Green, Solar & Wind Power

Green Generators The largest wind energy meeting ever held in the United States will occur in Portland today through Wednesday at the Oregon Convention Center. The size of the meeting -- registration has topped 1,500 -- confirms the Pacific Northwest's prominence in a rapidly growing industry, said Randy Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, a co-sponsor.

The gentle curves of the Spiral Solar Wind Chime will come alive with the power of the sun, chiming softly to help your day along.

Solar Panel Other states have stronger winds, North and South Dakota among them. But experts agree that Oregon and Washington have unusual attributes that benefit wind energy development.

Stateline Wind Facility (Walla Walla County, WA; Umatilla County, OR) Summerview Wind Facility (Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada) Tillamook Animal Waste to Energy (Tillamook, OR) Washington State School for the Blind (Vancouver, WA) Hanford (White Bluffs, WA) The above facilities replace our energy consumption by supplying the power grid with our equivalent energy requirements of 100% green energy from wind and solar energy providers.

Epa Greenpower Utilities say they're thrilled by the number of consumers who have volunteered to pay extra for power produced by environmentally friendly generators such as wind turbines or solar panels. And the Northwest is home to the federal Bonneville Power Administration, utilities, private businesses and nonprofit groups willing to invest in so-called "green" energy resources.

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Wind Energy "I think it's real important that we try to be less dependent on oil and fossil fuels," said Ron Rubin, a real estate developer who recently signed up through Portland General Electric to buy 100 percent renewable power for his Queen Anne Victorian in Northwest Portland.

If you're planning to build a new home, you can use some of the bigger aspects of building green. used or recycled building materials, you can lessen the impact that you have. You can also choose environmentally friendly insulation like recycled newspaper or cotton. Try using as many materials as you can that are refurbished and not new. Install heating systems that are powered by solar power and electrical circuits that require wind power, for example.

Solar PGE reports that 12,588 households --1.9 percent of its residential customers -- have chosen one of its renewable options. Pacific Power says 8,467 households --1.7 percent of its residential customers -- have agreed to pay a premium for renewable power.

The decorative combination of wind chime and solar light will provide a pleasing feature in any garden. The central crystal of the wind chime is illuminated by a solar powered LED at night and will catch the sunlight during the day. The LED automatically lights in darkness giving up to 8 hours of light each night when fully charged. Powered by an integrated solar panel the wind chime solar light includes a beautiful shepherds crook and mounting stake. simply install and enjoy! Diameter 13cm, Height 92 cm.

Nuclear Power A subscribing PGE and Pacific Power household will, depending on the option chosen, spend about $3 to $10 more each month. The utilities cannot guaran tee, however, that only electricity generated by a wind farm will be delivered to each renewable customer's home.

Greenpower Inc Through an agreement with Texas-based Green Mountain Energy, however, PGE and Pacific Power can guarantee that an equivalent amount of energy generated from a renewable resource will be delivered to the Western power grid.

Solar Electricity Although 1.7 percent and 1.9 percent participation rates seem small, Barbara Farhar, a social scientist with the federal government's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, called them "very, very good." She suggested that more will sign on as public education and marketing continue, which would put the Northwest ahead of others.

Power Greene Green Mountain Energy, 23 percent owned by British Petroleum, markets renewable power in seven states, one of them Oregon. John Savage, vice president of business development, said Green Mountain found Oregon consumers to be sophisticated about energy issues.

Green Electric "What we find is that customers don't understand what renewable energy is," he said. "That's a new term for them. But in Oregon, people understood it."

Am Greenpower The producers Last year's energy crisis, which drove wholesale electricity from $25 a megawatt hour to more than $400, was a boon for wind energy. It became possible for wind generators to deliver electricity at a price competitive with power from natural gas and coal-fired plants.

Renewable Electricity Since 1998, new Northwest wind projects have added enough power to the grid to serve 100,000 homes. And more is on the way.

Green Company Bonneville says feasibility studies are under way on 16 proposed Northwest wind projects, all seeking access to BPA transmission lines. The list includes a 600-megawatt wind farm proposed by a California company. If built, it would supply about 150,000 homes with electricity and be about twice as large as any wind farm operating in the region.

Led Greenpower With wholesale power prices falling as fast as they climbed last year, BPA and the Northwest Power Planning Council expect that a number of the projects won't be built. Even so, there's a substantial amount of activity surrounding wind power development, said Jeff King, senior resource analyst with the planning council, which advises BPA.

Alternative Energy In April, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems announced plans to build in Portland what will be its largest manufacturing plant. The company expects to hire as many as 1,000 people and said proximity to new Northwest wind projects factored into the decision.

Green Products The players An unusual cast has assembled to develop wind and other renewable power projects in the Northwest. They include a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Norwich, Vt., that bought 150 "green tags" from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

Green Powers The nonprofit foundation uses the money it raises selling green tags to help build and market new renewable generators in the Northwest. Green tag buyers are not buying the power directly. They're buying the environmental benefits that come from supporting renewable power development.

Greenpower Conferences Members of her church are concerned about global warming, said Claudia Kern, chairwoman of the Sustainability Action Group for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Vermont. They agreed that buying renewable energy would be the right thing to do.

Go Green Problem: No one in Vermont sells renewable power, so the group decided its next best choice would be to support an organization that does -- even if that organization and those power projects are more than 3,000 miles away, in Portland.

Green Homes Energy Northwest, which operates the only nuclear power plant in the Northwest, also has committed itself to the cause. It unveiled the largest public power solar station in the Northwest last week and is building a wind farm southeast of Kennewick that will serve about 12,000 homes.

Greenpower Kempo That's just the first of wind projects planned for the region, said Vic Parrish, Energy Northwest's chief executive officer.

Green Fuel "My goal is to drive this organization so that, 50 years in the future, people will look at our history and say those guys made good decisions in terms of the environment."

Renewable Power Rachel Shimshak, director of the Renewable Northwest Project, also has a goal.

Powered Greens After working for several years to raise awareness to renewable power, Shimshak hopes to sustain the momentum that brought the largest U.S. wind energy industry meeting to Portland this week.

Wd Greenpower "My biggest fear is that people will have amnesia," she said. "That energy managers will forget that we had a huge crisis, and that they won't step back and look at the big picture."

Green Living Michelle Cole
Oregonian - 6/3/2002

Topic: Energy

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