Northern California establishing itself as global leader in renewable energies

I spent over 20 years working with wind and other forms of renewable energy and I know the great potential that clean energy offers to help improve our environment and our economy.  That’s why I was so glad to be at the dedication last Friday of the brand new solar farm at the South San Joaquin Irrigation District’s DeGroot Water Treatment Plant.  The solar installation will power the water treatment plant, which helps provide drinking water to Manteca, Tracy and Lathrop.

You can reach the Manteca Bulletin’s write up of the event here.

That's just one exciting report of how our region is moving quickly to adopt smarter renewable energy practices. There are many more, including:

Last week's Sacramento Bee story of Del Oro High School in Loomis, which is set to produce nearly 40 percent of its energy through use of rooftop solar panels.

June 12's report on BART's announcement of its plans to fuel the Orinda station using solar panels as well, built atop carports. Not only will these carports provide electricity to run the station, they will also provide shade for 25 or more cars!

March's coverage of Diane and John Scrempos' big first: they became the first to own a residential windmill that connects to PG&E's power grid in Santa Clara County.

There is more to be done, of course, and economists estimate that hundreds of thousands of new, clean energy jobs will be created in the United States in the next few years – with our region at the forefront. Being the leader in this exciting field will mean tremendous “green-collar” job growth right here at home – jobs that pay a family wage and cannot be exported. 

Innovations like these are only possible with support from local, state, and federal governments.

Since arriving in Washington, I pushed to renew a series of tax credits that encourage the use and production of wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other types of renewable energy.  With my career in wind energy, I know firsthand how critical production and investment tax credits have been in spurring renewable energy use and production.  These tax credits helped turn a once fledgling portion of the energy sector into a major player.  In fact, the massive renewable energy job growth that has been forecast will not take place without the extension of the credits.  Fortunately, with my efforts and those of many others, the House of Representatives passed several different pieces of legislation to extend the credits, meaning the clean energy sector will continue to grow.

I will continue to work for smarter renewable energy policies that will ensure more renewable energy use and production, not just here in Northern California, but nationwide.

Comments

[Robert Steinhaus]

Dear Jerry,

I applaud efforts to develop carbon free renewable energy. Deriving a larger percentage of our energy from solar, wind, and hydro-electric sources should reduce our energy dependence on foreign oil and improve the effectiveness of our participation in gradually controlling global warming. Unfortunately, I do not feel that there is any renewable technology currently on the horizon that can be economically scaled to replace the electrical power generation through coal, oil, and natural gas which currently provides the majority of our commercial power generation in this country. The only technology of which I am aware that can economically replace current high carbon impact power generation (coal, oil, and natural gas) is nuclear power. Solar technology scaled to replace existing high carbon footprint power generation (coal, oil, and natural gas) to published best estimate would cost between four to eight times the cost of nuclear power. Renewable energy solutions also require a double energy infrastructure investment. It is first necessary to purchase the relatively expensive solar panels, solar thermal generators, or windmills. You must then backup these renewable energy plants with full capacity backups capable of providing power to the grid during the times the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow. You could use high carbon footprint technologies like coal, oil, or natural gas as backups to renewable if you want. It is also possible to consider nuclear power plants to provide capacity backup to your renewables during the times of the day renewables are providing only small amounts of power into the power grid. Since nuclear energy produces large amounts of energy economically on a 24/7 basis and produces no greenhouse gas it makes some sense to consider nuclear an excellent prospect as a backup to renewable energy during the times renewable sources are unable to produce power.

I think it will take our best efforts to press ahead to develop all of the energy alternatives to hope to meet the needs of the citizens of California in the next couple of decades. I also like renewable energy as you do but I fear we will fall significantly short of the state's energy needs if we restrict ourselves to renewables only. I hope you consider modern, safer, nuclear power as a backup to renewables for the times renewables are not available (the sun does not shine or the wind blow). The best modern fission reactor designs can be operated to not generate any significant amount of long lived high level nuclear waste. Advanced modern reactors like the Idaho National Lab's Integral Fast Reactor burns the long term fission products (minor actinides and plutonium) so the nuclear fuel decays to the benign level of natural uranium within 200 years. This is a significant improvement over conventional one-pass through Light Water Reactors that require a geological repository like Yucca Mountain to place their long term wastes.

Thanks for your hard work on renewable energy. I share your vision for a energy self sufficient California. Please do not ignore the virtues of modern nuclear power as a potential backup to the renewables to make the total energy mix work for all Californians.

Sincerely, Robert Steinhaus
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Retired)

[Kent L.]

Dear Jerry,

While I also applaud your efforts on behalf of renewable energy, and give thanks every day that you are in office and not your predecessor, I have to raise some questions about those very same wind turbines I believe you are standing in front of in your picture.
As reported by the Oakland Tribune on 7/24/2008 (url: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_9977958?source=rss), from October 2005 to October 2007, the deaths among four raptors studied at Altamont Pass - golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, American kestrels and burrowing owls - increased 27 percent overall.
A total of 2,236 raptors were killed annually during the study period. The review committee consisting of representatives from Golden Gate Audobon Society, Californians for Renewable Energy and four other Audobon chapters stated that "wind power companies have not done enough to achieve a 50 percent reduction in raptor deaths by November 2009," as was agreed according to the Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP).

Meanwhile, wind power companies operating at Altamont have shown a consistent pattern of delay and lack of cooperation in implementing the terms of the NCCP agreement, specifically removing derelict turbines, and shutting down the highest-mortality turbines.

My question is, what is being done about these wind companies and their callous behavior in regards to avian death? Why are they not being held accountable by your office and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors?

I know renewable energy is important, but when a company like FPL energy is operating like a slum lord of the environment, I think even advocates for renewable energy need to say, "Enough is enough."