Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 3:35pm PDT | Modified: July 16, 2010, 8:00 AM

Groups shine light on transmission issue

by Christina Williams
Sustainable Business Oregon

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A diverse group of business, environmental and policy interests came together in Portland Wednesday to talk power lines.

The all-day event, put on by Washington, D.C.-based Energy Future Coalition and cosponsored by local energy organizations, follows an Energy Summit held by the group in 2009. The main issue on the table is that the nation's high-voltage power structure isn't designed to handle renewable energy sources and that more transmission lines are needed — for example, to bring wind energy from unpopulated areas to urban centers.

"You gotta go where it's windy," said Mike Jacobs, a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "And there's usually not a lot of people there."

NREL recently competed the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study, which found that the western states it studied (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming) could accommodate 20 percent of their power coming from wind and solar without adding new transmission lines — but to get beyond that would require new lines.

The issue is forging unusual alliances.

"As an environmentalist, I've spnt more time fighting transmission lines than building them," said Carl Zichella, the outgoing director of western renewable programs for the Sierra Club. "But climate change has been a game changer."

There are new siting rules in the works from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for transmission lines and greater cooperation between regions in planning the need for such infrastructure via the Western Renewable Energy Zones Project. In addition, energy efficiency and improvements to the grid will play a role in meeting the transmission needs for renewable energy.

Gary Thompson, Sherman County's judge, brought home the economic potential for wind power development and the transmission lines to support it.

"In 2001, we had $2.7 million in taxes coming into the county. In 2009, we had $6.2 million in taxes paid," Thompson said. "That's a 129 percent increase. All of a sudden, residents want more windmills."