Southeast could glow with clean energy

7. STATES: Southeast could glow with clean energy (02/13/2009)

Evan Lehmann, E&E reporter

The nation's Southeast is not as impoverished in 'green' sources of energy as some people say it is, concludes a new report. It estimates that the region could be a renewable energy powerhouse.

Eleven states, spreading from Virginia to Louisiana, could rise over hurdles like low electricity prices that so far have kept the region in the national backwater of alternative power production and energy efficiency, says the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit group.

It estimates that the Southeast could produce enough renewable energy to meet 15 percent of the region's electricity demand in six years. By 2025, one-quarter of the area's power could come from biomass found in its forested landscape, as well as from solar, wind and geothermal sources.

"The Southeast has been portrayed as a region that will face significant cost and difficulty meeting a national [renewable energy standard] due to scarce access to renewable energy resources," the report says. "This assertion is simply inaccurate."

Traditionally, Southern states have benefited from cheap electricity, insulating them from the urgency found in expensive New England, for example, that has fueled cost-saving efficiency programs. The Midwest, meanwhile, with long winters and lots of wind-swept land, is fertile ground for renewable energy projects. The Southeast is seen as a poor performer in both regards.

An area rich in wood and crop residues

But things are changing. Populations are growing as people move toward the coasts, placing new energy demands on Southern electricity providers. They, in turn, are trying to avoid building expensive power plants by focusing more on efficiency and renewable energy.

If Congress imposes a national standard requiring utilities to use renewable energy, the South could be spurred to act quickly, the report says.

To meet short-term projections in the study, an effort would have to be launched quickly to use "energy crops" like tree species planted in agricultural areas to produce biomass. Also, organic matter from forests, crop residue and byproducts from urban woods could be combined with those crops to produce an estimated 27,000 megawatts of electricity, the report says. That's equivalent to about 30 large power plants.

Biomass is the cornerstone of renewable energy in the short term. But to meet the 25 percent goal in 16 years, the South will have to develop a sweeping series of projects that include offshore and onshore wind facilities, big solar arrays and hydroelectric power plants.

Harvesting offshore wind and solar heat

States like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia would all have to host sea-based turbine fields to produce about 180,000 megawatts of electricity. As a point of reference, Cape Wind, the offshore wind farm proposed along the coast of Massachusetts, would produce about 470 megawatts of electricity with 130 turbines.

All 11 states, meanwhile, would have to install thousands of solar panels on the roofs of homes and businesses and in large ground-mounted facilities run by utilities. That could produce 79,000 megawatts.

The region's largest power provider isn't so sure about all of this. A spokeswoman with Southern Co., based in Atlanta, said studies show that the Southeast lacks some natural resources needed to produce large amounts of renewable energy, like onshore wind.

"Though the relative scarcity of renewable resources in the Southeast limits the overall extent of their potential contribution to our generation portfolio, we continue to research and evaluate the development of renewable energy sources," Valerie Holpp said in an e-mail.

The company is studying offshore wind possibilities, but hasn't determined how much power could be produced, or at what cost.
It's also seeking state approval in Georgia to convert a coal-fired power plant to an all-wood biomass facility. It would produce
about 96 megawatts.
The company believes that wind, solar and biomass are important additions to its energy mix, but it says coal and nuclear
generation will remain large sources of power.