From: Rita Schenck [rita@iere.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 2:25 PM
To: rita@iere.org
Subject: Energy Update #13

Dear Friends:

We are learning some new things about the potential energy sources for the island. The design of the project is to look at energy technologies now and over the next 10 years, with a goal of a plan to go to all renewables at the individual building, a neighborhood and the island-wide scales.

The biggest source of renewable energy is still solar energy, by a large margin. Of course, solar energy is still the most expensive source of energy for us (about 30 cents per kilowatt hour). The good news is that solar energy technologies are becoming less expensive all the time. In working with manufacturers, they tell us that solar energy costs may well drop to 5 cents per kilowatt hour within a few years. This is significantly less than the current $6.7 cents we pay here, and much less for somewhere like California, where the solar costs may end up being about 3.5 cents compared to the current 12 cents per kilowatt hour.

The island has a potential source of biomass energy in its wood waste, solid waste and human waste streams. Unfortunately there are no currently operating technologies that are sized small enough for any one of these waste streams. We recently have had some conversations with a company that believes that it can combine all these waste streams into one. Between the cost of tipping fees and the value of energy generated, this may be a good economic solution for the island. Although this is a burn technology, there are good pollution controls, and the overall air pollution should be less than the current systems, because of the pollution from the ferries and the trucks would be avoided.

We are working with the Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES) at King County to get our anemometer tower permitted. This is taking longer than expected, because the department has evidently never permitted such a structure. Once it is in place we will be collecting wind speed and direction at three elevations off the ground. We will let you know when the tower (195 feet tall) goes up here at the Beall greenhouses. The winds are expected to be moderate to low, and we are investigating wind turbines especially designed for these wind regimes.

We are also looking into conservation energy technologies. There are so many! We are dividing these technologies into two kinds: conservation technologies whose sole purpose is to save energy (e.g., insulation) and end use technologies, which improve on existing uses, making them more energy efficient (e.g., energy star appliances).

We have begun to interview the folks at Vashon Cohousing. They are providing detailed information about their energy use, and we will be providing a plan for them to implement energy independence of the entire neighborhood.

We invite you to share this note with anyone you believe would be interested. We will gladly add the names of anyone who requests it to this mail list. Likewise, if you wish to be removed, send me a note and I'll remove your name.

Rita Schenck

Institute for Environmental Research and Education
PO Box 2449
Vashon, WA 98070
Phone 206-463-7430
Fax 206-279-1570
www.iere.org