Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

Boulder, Colorado, decides to municipalize its power grid

Boulder, Colorado has long been a national leader in trying to become more sustainable.  The latest entry in this effort is focused on electricity in the city.  The city's electricity is supplied by a private company, Xcel Energy, but over the last few years city leaders and residents have gotten increasingly frustrated with the company. From what I understand, the city has wanted Xcel to work with it to increase the city's portfolio of renewable energy to 40%, but the company has only been willing to go to 30%, what is required by state law. When Xcel embarked on a project to make Boulder the "SmarGridCity," apparently the city became very unhappy with the cost and design of the result. So last November, ballot questions passed that would allow the city to take control of the city's electric grid so that it can municipalize the delivery and possibly the generation of electricity.  It apparently intends to do this through condemnation proceedings.  Of course, Xcel is not taking this in stride, doing what it can to make this difficult or impossible.  This is certainly worth watching.  For more information, read the article here.

Tufts 2012 Energy Conference

The 2012 Energy Conference at Tufts will be held on April 20 and 21 in Medford.  I have agreed to be one of the judges for the "Energy Competition," where students can submit projects and ideas and win a $5,000 prize.  The deadline for entering the competition is March 1.  But the full conference promises to bring together a terrific array of experts about energy. Go to the conference web site for more information.

Debate and Recent Research on Solar in LA

Zach Cuttler sent along this link to an article from the LA Business Council's recent report on the so-called Feed-in Tariff for the city and county of LA.  LA is debating whether and how to design a program where residents and businesses can, on a large scale, install rooftop solar panels and sell the electricity. This report, produced with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, suggests that about 11,000 local jobs would be created by such a program, and there would be substantial long-term savings on electric bills.

Wind Energy in Urban Areas

One of the challenges confronting efforts to expand green energy in major cities is that it is often not appropriate to site typical wind turbines on downtown high rise buildings, especially in the northern climes.  Propeller-type turbines often cannot handle the swirling winds that occur in cities, and they frequently shed ice that builds up during periods of relative calm.  Fortunately, there are a number of different parties working on the design of new types of wind turbines that don't have these problems.  One of my favorites is the work of Aerotecture in Chicago, which has two designs -- a vertical shaft version and a horizontal shaft version -- that seem to be very effective where propeller turbines are not.  Although these turbines are only now being field tested, they have installed one of their larger horizontal turbines on the roof of the Mercy Lakefront project. 

The Cost of "Going Green"

I saw a recent USAToday story that reports on how expensive it is for municipalities to "go green" especially with respect to energy. The story highlights a recent decision in Durango, CO, to drop its effort to purchase green electricity in favor of fossil fuel-generated electricity because it saved $45,000 a year in the process.  I found the story to be somewhat frustrating on two fronts. First, it provides a fairly accurate picture of the financial challenges faced by many municipalities. Second, the story does not discuss the myriad ways that municipalities could save money through energy conservation and alternative energy.  But most of all, the story does not explain how it is that fossil-fuel generated electricity continues to be cheaper (or at least the immediate nominal cost seems to be lower) than alternatives.  Of course, in many states we have created a system that heavily privileges non-renewable energy sources over alternatives, and we pretend that the result is purely market driven.  Thankfully, this is an issue that is being addressed in cities and states around the country, and the Obama administration has decided to tackle as well.  I will have much more to say about the role of municipalities in a national energy strategy in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, if you have a chance to read the article and post your thoughts, that would be great.

Waxman-Markey Proposed Clean Energy Legislation

Congressmen Henry Waxman and Ed Markey (MC for the district where half of Tufts is located) recently released a discussion draft of proposed new legislation on clean energy.  The bill would be called The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a 648 document that really provides pretty thorough effort.  It proposes to establish a system through which carbon emissions can be measured and reduced, and funds extensive research and development efforts.

I must confess that as important as this legislation would be, and even with all the criticisms I have heard so far, I get the sense that at least with respect to a specific role for local governments, this represents a  real loss of opportunity.  I confess that I haven't read the entire document yet (my computer runs out of memory when I try to view the whole document), I don't see any clear municipal role.  Subnational government involvement seems to be focused on states.  State governments are obviously important, but to leave out an expressed role (and perhaps funding) for local government seems to me to be a mistake.  Local governments have already expressed willingness to engage in many of the activities outlined in this Act, and only a handful states have done so.  What do you think?  Is a role for municipal government realistic? Should that role be made more explicit in this Act?

Global Green Infrastructure Conference at Tufts

I have been recruited to moderate a panel at the 4th Annual Tufts Energy conference on Saturday March 29. This is a conference sponsored by the Tufts Energy Forum and co-sponsored by the Institute for Global Leadership and the Tufts Climate Solutions Coalition.  The panel I am going to moderate is called "Revitalizing National Infrastructure," and it is scheduled to include Suzanne Watson from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Alan Nogee from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Penny Connor from NSTAR, Evan Sanders from A123 Systems, and Watson Collins from NE Utilities.  Take a look at the full program for more information. Download The 4th Annual Tufts Energy Conference Agenda

This conference is not explicitly focused on local energy issues or sustainability, per se, but it clearly has implications for cities and towns around the world.  After the conference, I'll post some thoughts about the discussions.  If you're in the Boston area, I hope you can attend.