Role of Renewable Energy in U.S. and World was the Hot Topic May 17, 2012

Two sides of the renewable energy marketplace were presented in the opening and closing presentations of yesterday’s Hot Topic Hour.

Paula Mints, Principal Analyst of the Solar Services Program at Navigant explained that the solar industry is growing every year but losing money every year – an unsustainable situation.

The middle speaker Thomas Maestri of Synagro described biosolids as an important underutilized source of renewable energy. 

The session concluded with Ryan Pletka of Black & Veatch giving an upbeat discussion of the renewable energy progress in California.

Mints made a case for renewable energy as a means of preserving our fossil fuel resources. Earlier Bob McIlvaine had pointed out that although there is a great deal of interest in natural gas from fracking we only have a thirty-one year supply. Mints made the case that it’s always difficult to make a change in the way we source energy.

In her summary of the current state of the industry she explained PV technology prices are stuck at artificially low levels and are held down by high levels of inventory and the reselling of that inventory, high levels of capacity, decreasing incentive rates and the expectation that prices will continue to decrease. Manufacturers are idling capacity and cancelling plans to add capacity. Mints believes prices need to stabilize or perhaps go up otherwise we will be left with few manufacturers. She sees a recovery as being several years off. Change the message on solar from cheap to high quality, safe energy was her concluding advice.

Maestri described biosolids as an abundant, reliable, carbon-neutral source of renewable energy found wherever there are people. There are 16,500 wastewater treatment plants nationwide which generate 8MM dry tons annually, or approximately 1.25 x 10¹⁴ Btu of potential energy or enough to power ~1,000,000 homes. It is currently accepted by some states as part of their Renewable Portfolio Standards programs.

There are several different energy conversion methods – drying, anaerobic digestion, gasification/pyrolysis and combustion/heat recovery. Each process has its advantages and disadvantages. The need for a heat source is a negative in the drying process but this is eliminated in cases where waste heat can be used. Anaerobic digestion is only cost effective where it is already being used to process the sludge. The resulting gas needs to be cleaned for use in an internal combustion engine but not where it is used in an open flame. Gasification needs to have economies of scale. The EPA Solid Waste Definition can be a concern but Maestri explained biosolids can be exempted through a petitioning process.

In conclusion he emphasized that today’s biosolids process technologies are proven and reliable and can be cost effective given the right applications and equally important is the need for energy independence from the viewpoint of national security.

Ryan Pletka informed listeners that renewable energy now provides five percent of California’s energy supply. This is a dramatic increase from the 1990s. Wind energy provides the largest share but strong growth is seen in solar. California has a 60,000 MW load. The RPS requires a third or 20,000 MW of that load to be met by renewable energy in 2020. Over 9,000 MW of renewable energy are operating at the present time. Pletka reported more MWs have been proposed than will be needed. He assumes some of those projects will fail but there will be no problem meeting the requirements. The market is transitioning from planning to implementation.

The cost of this electricity is only now being studied. California has always had high priced electricity so this may allow renewable energy to compete more easily. On the other side a lot of transmission and other improvements are being made which may cause rate hikes.

Jim Downey questioned whether the push against nuclear in California would lead to more renewables. Pletka agreed that this may be so but pointed out that many natural gas-fired power plants are not running at capacity.