Renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency will come to Ohio whether or not the electric utilities want it, said a bevy of speakers Monday at the first of several public forums aimed at convincing state lawmakers to end the two-year freeze on state energy standards.
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View full sizeEnergy efficiency and renewable energy businesses and advocates are among the policy makers debating Ohio's energy future. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- More than 130 packed into a small auditorium at the Great Lakes Science Center on Monday. They came to hear examples of what they already believed -- that state Republican lawmakers made a big mistake when they voted to freeze Ohio energy efficiency standards for two years and cripple renewable energy growth.
For well over two hours, more than a dozen speakers connected to alternative energy companies, energy efficiency consulting companies and major Cleveland institutions talked about business, what it has been and what it is becoming because of the passage of Senate Bill 310 last summer.
This was the first of four or five public meetings organized by the Ohio Green Energy Economy, an advocacy group hoping to persuade state lawmakers -- now beginning to consider extending or modifying the freeze - that renewable energy and energy efficiency industries are good for the state's economy and that the state's energy mandates ought to be re-instituted.
The enthusiastic crowd that came to hear some real-world examples of businesses that have flourished under the state programs appeared to have already figured that out, prompting one member of the audience to tell moderator Tom Chema that "you are preaching to the choir."
Chema, a former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, concluded that "many of the panelists have made the point subtly that there is not necessarily one solution for our energy issues and that we need to focus on every one of those different pathways and change the culture so we are not stuck with one, probably the wrong solution, to energy problems."
As speaker after speaker talked of lost opportunities the two-year freeze will cause, there was an air of optimism, as if many of the panelists believed technology itself would force the state to turn to renewable energy.
Calling SB 310 "an effort to throw sand in the gears of time," Michael Shaut, CEO of solar installation company Carbon Vision, said the effort to stop the adoption of solar energy would ultimately fail.
The fact is, he said, the installed price of solar installations has fallen from $6 or $7 a watt in 2008 to $1.71 a watt on his company's latest project.
Those plummeting prices have put solar within the grasp of more consumers, many of whom know why their electricity bills are rising and want to do something about it. They want to "disinvest" in utilities by installing solar, he said.
"Right now in Ohio, the government tried to set our energy strategy with utilities. That's not going to work long term," predicted Shaut, who was the last of 14 speakers. "People will continue to experiment. Other states will jump ahead of us, and we will pay a price for that. But ultimately, we won't stop the inexorable force going toward renewables," he said.
Tom Vinson, representing the American Wind Energy Association, said the industry has spent $890 million building wind farms in western Ohio with a total capacity of 436 megawatts and that the Ohio Power Siting Board has approved additional projects that, if built, would pour another $2.8 billion into the state's economy.
"There is plenty of potential to go above and beyond where the industry is today," he said, citing federal estimates of Ohio's potential wind power capacity. Yet Ohio trails Pennsylvania and other nearby states.
"You trail not because there isn't potential in the state. You trail because of policies," he said.
The cost of renewable-energy efficiency programs dominated the debate leading up to the passage of SB 310. The lawmakers were misinformed, said Vinson, at least with regard to wind energy.
"In terms of cost, I think a lot of politicians have in their minds the cost profile of renewable energy five or 10 years ago. The reality is, costs have come down almost 60 percent over the last five years," he said, noting that in the long term, with no fuel costs, wind is the least expensive technology.
Tom Sherman, founder and president of Sustainable Energy Services, Inc., an efficiency consulting company offering energy audits and managing efficiency upgrade projects for commercial customers, said the two-year freeze "will have the greatest effect on smaller businesses in FirstEnergy's territory" because they relied on the utility's programs to finance the upgrades at their businesses.
The freeze has even affected an industry that deals in garbage rather than wind, sunlight and efficiency projects -- landfill gas companies.
"We look at the legislative climate in a state. What we have experienced in the last year has given us pause," said Dennis Bollinger, vice president Energy Development, Inc., a company that generates electricity with methane-rich landfill gas and which doubled its investment in Ohio landfill generator projects to $110 million after lawmakers approved renewable energy mandates in 2008.
"If this can happen in Ohio at this point, what else can happen in the future that can be detrimental to our facilities," he said. "Our main concern going forward is whether Ohio is a good state to build renewable projects in."
Andrew Watterson, former sustainability chief for the City of Cleveland and now KeyBank's head of sustainability, provided additional financial dimensions of renewable energy, both in Ohio and throughout the nation.
He said the bank has invested about $1.2 billion in financing large, utility-scale solar projects across the United States with a total generating capacity of more than 5,200 megawatts.
"In Ohio, we have about 200 projects, mostly small-scale or midsized investments in renewable energy," he said.
Lorry Wagner, CEO of LEEDCo., the non-profit company trying to test the feasibility of building wind turbines in Lake Erie, where winter ice jams pose a significant problem, said the change in the law was "really all about politics so much less than about technology."
Missing from the audience were policy makers and elected officials.