Rewiring the Northwest's Energy Infrastructure

Rewiring the Northwest's Energy Infrastructure Key facts and innovative models from the report: Going 100% Renewable • Vancouver, British Columbia has committed to supplying all energy needs of residents, institutions and businesses with 100% renewables across electricity, heating, and transportation. • Over 700 organizations now using green power to meet 100% of their electricity demand, “equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 1.5 million average American households each year,” says the Environmental Protection Administration. • “A 100% wind, water, sunlight (WWS) all-sector energy plan for Washington State,” produced by a team led by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, found the state possesses more than enough renewable energy to meet its total energy demand across all uses. The plan would reduce energy costs over $300 a year on average for a family of four. Researchers estimated that eliminating most energy-related air pollution will save Washingtonians over $10 billion a year on health costs. Solar • The costs for installed solar electric power have dropped dramatically – by 6-8% per year on average – each year since 1998, with more cost declines to come. • If solar costs continue to decline as expected, and with the 30% federal solar tax credit extension passed by the U.S. Congress in December 2015, over 10,000 megawatts of solar capacity will reach ‘grid parity’ in Washington and Oregon by 2020, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. • In 2016, a new distributed solar PV system will be installed every 83 seconds in the United States, according to projections by GTM Research. Of all new electricity generation capacity brought online in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2015, over half was solar power. • Northwest utilities including Milton-Freewater, Tacoma Power, Seattle City Light, and Mason PUD #3 offer opportunities for their customers to buy shares in local community solar projects. Wind • Yearly global additions of new wind resources grew from less than 4,000 megawatts in 2000 to almost a yearly average of 40,000 megawatts over the past five years. • In Oregon and Washington about 6,000 megawatts of wind power have been installed, now supplying over 12% of Oregon electricity, over 6% in Washington and 18% in Idaho Vehicle Electrification • Led by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, market competition is now driving a race to mainstream electric vehicles (EVs). Incumbent automakers are competing with Tesla to bring affordable EVs to a mass market. Musk says he’s confident EVs will match or beat the price of comparable oil-powered cars within 10 years. • The Dutch rail network, which handles 1.2 million passenger trips per day, has signed a contract to supply 100% of its electricity from wind power by 2018. In the US proposals to electrify rail corridors are beginning to emerge. Solutionary Rail envisions a national push to electrify rail beginning with the BNSF Northern Transcon connecting Seattle and Chicago. Energy Efficiency • The Northwest Power and Conservation Council draft 7th Power Plan found energy efficiency “proved the least expensive and least economically risky resource” for meeting electricity demand. “In more than 90 percent of future conditions, cost- effective efficiency met all electricity load growth through 2035.” • Globally, investment in energy efficiency in 2012 reached $375 billion, according to HSBC, as much as was invested in producing electricity from fossil fuels and 50% more than was invested in renewable energy sources. Whole Systems Innovation • The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project completed in 2015 is the nation’s largest, most comprehensive, and ambitious advanced smart grid demonstration to date, engaging 60,000 customers and 11 utilities across five states. The project installed technology and equipment worth $80 million, testing the ability of smart grid applications to deliver value streams including improved reliability, energy efficiency, and demand flexibility • Gresham, Oregon’s wastewater treatment plant serving over 100,000 people was city government’s biggest energy consumer 10 years ago with energy costs of $50,000 a month. Today the plant produces 92% of the energy it uses from biogas, tapping the methane generated by the organic matter in sewage, as well as fats, oils, and grease it collects from restaurants and food establishments. The remaining 8% of the plant’s energy demand is supplied by one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest solar arrays. Retrofits are expected to repay the capital costs in 8 years, and then generate net profit for many years to come. • Wherever water flows downhill through pipes, turbine technology could make it profitable for water utilities to tap. In January 2015, Lucid Energy installed the nation’s first such project in a 42-inch water pipe in Portland, Oregon at no cost to the city because Lucid has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the local electric utility. • The Home townhouse complex in Issaquah, Washington was designed to produce as much energy as it consumes, reduce water use 70%, use only low- and non-toxic materials, and recycle 90% of construction waste. Post-occupancy data shows that the complex is exceeding the net-zero design target, producing 3.5% more energy than it uses. Reducing fuel imports • Washington and Oregon spend over $30 billion a year on fossil fuels, according to the Sightline Institute. Two-thirds to three-quarters of that money drains directly out of our state economies to pay producers elsewhere. With full-scale efforts to convert to clean heat, fossil fuel imports can be dramatically reduced. .

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