When We Struggle, We Learn
If there was one key takeaway from the most recent RenewableEnergyWorld.com and Solar Power-gen webcast it was that the year ahead will be difficult for large-scale solar power development due to poor access to capital, an uncertain policy landscape, the pending trade case against China and module prices that are too low to support a healthy indust
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When We Struggle, We Learn
Top 10 Most-read News Stories of 2011
2011 has been a year of highs and lows for the renewable industry, marked with trade disputes, record installations, bankruptcies, and technological innovations. To review the interesting year in this ever-evolving industry, here are the top 10 most-read articles of 2011.
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Top 10 Most-read News Stories of 2011
Small States Grapple With Big Canadian Hydropower
Peterborough, NH, USA — In New Hampshire a major transmission project that was announced last year is spurring discussion about what should qualify as renewable energy and what the goals of renewable portfolio standards ought to be.
The project, known as The Northern Pass, is set to construct a 140-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line from the Canadian province of Quebec into neighboring New Hampshire. The line will carry 1200 MW of emission-free electricity from Hydro-Quebec’s hydropower facilities into the state of New Hampshire and through to its neighboring New England states.
The issues are, or course, manifold. First, there are the NIMBY opponents who worry that a large transmission line like this will wreak havoc on property values in northern NH: ruining viewsheds, endangering wildlife and impacting the tourism trade that the region relies upon to boost its economy. Opponents have created a website that lists all of their concerns with the clever title, “LiveFreeorFry.org.” (The New Hampshire state motto is “Live Free of Die.”)
But beyond the transmission line itself, deeper issues are coming to the surface. First, some say large-scale hydropower, the power source that makes up 98 of its electricity from renewable energy by 2025, lots of renewables will need to come online in the next 15 years – and much of that will be developed locally.
Further, if you look at the goals that New England states have set for themselves under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to decrease carbon emissions over the next 50 years, “you might conclude that there is no way to do that without substantial amounts of imports,” she said.
Except that a 50-year timeframe — even a 30-year timeframe — is hard to account for. Today, it’s unknown how technology improvements in the future might increase the adoption rates of renewable energy. The cost of solar power, for one, has dropped dramatically in the past two years. In California, just last month an SCE filing to the state’s Public Utilities Commission asked for approval of 20 solar PV projects that are expected to generate electricity for less than the projeced price of energy from natural gas.
Gentleman pointed out that the adoption of offshore wind, too, could end up bringing significant power to the region, at competitive costs in time. Of course, hydropower is a low-cost energy source right now.
“Because there is no guarantee that the eligibility of large hydro for RECs could occur, there’s – I think, understandably – concern on the part of the companies that are developing indigenous renewables,” Gentleman said.
New Hampshire HB302 has been tabled for now, but there is no guarantee that another one like it couldn’t be reintroduced in the future. The Northern Pass project is undergoing environmental impact studies now and will then be hotly debated heavlly into the futre.
But whether or not either the bill or the project comes to pass, hydropower from Quebec will continue to flood down on New England to help serve its electricity load. Let’s just hope that all that water won’t drown the burgeoning renewable energy industry that is starting to take hold.
Continue here: Small States Grapple With Big Canadian Hydropower