A microgrid is a localized grouping of electricity generation, energy storage, and loads that normally operate connected to a traditional centralized grid.  The microgrid at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is one of the best examples of an electricity network that provides local control yet is interconnected with the larger electricity grid.

Recently the Rocky Mountain Institute visited UCSD to study and document the microgrid that controls and integrates electricity supply and demand on the campus.  One result of their visit was a six minute video that spotlights the groundbreaking work being done on the La Jolla campus

At UCSD, the microgrid provides the ability to manage 42 megawatts of generating capacity, including a central cogeneration plant, an array of solar photovoltaic installations and a fuel cell that operates on natural gas reclaimed from a landfill site. The central microgrid control allows operators to manage the diverse portfolio of energy generation and storage resources on the campus to minimize costs. In addition, the campus can “island” from the larger grid to maintain power supply in an emergency, as in the case of the power blackout that struck parts of Southern California, Arizona and Mexico in September 2011.

The microgrid at UCSD provides a living laboratory to experiment with integration and management of local resources and to optimize the use of these resources in interaction with market signals from the larger grid.

Click here to watch the video.

Articles of Interest
Solar forecasting and microgrids
Understanding the Role of Buildings
UC San Diego is a campus-wide living laboratory for sustainable energy

The U.S. Department of the Interior issued its final approval of the Tule Wind Power Project today when Secretary Ken Salazar signed the Record of Decision on the Environmental Impact Statement. This is the approval for the portion of the project on federal lands, making it the first approval of five California “priority” wind energy projects proposed for public lands.

“We applaud the effort by the Department of the Interior, which worked closely with the State of California to effectively execute the environmental review process for Tule Wind and other priority projects to bring jobs and revenue to these communities,” said Harley McDonald, business developer for Iberdrola Renewables.

In late 2009, Secretary Salazar and then-Governor Schwarzenegger signed an agreement directing Interior and California State agencies to create a federal-state initiative to advance development of environmentally appropriate renewable energy on U.S. lands in California.

The Tule Wind Power Project, an up to 200 MW wind energy facility, is proposed for the McCain Valley in Eastern San Diego County. The federal lands portion of the project approved by the Department of Interior today will generate up to 186 MW.

The federal agency’s approval of Tule Wind is the first of several needed to bring this important source of clean energy to San Diego. The project is located within four jurisdictions and will need additional approvals from the California Public Utilities Commission, Bureau of Indian Affairs, California State Lands Commission and County of San Diego.

“The County of San Diego will be holding hearings on our Major Use Permit application in the first quarter of 2012,” said McDonald. “The Planning Commission, then likely the Board of Supervisors, will be voting on whether this project will be allowed to proceed.

“It is important that all our permits are secured in the next few months, so the project can have a chance to be built and deliver energy before the end of 2012 when the current tax credits expire,” said McDonald.

Tule Wind is a Low-Impact, Clean Energy Source

The Tule Wind Power Project, as proposed, will produce enough clean energy for approximately 60,000 San Diego-area homes, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 230,000 tons and reduce water use by 149 million gallons per year by displacing gas-fired generation.

“More than five years of environmental studies have found that Tule Wind will have very low impact to cultural, wildlife and natural resources,” said McDonald.

In its Record of Decision, the Department of the Interior selected an alternative that reduced the number of turbines on public lands from 128 turbines to 62 turbines — in order to avoid biological, cultural and hydrological resources. Iberdrola Renewables has worked in close collaboration with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and species-specific biological experts to identify the risk to sensitive and endangered species near the project area and develop a comprehensive Avian & Bat Protection Plan for the project.

“We’ve been working closely with the Fish & Wildlife Service on science-based solutions to avoid impact to all avian species — in particular, golden eagles,” said Stu S. Webster, director of Permitting & Environmental for Iberdrola Renewables.

“All the federal agencies involved in this effort recognize the need to minimize the project’s environmental impacts, and realize the broader benefits of wind energy, creating jobs and meeting renewable energy goals,” said Webster.

Iberdrola Renewables conducted several years of avian point counts, conducted telemetry studies on golden eagles and nesting surveys in compliance with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Game — and only two golden eagle observations were made during two years of avian use surveys at the project site, explained Webster.

“The studies indicated low use of the site by golden eagles, telling us that collision with a Tule Wind turbine is unlikely,” said Webster. “However to err on the side of caution and prove that our science-based deductions are accurate, we have commissioned to continue another year of studies on the northern ridge through the Wildlife Research Institute, which has been studying eagle activity in San Diego County for 23 years. It is expected that these additional studies will confirm little-to-no use by the eagles of the valley portion of the project area and further characterize eagle use near the northern ridge and confirm that there is very low risk to these eagles.”

WRI has already conducted two years of golden eagle nesting and territory analyses and one year of raptor migration studies on the project site.

