Clean Energy Crossroads for South Carolina
This is a very lengthy article, but well worth the read by Eric Ward of Free Times.
Five Options for South Carolina
BY ERIC K. WARD
Through the prism of a hydrogen atom, the eyes of the nation and the world fall on Columbia and South Carolina for five days beginning Monday.
Yes, now comes another time for the city and the state to occupy a national and international spotlight.
It is not for reasons that such attention has been directed this way in the recent past, however: not for a photo of Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps or a news conference of Gov. Mark Sanford.
No, people from across the country and the globe are looking to, and trekking to, Columbia for the National Hydrogen Association’s annual conference and expo. Taking place downtown at the Convention Center, the gathering will feature workshops, speakers, tours and other events, all focused like a laser beam on the hope of hydrogen as an energy source.
Landing the conference is a big plum for the city and the state as well as the University of South Carolina, which combined have invested tens of millions of dollars in efforts to realize that hope.
Locals get an up-close look at a hydrogen-powered car at the Beltline Boulevard campus of Midlands Technical College in August. The car was among 10 emissions-free, hydrogen-fueled vehicles on display as part of a nationwide tour aimed at raising awareness of hydrogen as a source of transportation energy. File photo
“[National Hydrogen Association 2009] represents the largest and most comprehensive hydrogen conference in the U.S.,” Mayor Bob Coble and USC president Harris Pastides write in a letter to President Obama, inviting him to attend, “and we anticipate that over 1,500 of the world’s leading researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs from major energy, automotive and hydrogen/fuel cell markets will be in attendance as well as representatives of international media, to discuss and explore the latest developments of this emerging, alternative energy source.”
With the president advancing Earth-friendly energy independence for the United States as one of his priorities, conference organizers wait eagerly, and if necessary until the last minute, to know whether he or perhaps someone on his behalf, such as Energy Secretary Steven Chu, might accept the invitation.
Yet, while focus and hype will be concentrated on hydrogen during the summit, beyond the walls of the Convention Center lurk vast possibilities in other clean energy sources in the state.
That is good news to South Carolinians getting swept up in economic convulsions of the time. After all, residents of the state average some of the highest power bills in the country. And all in all, South Carolina depends on coal for 61 percent of its electricity and nuclear power for 31 percent of it, a combined 92 percent, according to a state legislative report released in February.
Those numbers could rise.
With ratepayers set up to foot the bills, the train has left the station on plans by state-owned Santee Cooper to build a coal-fired power plant in Florence County and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., in partnership with Santee Cooper, to construct two more reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant that SCE&G owns and operates near Columbia, as well as designs by Duke Energy to bring two additional nuclear reactors online in the Upstate region of South Carolina.
It is true even despite well-documented toxic pollution associated with coal- and nuclear-based power.
In that sense, then, South Carolina finds itself at two roads diverged on a path to the energy future. One road bends toward a dark past – the black seam of coal and the thousands of lifetimes of radioactive waste that is nuclear. The other way leads to a sort of last-place-to-first-place story waiting to be told:
In the affluent Heathwood neighborhood of Columbia, where drafty old mansions hold fast but inefficient, and across rural swaths of the Palmetto State, where row after row of poorly insulated manufactured homes stretch out upon the land.
In hydrogen laboratories at the university and other research and development operations in the state, where the vision of Oppenheimer has evolved from splitting the atom for extinction-level purposes to tapping the most bountiful element in the universe for its clean-energy potential.
Along the sleepy back roads of the state in forested fields and other agricultural assets, where grow enormous, renewable sources of biofuels.
Off the coast, where Mother Nature whistles strong winds atop the mighty Atlantic Ocean.
And in the sunny climate of South Carolina, where a virtually limitless solar source shines silently, lingering to be harnessed.
It is fitting then, as the city, state, nation and world hone in on hydrogen, to consider other options along with it. “I don’t think there’s any single silver bullet,” says John Clark, director of the S.C. Energy Office. “I think the key is going to be having greater diversity in energy sources than we have.”
Promoting alternative sources of transportation energy, the Palmetto State Clean Fuels Coalition displayed this school bus and five other propane-powered vehicles at the S.C. State Fairgrounds in Columbia on March 18. Photo by Graeme Fouste
Efficiency and Conservation
Foremost among the others – the first R in the reduce-reuse-recycle matrix – is curtailing waste and saving. “Actually that’s the lowest hanging fruit of all,” Clark says, describing efficiency and conservation as an energy source itself.
For South Carolinians, the savings to be had in this regard could add up to one month’s power bill many times over.
Electricity rates here hover below the national average, says Dukes Scott, director of the Office of Regulatory Staff, a state government entity responsible for representing the public interest in the regulation of utilities in South Carolina by the state Public Service Commission.
But despite having lower-than-average rates, Scott says, “Our bills are higher because we use more.”
A lot more, ranking South Carolina fifth per capita in electricity consumption, he says.
Why the disconnect?
