NC Can Expand Renewable Energy

Report: N.C. can expand alternative energy without soaring rates
GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press


RALEIGH, N.C. - Using renewable energy resources such as wind turbines to produce a small portion of the state's electric power would help North Carolina's economy and environment while not raising customer bills dramatically, according to a report released Wednesday.The report, prepared for a legislative panel by outside consultants hired by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, said there are sufficient resources for utilities to meet a 5 percent "renewable portfolio standard" by 2017.

And the state could reach a 10 percent standard if energy efficiency programs contributed to one-quarter of that amount, the report said.In both scenarios, the increasing dependence on wind turbines, biomass energy, hydroelectric dams and other alternatives would result in a less than 1 percent increase in electric rates. But energy conservation efforts required as part of the 10 percent standard presented also would reduce retail consumption, according to the findings.

In that case, "the total average bill across the state should decline," said Jonathan Winer, a co-author of the report presented to the state Environmental Review Commission. "These are commercially available technologies."

The findings also said the 5-percent and 10-percent standard could generate a net of thousands of jobs over the next 20 years, as new renewable-related fields expand while conventional energy jobs decrease. Carbon dioxide emissions would decline by millions of tons annually, replaced in part by more benign waste, the report said.

At least 22 other states have renewable energy portfolio standards, according to the advocacy group Environmental Defense, which praised the report but said North Carolina could reach a 20 percent standard, including energy efficiency initiatives.

Renewable energy is "clearly reasonable and clearly affordable, and keeps electric rates low," said Michael Shore, a senior air policy analyst with Environmental Defense.The state's two largest electric utilities, Duke Energy Corp. and Progress Energy Corp., said their companies would review the report.

Duke Energy "strongly believes that renewable energy and energy efficiency will have much stronger roles in our portfolio in the future," company spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said.

Utilities Commission member James Kerr said his agency would receive public comments on the report and present them to the General Assembly. Legislation filed in 2005 requiring a 10 percent standard by 2016 didn't make much headway."We're not going to recommend a policy direction one way or another," Kerr said.

North Carolina already has the capacity to generate more than 2,000 megawatts of renewable power generation, equal to between 4 percent and 5 percent of the state's energy needs, the report said. The state has the practical potential to generate nearly 3,400 megawatts.The report said the renewable energy could displace current power generated through conventional production methods, such as coal, natural gas or nuclear, but it wouldn't be enough to stop traditional units from going online to handle additional capacity needs.

The report comes as Duke Energy has asked the Utilities Commission for permission to build two coal-fired power units at its Cliffside power plant on the Cleveland-Rutherford county line, tripling current capacity.

Sheehan said Duke Energy is actively pursuing efforts to identify potential renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives. The utility has experimented with one option listed in the report, burning coal and wood together in coal-fired plants. But there have been cost and production obstacles, Sheehan said.

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