Tule Wind Benefits San Diego County

In addition to providing substantial environmental benefits, Tule Wind will add to the region’s economy by providing:

– $3.5 million per year in property tax revenue to the County of San Diego

– Support of approximately 915 jobs in the San Diego economy during construction — including ancillary supply chain and manufacturing jobs

– 10-12 new permanent jobs onsite during operations, with an additional 28 jobs supported each year in supply chain and manufacturing

– $30 million in Sales & Use Tax during construction

– $1 million in annual payments to landowners and tribes

– $1 million over 30 years in campground improvements and maintenance in McCain Valley

Tule Wind enjoys broad-based support from San Diego residents and businesses that want to protect the environment, improve air quality, and spur economic development for the region.

“CleanTECH San Diego is keenly interested in not only the region’s air quality, but also economic opportunities that create jobs for our region,” said Jim Waring, president and CEO, CleanTECH San Diego. “As a leader in the clean energy economy, we support the development of renewable energy projects that further diversify our energy resources. To this end, we encourage the County Board of Supervisors to approve Tule Wind as proposed, to fuel the region’s economy and meet clean air mandates.”

“We’re thrilled to see the Tule Wind Power Project moving in the right direction, bringing jobs, sustainability and economic prosperity to San Diego County,” said Scott Alevy, president and CEO of the East County Chamber of Commerce. “It is important that we clear the green tape to advance these projects that provide such great benefit to not only the environment, but also the local economies they will serve.”

The Tule Wind Power Project Environmental Impact Statement/Report was performed in accordance with guidelines set forth by the National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act, and was studied jointly with the proposed San Diego Gas & Electric East County Substation and Sempra Energy’s Energia Sierra Juarez’ Gen-Tie Line.

Click here for more information about the Tule Wind Power Project.

And click here for Morgan Lee’s article in the San Diego Union Tribune, “Large wind farm earns federal approval”.

The Future of the Electric Grid was published this week by the MIT Energy Initiative.  The 268 page report aims to provide a comprehensive, objective portrait of the U.S. electric grid and the challenges and opportunities it is likely to face over the next two decades.  It also highlights a number of areas in which policy changes, focused research and demonstration, and the collection and sharing of important data can facilitate meeting the challenges and seizing the opportunities that the grid will face.  The report shows that with new policies, the electric grid in the United States could handle the expected influx of electric cars and wind and solar generation.

Much of the report relates directly to developments in the San Diego region.  Chapter 5 is about The Impact of Distributed Generation and Electric Vehicles.  Chapter 8: Utility Regulation touches on the current challenge in San Diego to have a rate structure for distributed generation which is equitable for all parties.

(From page 182 of the report), “The distortions caused by these implicit subsidies rise with the penetration of distributed generation and with energy conservation more generally.  Consider, for example, proposed “zero net energy” buildings: if network costs continue to be recovered on a per-kWh basis, these customers could in theory receive all the benefits of being connected to the grid, drawing and injecting power on demand, while paying little or nothing toward the cost of the system or the option to use the network.”  Of course, the opposite side of the issue is also compelling.

Click here for the complete report and here for the abstract.

The multidisciplinary effort of the MIT Energy Initiative to generate The Future of the Electric Grid included economists, engineers and, of course, graduate students from MIT and from without.  Click here for an excellent video of the introductory presentation by the study c-chairs of the report. 

The last two sections of the report include a useful Glossary plus a list of Acronyms and Abbreviations.

Over the Fourth of July weekend while I was in Ohio for a family get-together I had the thrill of seeing a barge of wind turbine towers being towed up the Ohio River at Ripley, OH.  Where they came from and where they went remains a mystery to me.

About 200 miles up-river from Ripley, construction has begun on a new hydroelectric power plant in St. Marys, WV.  Previously I was under the impression that we had seen the last of new hydroelectric facilities in the U.S.  Most of the good sites for hydro plants have been taken.  Under current environmental and seismic regulations most of the hydroelectric dams constructed in the last century could not be built today.  Environmental groups have opposed hydroelectric projects that put new dams on bodies of water.  However, 350MW of new “run-of-the-river” hydroelectric generation plants will be built on the Ohio River to harness the energy of water flowing over existing dams.  Since no new dams or reservoirs are required the usual impediments to project development are side-stepped.  Click here for the full report.

Facing Kentucky, Ripley, OH is a one hour drive up-river from Cincinnati.  The town was an early stop on the Underground Railroad, a network of citizens helping slaves escape north to freedom. A number of prominent abolitionists lived in the town in the 1800s, mainly on Front Street near the river.  My sister and her husband have restored the Thomas Collins house which served as a hiding place for slaves escaping to Canada.  The character Eliza in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was inspired by a slave woman who crossed the frozen river to Ripley in 1838.