For one thing, climate. Electricity-powered heat pumps warm most homes in South Carolina, but not so much in states with colder weather such as those in the Northeast, where natural gas and fuel oil provide most residential heating. “And then of course we have a higher air conditioning load as well,” Scott says, referring to the famously – some say ridiculously – hot and humid weather in these parts.
For another thing, income. It is low here compared to much of the rest of the nation. And, Scott says, “Energy efficiency costs money.”
Indeed, things like storm windows are not inexpensive.
Air-leaky mobile homes – “which we still have an abundance of,” Scott notes – exemplify the state’s wealth gap.
The good news?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that Obama championed through Congress in February will channel $109.4 million to South Carolina for efficiency and conservation projects. Of that, nearly $59 million will be dedicated to weatherization, allowing “an average investment of up to $6,500 per home in energy efficiency upgrades and will be available for families making up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level – or about $44,000 a year for a family of four,” says a March 12 news release from the White House Office of Media Affairs.
The rest of the money will pay for home energy audits, bettering state and local government buildings and related undertakings.
But there’s more.
Federal tax credits set to expire in 2007 have been extended through this year. The credits can be claimed for home improvements such as additional insulation and new windows, doors and heating and cooling systems.
Similarly, the General Assembly overrode a Sanford veto in June and passed tax credits for purchasing efficient manufactured homes and buying and installing small hydroelectric systems.
Even some power companies are getting in on the act, albeit to one degree or another because of coercion.
In February, the Public Service Commission rejected a Duke conservation plan as inadequate and ordered SCE&G to explore ways to do more in the area of saving energy.
For its part, Santee Cooper is working toward a self-set ginormous goal of generating 40 percent of the energy it produces from clean sources by 2020. The Santee Cooper board on Feb. 23 agreed to spend more than $113 million on the initiative through 2013.
Hydrogen
If things continue as they have been going, investments in hydrogen R&D in the state could match or exceed that amount by then.
“Since 2006, South Carolina has invested over $50 million to build an innovation pipeline for hydrogen and fuel cell development,” says the web site of the hydrogen conference.
Organizers of the event expect it to pump about $1.5 million into the local economy. In addition to that, it promises to infuse the Capital City with energy of another kind – human – and offers some just plain cool attractions, notably a public day April 1.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on public day, people can get into the conference at no charge and ride and drive hydrogen-powered vehicles and check out all manner of high-tech gadgets like robots.
View the full agenda at hydrogenconference.org.
Partners in the state’s hydrogen endeavor form a veritable armada, from the S.C. Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Alliance – a public-private umbrella entity – and the USC Columbia Technology Incubator to EngenuitySC – a government-free market venture devoted to growing a knowledge-based economy in the Columbia area – and the Savannah River National Laboratory, the R&D arm of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site nuclear weapons plant near Aiken.
Evident not only in the conference coming to town, but also in hard science and economics, the state’s investments in hydrogen are beginning to pay off.
Millions of dollars in grants have been awarded to USC and other parties. Trulite, a local manufacturer of fuel cell-powered generators, and other entrepreneurial ventures have taken root. And projects have come to fruition. Those include a $1.3 million hydrogen fueling station downtown off Huger Street near Interstate 126 and the scoreboard at USC’s new baseball stadium, partly powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.
The big question is whether the money spent will yield a proportionate return. More than a little skepticism pervades the quest for hydrogen as to whether it offers a realistically attainable source of clean energy.
Some experts dismiss it outright.
“Many of the technical hurdles and shortcomings are usually left out of the conversation,” says the article “Myths & Realities About Hydrogen Fuel” on the web site of the nonprofit National Capital Area Skeptics organization, which says it promotes critical thinking and scientific understanding. “The very claim that hydrogen is abundant and pollution free is a matter of interpretation.”
Other observers take a more cautiously optimistic view.
“It’s a technology whose time will come and is coming,” Clark says. “I see hydrogen more as an economic development mechanism, because it’s still in the R and D and demonstration phase right now.”
Still other followers of energy issues see a menacing side to hydrogen.
“Behind the hydrogen curtain is nuclear power,” says Tom Clements, referring to the Savannah River Site’s role in the state’s hydrogen gamble. Based in Columbia, Clements coordinates nuclear issues in the Southeast for Friends of the Earth, a national environmental group.
Argand Energy Solutions co-founder Chris Salmon makes a point about some of the wind and solar company’s equipment at the Argand headquarters in Columbia. Photo by Graeme Fouste
Biofuels
When it comes to biofuels in South Carolina, far less debate surrounds their possibilities.
“With regard to biomass, there’s huge potential,” Clark says, using another term for the energy source.
One of the biggest advantages of biomass is that it can be used to fuel transportation – with ethanol from the traditional source of corn as well as more newly conceived of resources like switch grass and even that viny curse of the South, kudzu – and to generate electricity at power plants.
“We’re talking about woody plant material,” South Carolina Sierra Club director John Ramsburgh says of the latter.
