Stepping Into Our Energy Future

In 2006, we on Vashon had the opportunity to vote on establishing a local Public Utility District (PUD) to finance and manage energy conservation improvements along with local renewable energy production. The lofty goal was to lower our energy needs by two thirds, and to eventually provide all of our power from locally produced renewable energy. As it turned out, most of us were not ready for such a bold idea. The stated reason for voting down the proposal was that the business plan was sketchy, i.e. the promise of no property tax additions might not have been kept. In retrospect, I think that it would have had difficulty: most of us simply didn’t have the vision to motivate us to take such a large step into our future.

Let’s continue to talk about business plans. For the past two hundred years we have been living off of a trust fund that we can’t pay into and we have not seriously pursued any alternatives. The trust fund is our finite fossil fuel supply which represents the savings of millions of years of solar energy. All other life on this planet lives sustainably on our annual solar budget. With the exception of geothermal energy, all of our energy comes from the sun. Any sustainable energy system needs to stay within the solar and geothermal budget. Do you know of any successful business that continually withdraws capital for operating expenses and never produces anything? Well, Wall Street actually seems to be successful doing that, but, in the long run, I think it will be shown that they have merely been parasitizing the rest of us.

As our awareness of global warming and resource depletion has increased, one could speculate that a PUD proposal might be more successful today, but, for now, we have opted for a more modest piecemeal approach. Government at all levels is encouraging us to pursue energy conservation by providing incentives to insulate our homes and install energy efficient appliances. The speed with which these programs decrease our energy use depends on how seriously each of us takes the aforementioned threats.

What about energy production? Government is also providing incentives to install renewable systems, although local production is not a primary determinant. Some forms of production, such as hydro and wind power, are utterly dependent on location, and transmission over long distances is relatively efficient, averaging only a 6% power loss. Still, the transmission infrastructure is expensive and has its own environmental and strategic drawbacks.

In many other ways, local production makes a great deal of sense. A diversified energy system makes us all much more resilient. We are in one of the best places in the state to harness tidal energy. The cost of moving biomass makes local production of energy through biomass gasification worth pursuing, and we are doing that. The evenly distributed nature of solar energy makes it a great option for local production anywhere.

Of course, in our climate, it is only a partial solution, but it pencils out and the incentives to develop it are in place.

In Washington State, we have a program called Community Solar that subsidizes solar projects of up to 75 Kilowatts that are installed on public property by companies, private individuals or nonprofit organizations. The subsidy, paid per kilowatt hour generated, is more than tripled if the manufacturer of the equipment is in the state. The program encourages communities to build renewable energy systems that would not otherwise qualify to take advantage of state incentives, to build state production capacity, and to create green jobs. One such project is being installed at Harbor School.

As a non profit institution, the Backbone Campaign has developed a Community Solar Project of 50-66 Kilowatts to be installed at the King County Transfer Station by Artisan Electric of Vashon. It will be tied into the grid and will provide power to the transfer station. The project will be funded by local investors: that is, you and me. You can invest as little as $1000 or as much as $30,000 to be paid back incrementally every year through the State Cost Recovery Incentive Program through 2020. The idea is to spread ownership widely in the community. It is now up to us to become more self reliant and bolster the local economy by investing in this project. The financial returns will be modest, but the tangible step into a different future will be huge.

The first public presentation by the Backbone Campaign of its Community Solar Project will be at 7:00 pm, on August 30 at the Land Trust Building. Be sure to put it on your calendar. You can also find more at http://vashon-communitysolarproject.org. You don’t have to attend a presentation in order to invest.

Comments? terry@vashonloop.com