Last week CleanTECH San Diego hosted the first San Diego Wind Energy Symposium.  The keynote speaker was Michael Picker, Senior Advisor to the Governor for Renewable Energy Facilities.  Picker’s comments included a progress report on California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).  The target is for 33% of electricity sold in the California to come from renewable energy by 2020.  Renewable energy projects require long lead times to grind through the process of permitting, land acquisition, environmental impact studies and financing.  Many projects fall by the wayside.  Picker’s analysis of the project pipeline data from state government agencies including the CPUC suggests that the “queue currently holds more than double the generation capacity needed to achieve a 33% RPS”.  The consensus is for 33% to be likely achieved a few years prior to the 2020 deadline.  In his signing letter to the State Senate for SB2 Governor Brown stated, “I think 40%, at reasonable cost, is well within our grasp in the near future”.  Picker’s presentation supported that projection as realistic.

Government regulations like Califonia’s RPS are effective in the sense that they produced a measurable response.  However, there is a bigger challenge than attaining a 33% RPS.  Efficiently coordinating this new mix of energy production into the grid will in the long run determine the economic feasibility of reaching a RPS far beyond 33%. 

Video of the entire Symposium is available at:

Keynote and Panel 1       

Panel 2

The San Diego Wind Energy Symposium was made possible by the sponsorship of CleanTECH San Diego members Invenergy, Iberdrola Renewables and Enel Green Power.

The following resources provide some background into the challenges and opportunities of wind energy.   Click on each to connect.

California Wind Map and Resource Potential
U.S. Wind Resource Map
How Wind Power Works
Wind Power Glossary

The 41 companies in the San Diego region which are involved in wind energy represent every aspect of the industry from project design and finance, manufacturing, energy production and distribution. 

The 25 wind turbines which make up the 50 MW Kumeyaay Wind project on the Campo Reservation are an impressive display of renewable energy from I-8 in Alpine.  The tribe’s second wind farm, Kumeyaay Wind II, is a 160-megawatt project to be built in partnership with San Diego Gas & Electric and Invenergy.  Major players such as Iberdrola Renewables and Enel Green Power are involved in projects representing billions of dollars of wind energy capacity.  Viridity Energy deals in solutions which address the coordination of energy demand and supply including energy storage.  Upwind Solutions recently established their presence in San Diego with the purchase of Knight & Carver’s turbine blade business. 

On June 14th CleanTECH San Diego will host the San Diego Wind Energy Symposium.  Michael Picker, Senior Advisor to the Governor for Renewable Energy Facilities will be the keynote speaker.   There will be two panel presentations; Renewable Energy Policy – State and Local Perspective followed by Specific Wind Power Considerations.

Click here for complete details.

San Diego Wind Energy Symposium

June 14th 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

SCRIPPS SEASIDE FORUM
at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
8610 Kennel Way | La Jolla, CA 92037

Click here to register today.

The following resources provide some background into the challenges and opportunities of wind energy,   Click on each to connect.

California Wind Map and Resource Potential
U.S. Wind Resource Map
How Wind Power Works
Wind Power Glossary

The cost paid by the user plus the externalized costs equals the all-in cost.  If you were to ask the residents of the Montcoal, WV, the all-in cost of coal is about $50 per ton plus the loss of their husbands, sons and fathers.  For a Louisiana shrimper the all-in cost of oil is $80 per barrel plus the loss of his income for years. 

There are externalized costs associated with every source of energy whether it is coal or solar, wind or oil, nuclear or cow dung.  The only universal reducer of externalized costs is “to consume less energy” either through energy efficiency or frugality.  As a society we will be better able to make rational decisions about energy production and use if we have a clearer vision of the externalized costs associated with the various sources of energy.

I am at odds with the climate change deniers and with the strict environmentalists.  However, I would no more attempt to change them than I would try to persuade a Red Sox fan or a Yankees fan to switch allegiance to their rival.  It just isn’t going to happen.  What the Bostonian and New Yorker have in common is their love of the game.  What I share with the climate change deniers and the strict environmentalists is a belief that there are consequences to our choices of energy sources.  Clearer information about the externalized costs of all the energy options will bring all parties closer together. 

To climate change deniers I say that it is not inconsistent for them to maintain their skepticism while at the same time embrace those changes which will encourage the shift away from fossil fuels.  Let’s give everyone the information to make decisions on an apples-to-apples basis.  The explosion of just one oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico generates an externalized cost to our economy and to those of us who pay taxes that is huge.  The cost and fines paid by the rig operator, BP, will be a small fraction of all the externalized costs to the region, our economy and the ecosystem.  (FYI.  The number of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico is in the thousands). 