It’s no secret that carbon dioxide emissions, mostly from coal-fired power plants, are changing global climate patterns by warming the planet. And that’s the beauty of biomass. “You can co-fire a coal plant with it and it’s carbon neutral,” Ramsburgh says.
Through the photosynthesis process, plants and trees turn CO2 into oxygen and store it.
Then when biomass is burned it releases the carbon dioxide it had sequestered. “But it’s the same CO2 that was captured during the life of the plant,” Ramsburgh says, explaining the neutral aspect of biofuels.
As it follows, everybody wins with biomass, from the environment, utilities and their customers to the economy and farmers and timber companies.
One arguable exception: corn-based ethanol, which drives up food prices and requires large quantities of energy to produce.
In any case, agribusiness vies with tourism as the largest industry in South Carolina, blessing the state with tremendous biomass reserves.
“Wood and wood waste is a huge resource in South Carolina,” Clark says, “and we need to put it to better use. There’s a lot of it that’s just going to waste right now.”
He estimates that amount to be as high as 50 percent – left for dead, literally, on the ground.
On the upside, biofuels are gaining traction in the state.
A handful of biomass plants are operating here, including one at USC. And, in a big step toward its 40-percent-green-by-2020-goal, Santee Cooper has agreed to buy 50 megawatts from a $170 million facility that Rollcast Energy, a Charlotte-based biomass plant company, plans to build in Newberry County. It is scheduled to begin operating by 2011, according to the Energy Office.
To put 50 megawatts into perspective, a typical new coal-fired power plant can generate 600 megawatts, Clark says.
Wind
Near the other end of the spectrum, an average windmill – standing about 325 feet tall and looking all futuristic – is capable of churning out 2 to 3 megawatts, he says.
But as the cliché holds, there is strength in numbers, in this case in a vision of windmill farms along the coast.
“Offshore wind has a lot of potential,” Clark says.
How much?
Some 1,000 to 5,000 megawatts by 2030, the Department of Energy projects.
Nick Rigas, vice president of EcoEnergy, a wind energy development company headquartered in Chicago, spoke in Columbia on March 5 about that possibility. “There are very good winds to develop,” especially from Charleston northward, Rigas said.
EngenuitySC and USC sponsored the talk as part of a “science café” public presentation series they have been conducting.
Ramsburgh points to a Sasquatch-sized report as another testimonial to the state’s wind prospects.
“South Carolina has substantial renewable energy resource potential in the form of biomass and both onshore and offshore wind energy,” says the report, 583 pages from the
Governor’s Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee to Sanford in July. He issued an executive order creating the committee and charging it with recommending ways to mitigate climate-changing emissions in the state.
Having recognized South Carolina’s wind opportunity, the Department of Energy in October gave the state a $500,000 grant to study it. A team that includes Santee Cooper and EcoEnergy will conduct the inquiry.
A side benefit of windmill farms: They create artificial reefs.
USC electrical engineering professor Roger Dougal stands next to a hydrogen fuel cell that helps power the scoreboard at the university’s new baseball stadium. Dougal was the principal designer of the fuel cell. Courtesy photo
Solar
As for solar, there is nothing artificial about it, and it too holds promise here.
Ramsburgh says South Carolina is the 13th sunniest state.
Says Clark, “Our sun cover is pretty good.”
Granted, it’s not like the Southwest, a place he ranks as the No. 1 sun spot in the country.
But, Clark says, “We’ve got a lot more than Germany, which is the leading solar user in the world.”
In a hopeful sign beyond government incentives, some private-sector activity has taken off around the source.
Witness Columbia-based Argand Energy Solutions, a wind and solar company operating in the Carolinas. Erik Lensch, president of Argand, attended a recent speech Obama delivered at the White House on the nation’s small-business economy. “Today the president took measures to strengthen access to capital for small business,” Lensch says in a news release.
Although solar is a natural electricity source for buildings, it does not offer the same megawatt supply as, say, biomass.
“I don’t think solar is going to be the panacea,” Clark says. “I think it’s always gonna be a niche player.”
Moreover, like wind, and unlike hydrogen and biomass, solar does not present viable crossover options for transportation, he says.
Regardless, and South Carolina’s collective efforts at hydrogen notwithstanding, solar and the other aforementioned green energy availabilities are waiting to be had in the state, even as it plows ahead toward more coal and nuclear.
That while unemployment here ranks second highest among the states and a 2007 report, by the Blue Green Alliance of labor unions and environmental groups, showing that more than 22,000 jobs could be created in South Carolina by developing clean energy collects dust.
“I mean it’s baffling,” Ramsburgh says, ascribing the boat missing to “a lack of political will and a lack of leadership” by the Legislature, the Public Service Commission and utilities “to make our state energy efficient.”
Be that as it may, there is political will and leadership at the national level on that score. And that just might be enough to push, pull and drag slowpoke South Carolina down the road to penning that heretofore unwritten last-place-to-first-place story.
via FreeTimes
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