New England colleges form solar buying partnership

A coalition of New England colleges has formed to purchase electricity from a solar farm in Farmington, Maine. The New England College Renewable Partnership describes itself as the first collaborative purchase of solar electricity in New England higher education.

The New England College Renewable Partnership includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith and Williams Colleges. According to an announcement by Amherst, Mount Holyoke and UMass Amherst had also participated in earlier discussions about the project, but later abandoned the project, while Bowdoin joined the group. 

The partnership is collaborating to purchase power from a 25-megawatt solar array under development by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources. Its predicted annual output is about 46,000 megawatt-hours, under a 20-year contract.

Each of the participating colleges describes environmental, financial, and educational benefits from the project. For example, the power purchase agreement reportedly requires that all involved colleges and their student bodies be allowed access to the project site and its data. Initial power deliveries are expected in late 2019. The colleges also cite other benefits from the project, including advancement of their sustainability and climate action initiatives.

Interest in cooperative or collaborative procurement of energy products or projects is rising. By collaborating as purchasers of solar energy, the colleges may have achieved some advantages over their options if going alone. The New England College Renewable Partnership cites its model as providing "market access that would not have been available to individual institutions, offering a scalable model that other colleges and universities can follow."Amherst's announcement explained that while each school has small energy demands, by "increasing the number of schools in the partnership, the group was able to raise the total demand for renewable energy."

Will other institutions follow this model of collaborative procurement of renewable energy?

Paris climate agreement walkthrough

On December 12, the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted Decision 1/CP.21, adopting the Paris Agreement under that convention. The Paris Agreement itself is 12 pages long, and includes a preamble and 29 articles.  Its details merit a close read, as parties spent countless hours negotiating every word and piece of punctuation in the document.  Some articles have many operative clauses and address topics like temperature change and greenhouse gas emissions, while other articles are more ministerial.  Billions of dollars, and maybe the fate of the world, rests on the terms of these legal documents and how they are implemented.

Here's a overview-level walkthrough of the Paris Agreement:

• Preamble: recognizes climate change as a "common concern of humankind" and an "urgent threat" to which an "effective and progressive response" is necessary, that least developed countries and others may have specific needs, and interactions with other social values like food security, decent work and quality jobs, and "the importance for some of the concept of 'climate justice'".
• Article 1 provides definitions for Convention, Conference of the Parties, and Party.
• Article 2 defines the Agreement's aim as "to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty," including a long-term temperature goal, a call for increased adaptation, and "making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development."
• Article 3 requires all parties "to undertake and communicate ambitious efforts as defined in Articles 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 13" as "nationally determined contributions to the global response to climate change."
• Article 4 addresses the long-term temperature goal established in Article 2.  It requires each party to "prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions that it intends to achieve" and to pursue domestic mitigation measures.  Parties are expected to increase the level of ambition reflected in their nationally determined contributions over time.  Developed country parties are expected to take the lead, while supporting developing country parties and small island developing states.
• Article 5 calls for conservation and enhancement of sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases, including forests.  
• Article 6 recognizes that some parties may choose to pursue voluntary cooperation in implementing their nationally determined contributions.  It establishes a mechanism to promote and track "internationally transferred mitigation outcomes."  It also defines a framework to promote non-market approaches.
• Article 7 establishes a global goal of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change.  It requires parties to engage in adaptation planning processes and actions.  It also requires periodic "adaptation communication" reporting to the secretariat.
• Article 8 addresses averting, minimizing, and dealing with "loss and damage" associated with the adverse effects of climate change, "including extreme weather events and slow onset events."  It uses the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts as its basis.
• Article 9 calls for developed country parties to provide financial resources to assist developing country parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation, and to take the lead in "mobilizing climate finance from a wide variety of sources, instruments, and channels."
• Article 10 promotes technology development and transfer to "improve resilience to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
• Article 11 calls for "capacity-building", to enhance the capacity and ability of developing country and vulnerable parties to take effective climate change action such as adaptation and mitigation.
• Article 12 requires cooperation on "climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information."
• Article 13 creates an "enhanced transparency framework for action and support" to build trust and confidence while allowing flexible and effective implementation.  It requires each party to regularly provide a "national inventory report of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases," and information on how it has provided financial, technology transfer and capacity-building support to other countries.
• Article 14 requires a "global stocktake" -- that the parties periodically "take stock of the implementation of this Agreement to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of this Agreement and its long-term goals."  Article 14 provides that the Conference of the Parties shall undertake its first global stocktake in 2023 and every five years thereafter unless the Conference otherwise decides.
• Article 15 establishes an expert-based committee as "a mechanism to facilitate implementation of and promote compliance with" the Paris Agreement.
• Article 16 provides procedures for aligning future meetings of parties to the Paris Agreement with the meetings of the Conference of the Parties.
• Articles 17, 18, and 19 provide procedures for the Convention secretariat, Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and Subsidiary Body for Implementation established by the Convention to also apply to the Paris Agreement.
• Article 20 provides processes for signature, ratification, acceptance, approval and accession of the Paris Agreement.
• Article 21 provides that the Paris Agreement "shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession."
• Articles 22 and 23 provide processes for adopting any amendments or annexes to the Paris Agreement.
• Article 24 governs dispute resolution.
• Article 25 provides that each party shall have one vote, and establishes a process for "regional economic integration organizations" to vote as a bloc.
• Article 26 provides that the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall be the Depositary of the Paris Agreement.
• Article 27 prohibits any reservations being made to the Agreement.
• Article 28 provides a process for a party to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
• Article 29 governs the original of the Paris Agreement.

