add about 2,000 megawatts of new wind power next year -- equivalent to about three large coal-fired power plants. Texas alone added 915 megawatts of wind power last year after the state passed rules requiring utilities to use more green power, said Kathy Belyeu, a spokeswoman for the trade group.

One stumbling block for wind energy is that a federal production tax credit is slated to expire at the end of 2003, and failure to extend that soon could delay projects, she said. But the industry group is confident that Congress will take up the issue next year.