Sun shines bright for NREL's energy executives

The 2010 Executive Energy Leadership program at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently minted 19 new "Energy Execs" ready to pursue renewable energy projects at their businesses, governments and other organizations.

The five-month leadership program gives decision makers an in-depth look at an array of renewable energy and energy efficient building technologies, as well as economic and analytical tools.  Briefings by NREL technology experts, research laboratory tours and visits to field applications are part of the monthly experience.

Energy Execs go national

Since the inception of the Energy Execs program, participants have been solely from Colorado. This year's class included participants from across the U.S.

"The Energy Execs team worked to expand this Colorado-based pilot program to one sharing NREL's renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies on a national scale," NREL Manager, Corporate Relations Janice Rooney said. "As a national laboratory, we launched this unique forum to provide a dynamic learning opportunity for a diverse group of business, government and organizational leaders.  It's exciting to see the impact our grads are having at their businesses and in their communities."

Before graduation, execs must present a viable project using renewable energy or energy efficiency that could be implemented by their organization.  Although the execs get broad exposure to many renewable energy technologies, solar solutions are piquing many leaders' interest.

Pueblo County looks to take a solar lead

Located along Interstate 25 in southern Colorado, Pueblo County is an economic hub for southeastern Colorado. Home to the city of Pueblo, also known as "Steel City," it is one of the largest steel-producing counties in the United States. But, if Pueblo County Public Works Director Greg Severance has any say, Pueblo will also adopt the moniker of solar capital.

"Our goal is to make Pueblo County the solar capital of the state," Severance said. "The wind doesn't blow hard enough down here but the shine sure shines."

Severance attended Energy Execs in 2009 and left the program with not one, but three goals in mind:

  • Install up to one megawatt (MW) of solar panels on Pueblo County buildings.
  • Contract with a company to perform energy audits and retrofits on all 26 county buildings, yielding an estimated minimum energy savings of $300,000 per year.
  • Work with local utilities to make Pueblo the renewable energy and solar capital of Colorado.

In less than a year, Severance was able to check two of the three items off his list.

Recently, the county commissioners completed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Main Street Solar to install 750 kilowatts (KW) of solar on nine county facilities. Estimated savings from the solar panels will fall in the range of $30,000 to 60,000 a year but Severance is looking more toward the future. "We've already had a 10.5 percent cost increase from Black Hills Energy (BHE) to repair old infrastructure, another 20 percent increase is projected in the next year and a half to pay off a new natural gas fired power plant BHE is currently building. Project those numbers into the future and the dollars start to add up significantly," Severance said. "Under our 20-year power-purchase agreement, in year 20, we will still be paying 2.8 cents a kilowatt-hour for our 750 KW of installed solar. Imagine what the BHE electricity costs of that energy will be in 2030?"

Getting to 750 KW of solar for the county took some ingenuity. After the initial assessment of county buildings, it was determined that of the 26 buildings, only five roofs met the criteria for solar (with the needed structural support and south facing roof slopes). Since that would not get Severance close to his goal, Main Street Power stepped up and is building carports to put the added photovoltaic (PV) panels over existing on-grade parking areas.

Severance's second goal - contracting to do energy audits and retrofits on all 26 county buildings - is also complete. The county hired Johnson Controls to analyze energy use in all 26 county buildings at a cost of $4.2 million. Under the contract, the company will look at all of the building systems and do many needed retrofits to improve energy efficiency.

"The cost of that audit is guaranteed to be paid in energy savings or the company will absorb the difference," Severance said. "We have 15-year, $5.6 million energy savings guarantee. They have to pay the difference on an annual basis. Why every governmental agency statewide is not doing this is beyond me."

With two goals accomplished, Severance has turned his focus to goal number three - working with local utilities to make Pueblo the renewable energy/solar capital of Colorado. Although the utilities have been a tougher nut to crack, Severance has been busy spreading the solar message to other community groups, and the idea is catching on. According to Severance, since Pueblo County announced its solar endeavor, the local school district is planning a 1.2 MW solar project, the YMCA is installing 500 KW, the regional building authority is adding 60 KW, and the library is installing a 42 KW PV system. "It's spreading," he added.

Despite the fact that Xcel Energy rejected a proposed partnership for a utility scale PV project in Pueblo County two years ago, Severance believes other opportunities will be forthcoming and when the day comes, he says he's laying the ground work to get as many solar companies as possible to submit bids for projects in Pueblo County.

"Pueblo is home to Xcel Energy's 1,410 MW coal-fire Comanche power plant and that electricity is already being shipped to Denver so we know it is possible to ship renewable energy from Pueblo to Denver," Severance said.

Read more: http://www.nrel.gov/features/20101019_execs.html