Is Wind Power a Legitimate Solution to High Energy Costs?

Commitment spins wind turbines, commitment in the form of cash.

Conviction alone is not enough. No immediate profits exist, prospects for future profits motivate few people, and the cost has even the most sustainability-seeking zealots turning their backs on their coveted "green" lifestyles.

Unfortunately, if America ever wants to reduce dependence on foreign oil and other disappearing natural resources or escape the pollutants conventional power plants produce, alternative energy is the way. So someone must make the commitment.

Intensifying five years ago, colleges and universities across the country pushed renewable energy forward.

As David Orr, chair of the nationally acclaimed environmental studies program at Oberlin College, said: "No institutions in modern society are better equipped to catalyze the necessary transition to a sustainable world than universities. They have access to the leaders of tomorrow and the leaders of today. They have buying and investment power. They are widely respected. Consequently, what they do matters to the wide public."

As of now, 80 colleges and universities across the country purchase renewable energy totaling 500 million kilowatt-hours, or kwh, per year. For comparison, an average electricity user consumes around 6,000 kwh a year.

Dereth Glance, New York State program director for the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said wind energy follows the basic economics of supply and demand, but purchasing is also about leadership.

"You vote with your dollars," she said. "This is a stewardship issue, and we can be part of the solution. That connection is made clear on campuses."

The University of Colorado at Boulder began the movement in 2000, when students voted to purchase alternative energy for three student- run buildings. Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva became the first college in New York State to make the choice, choosing wind to power a new building.

Syracuse University and the University at Buffalo joined in. The Environmental Protection Agency recently ranked them fourth and 10th, respectively, on its list of top-10 college and university Green Power Partners, recognizing their contribution to renewable energy.

In 2005, Syracuse committed to purchase 22 million kwh a year, 20 percent of its 110 million kwh consumption.

"We wanted to be a leader in sustainability," said Nathan Prior, who is responsible for the university's power purchases. "I would recommend that everyone look into it."

>Progress has stalled

Large-scale renewable purchasing boomed four or five years ago in the state, but other than Syracuse's most recent purchase, progress has stalled.

This is unfortunate given New York's potential to attract developers -- it is an ideal geographic location because it is close to load contracts and has good wind sources, ranked 15th in the country. Furthermore, under Executive Order 111, Gov. George E. Pataki mandated every state-operated body to purchase 20 percent of its power from non-hydro renewable sources by 2010. And he required 25 percent of all energy sold in the state to be generated by clean, renewable energy by 2013.

But even UB, the first State University of New York school to buy wind-generated electricity, purchases just 12 million kwh, only 6 percent of its total energy use.

This certainly won't meet Pataki's goal. So why haven't colleges and universities done more? One word: money. The decision is costly. Depending on how much power is purchased, the switch can increase electricity costs by anywhere from 2 to 20 percent. A typical turbine can cost more than $2 million, and customers absorb this price. So people who commit to green power purchases pay between 1.3 and 2.5 cents more per kwh than traditional electricity purchasers.

This may seem a small cost, but it adds up. Union College in Schenectady purchased 5 percent of its energy from wind, totaling 73,500 kwh, at cost of 1.95 cents extra per kwh. Over the course of a year, this adds up to more than $17,000.

"We said, basically, we are doing our fair share," said Fred Puliafico, assistant director of facilities at Union. "We are considering our future."

However, Puliafico said the college's wind contract expired in 2005, and it did not renew because of budget concerns.

And when asked if Hobart and William Smith would increase its purchase, Tom Drennen, director of the environmental studies program, said no. Instead, the college is trying to lower its energy use by 15 percent.

Other schools have decided not to purchase wind power at all.

Despite Cornell University's commitment to a sustainable campus, the university is not purchasing wind power, said Lanny Joyce, manager of engineering, planning and energy management at the university. Instead, the university studied the possibility of developing wind power towers to provide 10 to 15 percent of its energy. Not-in-my-back-yard attitudes killed the project.

"What we've chosen to do as a university is really work hard on conservation strategies until those paybacks are just too low to do anything else," Joyce said.

>Leadership role

Regardless of the cost, from a community perspective, colleges and universities should make the move. Choosing renewable energy is an active process. College administrators must remember that any commitment from an individual purchaser is a drop in the bucket considering what colleges can do. Because they buy in bulk, university purchasers promise stability and growth for the market. If the 4,000 campuses in the United States switched to 100 percent clean energy, they would quadruple the current demand for renewable energy.