If we locked a climatologist, an economist and an actuary in a room for a few days they could generate a rough model of some of the externalized costs associated with drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  Insurance companies already have the data about the probability of loss from fire, hurricanes, etc.  Those costs are built into the price of oil.  Using those same probabilities we want to model what the externalized costs which are not expressed in the barrel price of oil.  Over time what is the cost of oil production which is not paid for by the user of the oil?  Is it $3 per barrel or $30 or ?  Of course it’s a projection and all projections are guesses, but wouldn’t a wild-guess be more useful than what we currently have, which is zip.  I am not suggesting that off-shore drilling is inherently good or bad.  I just don’t know how high the all-in cost might be.

My message to environmentalists is the same.  Let us focus on shared beliefs.  In my adult lifetime the population of the United States has increased by 100 million people.  Locate a 21 year-old and ask him or her to think about adding the equivalent of another dozen cities the size of New York City during the next 30 or 40 years.  Energy frugality and efficiency will help, but the demand for energy will increase year-over-year. 

A more thoughtful examination of externalized costs can guide us to decisions which are quicker and more insightful.  Some birds and bats are killed by wind turbines (and also by tall buildings, semi-trucks and power lines).  My guess is that the recent event in the Gulf of Mexico will kill more wild life in the next few months than all the wind turbines in the United States will over the next several years.  If we had a better measure of the externalized costs we would be enabled to make better decisions.  Obstructionists who block the construction of large scale wind and solar energy projects may be unintentionally advancing the growth of fossil fuel alternatives which are substantially more harmful to the very creatures they seek to protect.  The only way we can address the issues logically is to have the true costs, the all-in costs, as the basis for our judgments.

McDermott noted that wind power represents about 75% of the renewable energy produced in the United States.  Currently wind is a close second to natural gas for newly installed production capacity.  Like all projects which are capital intensive, wind power construction suffered with the collapse of credit markets.  Some deals are now being done, but on more conservative terms.  Key hurdles continue to be the on-again, off-again government support in the form of tax credits and loans as well as the onerous delays caused by environmentalists. 

Intermittency is the renewable energy term to describe the uneven production of power by both wind and solar.  Dr. Walker stated that as wind power becomes a larger portion of total energy production it should be considered part of the base load with natural gas as the go-to energy to fill in the gaps.  He noted that the bulk of wind energy production in the United States is concentrated in a short list of utilities.  Except for the very largest users, most utilities struggle with understanding how to manage an intermittent supply.

Although the established global wind energy market is huge, the panel felt that it was not mature and therefore there were significant opportunities for new business creation and growth.  Their opinion was that there were vast improvements which will be made in blade design and the mechanics of wind turbines.  They felt that there was a great opportunity for innovation and invention to originate from outside the research departments of the large manufacturers.  As the number of wind turbines proliferates they see an opportunity for companies in the “nuts and bolts” aspects of service and maintenance in a more organized manner than currently exists.

Energy storage in its various forms is a response to the problem of intermittency as well as integral part of an effective smart grid.  James Sahagian said that Sempra Generation has a strong interest in compressed air strorage in spent oil and natural gas wells as a viable means to store energy during those times when wind energy production is greater than immediate demand.

In addition to enXco and Helix Wind, there are 22 other wind power companies listed in CleanTECH San Diego’s database of cleantech companies include Cannon Power, Knight & Carver and Padoma Windpower. 

The networking hour before the CleanTECH San Diego Showcase is a unique opportunity to get face to face with the captains of industry, futurists, venture capitalists and propeller heads who play in the clean tech space.  Click here to make your reservation.

This past week I participated in a two day Discover Imperial County tour organized by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Council.  For most of us, we rarely have any contact with the sources of our food and energy.  Food comes from an aisle at Vons and electricity from a wall plug.  Just two hours from the center of our box is a different world where every resident has an up-close view of innovative technologies which make our food and energy available and affordable. 

The Imperial Valley is an energy cornucopia.  I doubt if there is any comparable space in the world that can harvest energy from solar, geothermal, water, wind, algae, biomass and piped-in natural gas.  Their ability to add new electrical production is only tempered by the timing of construction of new transmission lines.

The first stop on our tour was at the east edge of San Diego County at the Kumeyaay wind farm on the Campo Indian Reservation.  Three square miles of tribal land adjacent to Interstate 8 are home to 25 giant Gamesa wind turbines rated at 2 megawatts each.  The winds which cross the Tecate Divide provide electricity sufficient to serve more than 12,000 homes while saving 110,000 tons of green house gas emissions annually. 

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By the numbers:  Towers 70 meters (230 feet).  Blades 41.5 meters (136 feet).  The area swept by the blades of each tower = 1 1/3 acres.   Total swept area for the 25 towers = 33 1/3 acres.  (Swept area refers to the area in square feet of the rotor. It is also called the ‘capture area’.  pi x Radius² = Area Swept by the Blades).