Push on for renewable energy sources

Sunday, February 4, 2001

By John J. Monahan Telegram & Gazette Staff

WESTBORO-- Even as the White House pushes for a new era of oil exploration, Massachusetts utility customers are joining counterparts in 14 other states in investing billions of dollars in the search for clean energy alternatives.

Unprecedented investments, spurred by the government deregulation programs of the late 1990s, are pouring in for research and demonstration projects to advance wind, solar, fuel cell and other alternative energy sources, as well as energy conservation.

In Massachusetts, the recently established Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust is set to spend the first $49 million of an anticipated $150 million over the next five years on a series of initiatives.

The money will come from a monthly charge to Massachusetts Electric Co. customers that is listed as “RENEWABLE ENERGY CHG” on their bills. The charge is expected to average about $6 per year per customer household.

Similar renewable energy funds are in place in other states. The funds are expected to invest a total of about $2 billion in renewable energy initiatives across the country over the next few years.

Greg Watson, executive director of the MRET, said the White House's push to open up new oil fields offers only a short-term approach. “It's very shortsighted and only means more reliance on fossil fuels,” he said. “The handwriting is on the wall. The signals are out there and right now we still have time, and we now have the resources to put some of those new options in place,” he said of alternatives to expanded oil drilling.

A number of renewable energy alternatives already are under way in Massachusetts. In Williamstown, a community of 10,000 people in the Berkshires, municipal leaders, local activists and Williams College experts are considering placing energy efficiency standards in the building code, as well as a program for “zero impact” buildings.

The Cape and Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative is looking to the MRET to help assess the feasibility of an offshore wind power platform to produce electricity. A related project, being supported by the MRET and utility companies in Massachusetts and Connecticut, will map winds across southern New England to determine the most efficient locations for wind stations.

In the hope of finding advantages of combined use of fuel-cell and solar-cell technology, the MRET is working on a demonstration project for the 1.7-million-square-foot roof on the new convention center being built in South Boston.

The trust also is working with New England Aquarium officials on incorporating conservation measures, as well as integrated fuel- and solar-cell in-/jstallations, into the facility's planned $70 million expansion.

At present, neither fuel-cell technology, which creates pollution-free electricity by stripping hydrogen from natural gas or water, nor solar electric cells can compete on a cost basis with electricity from coal-fired power plants.

Mr. Watson said the MRET is hopeful that a combination of the two technologies will produce advantages such as an uninterrupted, nonpolluting power supply that can be used in new building construction.

By integrating fuel- and solar-cell technologies, he said, a good result may be obtained. “The shortcomings of one may make up for the shortcomings of the other,” he said.

Efforts to advance fuel-cell technology and applications, according to Mr. Watson, could lead to development of a new fuel-cell industry in Massachusetts. Fuel cells, while costly, can provide guaranteed, uninterrupted power supplies that would be valuable in the technology, telecommunications and medical fields.

Mr. Watson said since the MRET started its work last year, it has received more than 100 unsolicited proposals for alternative energy projects, including wind-powered water pumps, low-impact hydropower, and solar-power educational projects.

At this point, he said, the trust plans to invest about $19 million in the development of fuel-cell technology and the fuel-cell industry in Massachusetts. Another $19 million is earmarked for “green” building projects that utilize renewable energy sources and designs that promote energy conservation. About $7 million is to be invested in wind power.

Mr. Watson said the search for new renewable energy sources is being tailored to community projects, as well. “My best wish is that we really are going to provide communities information about how to incorporate renewables into their economies and infrastructure and know what the options are,” he said.

Current worries about electrical supplies in California, he said, and the extreme spikes in oil and gas prices are forcing communities to seek their own means to ensure local power supplies and energy efficiency.

Those same concerns, Mr. Watson noted, prompted the formation of numerous municipal power utilities in Massachusetts in the 1960s and 1970s.

For now, he said, “conservation is back” in a huge way because of rising energy costs over the last two years. “It is still the most economical and accessible option.”

As the push for alternative energy sources intensifies, environmentalists say they are steaming over energy plans proposed by President Bush and others in his administration.

“It's a battle over new technology and drilling for oil,” said Peggy Middaugh, executive director of the Regional Environmental Council.

“They are all oil men. ... That is what they know and that is what is in their bones,” she said, alluding to members of the Bush administration. “Alternatives are just not what they understand and that is the frustration.”

Ms. Middaugh said more reliance on fossil fuels will only worsen mounting global warming and smog-related health problems, and also endanger critical environmental areas where oil drilling occurs.

“Efficiency and renewables make the most sense from an economic perspective,” she said, adding that the Bush administration doesn't see it that way.

She believes that the administration's support for new drilling for oil is a means of paying back some of those who financially supported Mr. Bush's presidential campaign.

Alan Nogee, energy program director for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Massachusetts, said that although the renewable energy sources being invested in hold promise, the current political atmosphere could limit opportunities.

He said the current hope is that renewable energy sources that now provide about 1 percent of the state's electricity will account for 4 percent by 2009, then grow by 1 percent annually.

Mr. Nogee, an adviser to the MRET project, said the efforts of the states involved in searching for alternative energy sources should boost the nation's renewable energy production by 60 percent by 2010.

“Now the question is whether there will be an equivalent federal commitment,” he said. “We really need a federal commitment for the likelihood of any real breakthroughs.”

That is not what he is expecting, however. “There is going to be a big push by some Republicans and some Democrats that have an agenda to bring more subsidies to conventional fuels,” he said, including coal, nuclear, oil and natural gas.

Such subsidies, he said, will undermine development of renewable energy sources by artificially lowering conventional energy costs.

“We are very concerned there are likely to be new subsidies for dirty, risky energy sources,” Mr. Nogee said.

He said the current power shortages in California followed an era in which conservation programs were “slashed.” While New England is not likely to experience similar shortages now or in the near future, he said, the region is at risk of becoming overly dependent on natural gas.

“There are some serious price and reliability problems that come with becoming dependent on gas,” he said. “Half the gas plants have no backup fuel and there is not enough gas to go around in New England in the winter.”

Still, Mr. Nogee said, there is hope for alternative energy sources. Wind power, he said, “is not a fairy tale at all.” “Wind energy is probably the most rapidly developing energy source in Europe,” he said, adding that a number of offshore wind platforms already are in use there.

Mr. Nogee said the MRET project could pave the way for new energy trends. “We are very enthusiastic about the fund and the potential for making a real difference, both in the near term and the long term, by jump-starting the availability of renewable energy to Massachusetts customers,” he said.

Copyright 101 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.

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