The energy used at UB comes from Fenner wind farm in Madison County. The project operates 20 turbines. The monthly output of one tower is equivalent to 4 million kwh of electricity, enough to power more than 600 homes. With just a 6 percent commitment, UB is buying the equivalent of three towers, enough to service almost 2,000 homes.

Colleges and universities also hold responsibility because they have the future of renewable energy in their classrooms, in the minds, passions and attitudes of students demanding change. These students, who dare to see a future free from fossil fuels, include Christina Notas and Emily Rochon.

Notas, a student at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, helped pressure Syracuse to purchase wind energy. Her group, Student Environment Action Coalition, targeted Syracuse because of its energy consumption. "For the university to be contributing in such a damaging way to the environment and health of the city was not a good idea," she said. "We saw better alternatives."

The group was successful. She said it seemed logical that a university with engineering students working on the feasibility of renewables would be making use of that same technology. The debate and decision also served as an educational tool and chance for the institution to practice what it teaches.

Rochon, a Cornell grad student, works with a group called KyotoNOW!, a reference to the Kyoto global warming treaty of 1997 that two U.S. presidents never asked the Senate to ratify. She said last year students tried to encourage Cornell to buy wind power. But administrators wanted a student commitment in terms of active support and a willingness to accept possibly higher tuition to pay for the wind power. Now, they are trying to find on-campus solutions instead.

"Colleges have an obligation as members of the community to set a good example," Rochon said. "If institutions like Cornell can reduce emissions and make the transition to renewables, it sets the standard for others to follow."

Ron Kamen, director of Community Energy, a renewable supplier in New York State, said long-term wind purchases could also make economic sense. The cost of wind energy in 1979 was 40 cents per kwh, compared with 4 to 7 cents in 2006. Community Energy projects that by 2014, the cost will decrease to 2.5 to 4.5 cents, a value equivalent to the 2003 wholesale cost of conventional electricity.

But to gain an edge, colleges must look ahead, commit to long- term goals and ignore small price changes. Kamen said costs have come down 80 percent in the last 20 years but actually have gone up in the last two.

The short-term fluctuations, he said, are a product of a high demand for turbines in Europe and a high demand for steel in China.

Perhaps colleges and universities need to be more patient. The cost of natural gas will keep increasing as supplies decrease, but the cost of the sun shining or wind blowing does not change.

"The question is, who is going to bear the risk, and how much risk will the investors take on?" Kamen said. "It is a matter of balancing supply and demand with risk and return."

>Pennsylvania committed

Though individual colleges in New York have made small commitments, they should look to Pennsylvania for guidance.

In 2001, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University and Carnegie Mellon University made three of the largest retail wind- energy purchases in the United States. Now, more than 30 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania purchase wind power.

"In particular, in Pennsylvania, where colleges and universities have done more than in New York, they are actually creating demand to support several wind farms," Kamen said.

The state is having such a large impact because its colleges and universities united to stabilize the market and committed to long- term purchases, which lock them into a good price. The Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy represents nearly half the colleges and universities purchasing renewable energy in the nation. Combined, the purchases total 92 million kwh.

New York State should get with the program.

"If you can put together an aggregation group that is willing to buy a long-term commitment and they are looking at a fixed-price deal on the energy, it is possible to do something that makes a lot of financial sense," Kamen said.

Walter Simpson, UB's facilities manager, has another suggestion. He said colleges can commit the money saved in energy reduction programs to renewable energy purchases as a first step. More than 20 years ago, UB started an energy conservation program that now saves $9 million a year.

"The facts are getting out, and, of course, the rest of the world is pursuing reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in an aggressive way," Simpson said. "It is going to have to start happening here."

Simpson said he hopes Pataki's order will be enforced. He said, regardless, colleges and universities should take action. Installing wind power is fine, but happens too slowly.

"There is a certain importance to move more quickly on this and not dabble and take your time," he said. "Everyone should be exploring and actively purchasing wind power if they are able to."

In 2002, wind power accounted for less than 1 percent of New York's energy production. Ultimately, it could account for almost 20 percent of the state's needs. Existing projects --Fenner, Madison, Wethersfield and a few in the North Country -- total an installed wind energy of 186,000 kw; 477,000 new kw are planned.

College and university administrators agree they should invest in alternative energy. They agree that buying renewable energy reduces nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They agree it creates jobs and reduces the country's dependence on foreign resources.

In the end, the decision is a decision for the future. But responsibility has not been accepted. Too many institutions of higher education are reluctant and unwilling to make the commitment.

(c) 2006 Buffalo News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.