The final language of the Paris Agreement's 29 articles, and Decision 1/CP.21 adopting the Paris Agreement, were each adopted by consensus by all of the 195 member states and the European Union participating in the COP21 summit.  Decision 1/CP.21 and the Paris Agreement will play important roles going forward as the world tackles climate change.  Their language will shape business, government, society, and the environment. 

March 23, 2011 - energy grants for schools

Schools can participate in grant and incentive programs to help them develop energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.  The possibilities are as varied as are the programs, combining federal incentives, state-level programs in most areas, and even utility-specific efficiency programs.  If it puts together a winning application, a school could receive anything from technical assistance to cash to support these projects.

The University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, serves as an example. Last year, the University's Sustainability Office received a $50,000 grant from Efficiency Maine, Maine's one-stop shopping point for energy efficiency efforts.  The University is using the grant to install a solar hot water system, along with a display to monitor the system's performance.  Due to their core mission of education, schools often combine energy efficiency and renewable technologies with educational tools about projects' value and technology.

Across the country, at any given time, a number of open requests for proposals and prescriptive incentives are available to help schools save or harness renewable energy.  Particularly when the economic value of these projects is coupled with their educational value, schools are taking a broader look at their options.

March 9, 2011 - Focus the Nation conference at NMCC

A quick blog entry today from Presque Isle, Maine.  I'm speaking at the Focus the Nation forum held at Northern Maine Community College.  NMCC was chosen to host this event by Focus the Nation, a nonprofit whose mission statement focuses on “accelerat[ing] our transformation to a clean energy future by fostering connections between generations, and empowering young people through education, civic engagement, and action”. The event fits nicely with NMCC's role as a leader in renewable energy education, offering the first wind power technician degree in New England.  I'm excited for the opportunity to speak and to get to know the students and industry leaders who will be in attendance.

July 29, 2010 - demand response; Alaska energy advisor challenged

Today's energy related snapshot: a truck hauling wood chips near the Capitol in Augusta, Maine. Woody biomass is one of Maine's major energy resources, and we see thousands of tons of it trucked across the state on a daily basis. After all, Governor Baldacci has called Maine the "Saudi Arabia of biomass".



Put on your policymaker hat and let's talk about the power grid. It is summer, and it is hot. In addition to running businesses and households as usual, people are using a lot of air conditioning. This places a large demand on the electric grid. Specifically, grid planners need to make sure there's enough generation available to cover the region's demand for electricity. Traditionally, this has included both baseload and peaking generation. Baseload generation serves the portion of electric demand that is constant throughout the year, while peaking generation is used less frequently to meet spikes in demand. In some cases, particularly where electric demand has flattened due to loss of industrial load, peaking units might not run even one day per year. (In New England, this generally doesn't disqualify them from receiving payments for the capacity value they provide. In the market makers' view, it isn't the peaking generator's fault that load diminished.)

In recent years, we've found another way to cover peak electric load without having to build an expensive new generator that may only run infrequently: demand response. In essence, demand response means covering electric load by having individuals or companies volunteer not to use power from the grid in response to peak demand conditions. In exchange, these demand response participants should be compensated -- not only for the energy they didn't use, but also for the value of the service they provide to the grid. Generally, this service has a value comparable to the corresponding amount of generation avoided. Demand response thus lowers electric rates and the cost of the electricity that is being provided into the system.

Alaska, like many states, is focusing its government on energy issues. Gov. Sean Parnell named former state senator Gene Therriault (whose district is "North Pole" - no joke) as his energy advisor -- not an unusual move. This occurred at about the same time Senator Therriault stepped down from elected office. However, there is a claim that the position of energy advisor was created during Therriault's term as an active legislator. If so, under the Alaska Constitution and state law, he could not take any state job created while he was in office for one year. An Anchorage Daily News editorial now calls for his resignation.

The Arizona Corporation Commission has adopted a strong energy efficiency and conservation standard. Arizona regulated electric utilities will be required to reduce the amount of power they sell by 22 percent over 2005 levels (adjusted for population growth) by the year 2020 through conservation and efficiency. They can take credit for efficiency projects funded since 2005. The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project led the charge for this measure; they project ratepayer savings of $9 billion over the next ten years. 2% of the savings must come from demand response.

Here's an interesting Time article on underground coal fires -- which are more widespread and emit more pollution than we may know.

In Maine, a $50,000 grant from Time Warner Cable will help fund a new energy efficiency education program at two island schools. The Island Institute is starting its "Energy for ME" program, designed to teach students about energy issues and how -- and why -- they should conserve. About 75 kids on Vinalhaven and North Haven at North Haven Community School and Vinalhaven School are expected to participate in the program next year.