NC GreenPower

The Canary Coalition Position

The NC Green Power program holds great promise. Its success, however, depends on public perception and the ability of the business/industrial community to distinguish between the two products that are being offered. The Premium Small Volume product is very worthwhile and could help greatly in bringing renewable energy resources to the forefront in North Carolina. But, the Large Volume product, while less costly per kilowatt, does not do much to promote the best renewable technologies, while incorporating environmentally borderline, and, in some cases, detrimental technologies.

The Small Volume Premium Product – The Real Thing

Both residential and industrial electric ratepayers will have the option each month of paying four dollars extra for a block of 100 kilowatt hours that will go toward producing solar, wind and methane gas-powered electrical generating facilities. By the third year of the program a minimum of 15% of the production capacity of this program will be from solar or wind energy sources. The remaining 85% will be derived from methane gas extracted from landfills and industrial animal farm waste.

Solar and wind are the two most clean and preferable renewable energy sources available. But, solar, at this stage of its development, is very expensive. Wind is becoming very economical, but there are political obstacles to overcome in the siting of wind farms in the geographical areas where the greatest wind potential exists, in the western mountains of North Carolina. Methane is a clean burning fuel relative to coal and other combustibles. This gas burns at an efficiency of 99.5+%. The methane extraction, purification and combustion process is less expensive and more readily available than either solar or wind, at this stage. It will therefore carry the program economically, allowing the concurrent development of the more preferable technologies, while having a minimal impact on the environment.

There is an added benefit to the environment in burning methane from landfills. Methane is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. Currently the methane from most landfills simply escapes into the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Capturing the methane and using it as a fuel reduces this effect. A note of caution about this part of the program is that our endorsement of the use of landfill methane is not meant to be an encouragement for the creation of new landfills. Rather, it is an encouragement to reduce one aspect of the environmental hazard caused by existing landfills and turning one of the hazardous by-products of landfilling into a useful and clean source of energy. The environmental community needs to remain vigilant in working to reduce all waste streams and in encouraging an end to the practice of landfilling.

Likewise, the use of methane extracted from industrial farm animal waste poses a moral dilemma. The purpose of the Canary Coalition in supporting this part of the program is not to promote the farm animal industry. Rather it is the acknowledgement that a severe health and environmental hazard exists from current methods of dealing with farm animal waste. This problem was dramatically highlighted by the floods following Hurricane Hugo as the hog waste ponds spilled over onto roads and into rivers and creeks threatening the health of nearby communities. It is our hope that if several prototype animal waste-to-methane plants are successful, it will become the mandated norm of the industry. The added expense of purchasing and operating this equipment, just to start up, may be enough to discourage many farmers from going into the hog business.

All facilities funded by the Small-Volume Premium product of the NC Green Power program will be new sources, not previously contributing electrons to the power grid. These facilities will have to meet the standards agreed upon under the guidance of the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), an independent accreditation group chosen by all parties, including the participating environmental organizations, during the negotiating process of developing this program.

The Small-Volume Premium product is a good program. It leads the way to a better future, holding out the promise of opening new markets for solar and wind energy while funding the development of these resources. This could be the type of market breakthrough that is necessary to get these technologies off the ground in North Carolina. If our efforts are truly successful in promoting this product it will lead to an economy of scale that will drive the costs of these technologies down and lead to further major advances. The campaign to promote this program, itself, will be a worthwhile educational venture, that has the potential to awaken public interest and fervor for a renewable replacement to the current paradigm of coal, nuclear power, energy inefficiency and wastefulness.

The visual reality of wind farms and solar fields will change minds and generate a new political atmosphere in North Carolina and elsewhere. The Canary Coalition whole-heartedly endorses the Small-Volume Premium product of NC Greenpower. 

The Large Volume Product- Not so New; Not so Green

This product is meant for industrial electric rate-payers who will be given the option to purchase at least 10,000 kilowatt/hours per month of energy at $2.50 per 100 kilowatt/hours, produced from solar, wind, small-scale hydro electric, methane, direct combustion of animal waste, wood waste, and land clearing debris. This product did not meet the standards of CRS and is therefore not accredited by this independent accreditation group. Instead the program’s promoters chose to use a different third party accreditation group, Environmental Resources Trust, Inc. (ERT), who did not receive the approval of most of the environmental groups involved in the NC Green Power negotiating process.

One glaring problem with the Large Volume Product is that both the small-scale hydro and wood waste components will include facilities that have been in use for many years. Customers are asked to voluntarily spend more money to subsidize generating sources that previously had come at no additional cost. This is an unrealistic and unreasonable request.

The solar/wind component of the Large Volume Product is only 2-3%. This hardly justifies the other more environmentally questionable technologies that the program leans on so heavily to lower the overall price.

Several of the older hydro dams (some are very old) are badly in need of major repair. It is questionable whether this investment is worthwhile for a Green Energy program given the considerable impact these dams have on the eco-system. Existing small-scale hydro will account for as much as 30 percent of the generating capacity supplied by the Large-Volume product.

The wood waste facilities pose a different type of question, making it doubtful that this source belongs in a program calling itself Green. Most of the waste burned in these facilities is a by-product of large-scale commercial lumber mills that utilize damaging forestry practices, such as clear cutting and mono-cultural replacement planting, to get their raw materials. The clear-cutting and wood harvesting are not performed directly with the purpose of feeding the wood waste burners. But, what will happen if there is a severe economic downturn in the future and the lumber mills stop providing fuel for these facilities? Will the owners willingly close up shop and lose money, or will they search for other sources of wood to burn, for instance, by attacking national forest lands and cutting down trees? Another problem with this source of energy is that urban wood waste, that is diverted from C&D landfills, is included in the mix. This opens the possibility that glues, formaldehyde, heavy metals, pesticides herbicides and other toxic impurities will be incinerated and become either airborne or concentrated in the ash.

Including the direct combustion of animal waste in this program makes a poor product worse. Incineration is not an environmentally sound practice. It is dirty and wasteful of resources that could more effectively be used to replenish soil and replace damaging chemical fertilizers. Including direct combustion of animal waste in this program also provides an unnecessary subsidy to industries that have poor environmental practices.

The Canary Coalition cannot promote or support the Large Volume Product being offered by NC Green Power.

Conclusion – Save the Baby; Out with the Bath Water

There may be confusion in the media passed down to ratepayers about the two products being offered by NC Green Power. But, this is not a good reason to throw out the baby with the bath water. The Premium Small-Volume Product provides us with a chance to make something very good happen. It will take effort for it to be successful. It is our challenge to clearly define the differences between the two programs in the public mind. It’s better to have this challenge, with great possible rewards for success, than it is to have no such program and be stuck in the quagmire, with no clear path to follow, while the relentless destruction of the environment continues.

A shortcoming of the entire program is the absence of a formal economic incentive that encourages energy conservation and efficiency. Conservation has no negative environmental impact. Energy efficiency measures, in general, have a minimal environmental impact with a net gain. There can be no question that these two components are the most important policies to promote in changing the paradigm of energy production in North Carolina and the rest of the industrialized world. So, while we strongly endorse the implementation of the technologies advanced in the Premium Small-Volume product, we also take the responsibility to couple this effort with an educational campaign that promotes conservation and energy efficiency. The economic benefit is self-realizing for those who decide to take these measures.

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