Cleaner, Greener and Sustainable Energy is a Great Step Forward
Joe J. Wallace
It was recently revealed that CenterPoint Energy, the electric and gas utility provider for much of Greater Evansville and Southern Indiana is embarking on a mission to introduce more renewable energy technology into their generation operations. It was furthermore made known that CenterPoint Energy is adopting a number of Smart Energy strategies designed to provide cleaner power generation through investing in clean technologies and sophisticated management techniques to deliver cleaner, more reliable power to their customer base at competitive pricing. All of this is good news and will make the Tri-State more attractive to companies seeking locations that are not only cost-effective for their business operations that are concerned about environmental issues.
As a former resident who has been living in Southern California and working to advance renewable energy technologies, I applaud these commitments. The large solar generation facilities that CenterPoint Energy is planning have much potential for cost-effective clean power delivery. We have many facilities like this in the deserts and their status as static generators of electricity has been providing clean energy for over a decade now. Some of the recent projects are actually less expensive to operate than the fossil fuel generation stations that they are replacing.
Personally, I invested in rooftop solar on the carbon-neutral home we built when we moved to Palm Desert. In our case, our rooftop system paid for itself in roughly five years. With the 20+ year life of the solar panels, we are already enjoying the financial benefits of solar ownership. This ability to do this is enhanced by time-of-use billing that enables us to sell our solar power to our local provider during the day and to buy our evening power at reduced rates after the sun has gone down. Time-of-use rate structures accelerate the adoption of clean power at the residential level and there is little or no transmission required when the power generation is literally on the roof.Â
Smart Energy strategies often utilize multiple power generation sources along with managed energy storage solutions like batteries and pumped hydropower. In a pumped hydropower station, solar panels pump water into a reservoir that is utilized later for power generation much like a dam does when the power demand is needed. Storage is vital to an integrated solution to be reliable. One of the things that California could do a better job on is reliability as storage has not kept up with the transition to renewable power. As we all know, solar does not work when the sun is down and wind power does not work when the wind is not blowing at a sustained speed above what it needed to spin the blades. In most large wind turbines the minimum wind speed to sustain generation is between 12 and 14 miles per hour. Wind turbines also need to be throttled down when wind speeds are so high that the dynamic forces of rotation literally can destroy the turbines. Energy storage of some type is vital to an effective Smart Energy strategy.
When I was an engineering student at the University of Evansville, my interest was to seek a career in the nuclear power industry. During my junior year, the accident at Three Mile Island set off an emotional national reaction that was fueled by a movie named The China Syndrome. The American public went into a media-fueled paranoia that has led to the near demise of nuclear energy. That is a crying shame because nuclear energy has zero greenhouse gas emissions and has literally generated safe clean energy now for more than half a century. I will not be the least bit surprised to see nuclear come back into the Smart Energy strategies of power providers. Quite frankly, Hollywood manipulated the minds of Americans to rob us of clean energy long ago.Â
CenterPoint Energy is embarking upon a series of investments and strategies that have the potential to slowly transition Greater Evansville from dirty expensive solutions to clean affordable power. This is a path to prosperity that I most certainly want to encourage.
