Lake County, the New Energy Frontier
Lake County Resources Initiative
January-June 2012 Activities Report
I. Briefly describe project goals and objectives as outlined in the proposal
1. To become a net exporter of renewable energy by December 2012.
2. To offset greenhouse gases by 79,357 MT of CO2.
II. Briefly note key activities conducted so far toward meeting project goals.
1. When drilling the reinjection well for the City of Paisley geothermal 2MW plant they hit another excellent source of geothermal and as a result the project will be a 3.5MW plant. They have applied to drill another reinjection well, hoping not to find more geothermal production.
Paisley has installed an aerometer that has 12 months of data. LCRI put them in touch with a company who builds small community wind project consisting of 3-5 towers.
2. The schools and hospital have all been retrofitted for geothermal. The Town of Lakeview is in the final phase of obtaining a 45 year loan to build the geothermal heating district. The savings to the Lakeview school district in future years to come is expected to be $100,000 per year which will be used to retain teachers and programs.
3. Assisting the Paisley School in determining alternative heat sources for the school: ground source heat pump, biomass or geothermal.
4. Pacific Power started construction of a 2MW solar facility in Lakeview. The will be the largest solar project in Oregon. Adjoining them Obsidian Finance Group is putting in a 250 kW solar system. Later this summer Obsidian will be building a 5 MW solar system in Christmas Valley and then it will become the State’s largest.
5. Completely changed LCRI website, www.lcri.org/wpblog/.
6. Held our first meeting with Oregon State University, Oregon Institute of Technology, Treasure Valley Community College, Lakeview School District 7, Paisley School District, Lake County, Town of Lakeview, and Pacific Power on building a natural resource and energy institute in Lakeview using the existing Daily Middle School. Discussing with the Ford Family Foundation about them offering scholarships to communities they work with in Oregon and Northern California to learn how to assess their renewable energy opportunities and economic benefits. Also discussing accredited classes for college, high school students and continuing education.
7. The Ford Family Foundation hired Richard Gardner, PhD Economist to investigate the economic impact LCRI is having on Lake County with renewable energy. Mr. Gardner looked at 22 projects out of 85 and found these projects are saving those businesses and homeowners $1.2 million or an average of $125,000/year. Mr. Gardner projected that future work could reach $9.2 million in savings over the life of the equipment.
8. Nevada Geothermal and ORMAT have started drilling their production well at the Crump Geyser. This will be a 30MW geothermal plant. The re-injection well is finished.
9. Business Energy Audits – LCRI working with South Central Oregon Economic Development District has audited 15 businesses in Lakeview and have had all but one perform energy improvements through weatherization, lighting an equipment up-grades. Businesses have seen heating energy savings of up to $600 a month. These weatherization programs have expanded two local contracting businesses into primarily weatherization work including a building and electrical contractor.
10. LCRI has promoted residential audits in Lake County through presentations to service clubs and Solar Oregon. These available programs through Clean Energy Works of Oregon” have helped many homeowners throughout the County. A new low income auditing program through LCRI is being proposed to remove the back-log of low income housing weatherization opportunities.
11. LCRI investigated the renewable energy impact on fossil fuel CO2 emissions and discovered that if we implement every renewable energy project currently being investigate we could offset 91% of Lake County’s fossil fuel emissions or 264,000 metric tons/year of CO2. When this can be achieved dependents upon a renewable energy market and energy policy both at the State and National level.
12. LCRI Director, Jim Walls, spoke at the first Oregon State University Ted-X program on renewable energy and global warming. See the 18 minute talk on LCRI webpage, http://www.lcri.org/wpblog/?p=1296.
13. On April 30 PBS program “This American Land” came to Lake County and LCRI lined up renewable energy projects though out Lake County for them to film. The film will be aired sometime in late September 2012 and LCRI will send out a notice.
14. LCRI developed renewable energy curriculum which was distributed to all K-12 teachers in Lake County in 2012. The curriculum allowed teachers to select from many pre-created on-line sources to create their own presentations. Some of this material was used during earth week 2012.
15. On June 6, 2012 at the request of Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) LCRI conducted a tour of renewable energy projects for a group from Kenya. In July LCRI will be offering local renewable energy tours of Lakeview. LCRI has been asked to provide training and tours for other Oregon rural communities that would like to follow the Lakeview renewable energy model.
16. Contracting businesses in Lake County have emerged or expanded for the renewable energy work. Lakeview two new plumbing contractors, one heating and air conditioning and one ground source heat pump. Building and electrical contractors have expanded to take up the new energy work the largest local construction materials company, Pro-Build, offers new product lines in ground-source heat pump, solar photovoltaics and solar hot water.
III. Have you encountered unexpected opportunities or problems? Have significant financial or programmatic changes occurred? Have major changes within or outside of the organization impacted your work?
Three changes have negatively impacted our efforts. First, in November 2011 the renewable energy market here in the west collapsed as a result of natural gas prices decline and excess hydro. Second, a new California Renewable Energy Portfolio significantly complicated the sale of Oregon renewable energy to California and, lastly, Pacific Power has achieved Oregon Renewable Energy Portfolio goals and is no longer purchasing large new sources of renewable energy. The negative impact has been large. Despite being under construction the Iberdrola biomass project was put on hold and two geothermal projects and three solar project were also put on the shelve. The biomass plant was the key to making our December 2012 goal but now it will be late 2012 or early 2014 before we reach the goal of being a net exporter of renewable energy but we will make it using other sources than biomass. LCRI is currently trying to estimate how long this downturn in the renewable energy market is going to last and can we revive these projects when it does. When the market comes back it appears we that the potential to exceed our original goal 7 times.
IV. How would you describe the project’s impact so far on the people you serve, and on your organization?
In section II, items 6, 7 and 9explain the impact. The savings of $400-$600 per month reduces business overhead and helps them stay in business. For a homeowner it can mean extra money for a child’s college education, a down payment on a new car, etc. Dr. Gardner estimates that over the next few years the work LCRI is doing will amount to $9.2 million in new expendable income in Lake County.
LCRI has learned that programs that are supposed to help low income with renewable energy do not receive enough funding to get to all the requests. In Lake County there are 60 low income renters on a waiting list for energy audits. Our engineer, Bob Rogers is getting certified in energy audits and we are going to find a way to serve this group. Lake County has had a high level of poverty for years and can you imagine what a savings of $300-$400/month would mean to a low income family.
For Solar projects LCRI estimates that annual taxes going to local units of government and taxing districts should be around $40,000 to $80,000/year depending upon size of the solar project. For geothermal is could be as high as $1-$2 million. This impacts all kinds of services without having to raise taxes.
As we develop our capacity to do energy audits and implementing the institute, LCRI’s staff will increase dramatically. We will be expanding contractual work to individuals like Dr. Gardner to teach renewable energy economics, etc. The County is also talking to LCRI about expanding our role in Lake County economic development and would mean additional staff.
V. Financial
LCRI has spent $62,390.14 on the project from January 1, 2012 to June 5, 2012. Over the past 4 years LCRI has spent $421,947 on renewable energy and carbon dioxide work.