Breaking News: Navy Makes Big Purchase from Tyson Foods' Biofuel Venture - ArkansasBusiness.com

Despite the fact that it is one of the biggest consumers of fuel and energy in the United States, the US military is one consistently under-rated player in the Arkansas sustainasphere and in the sustainasphere in general. We can expect that to change as renewable energy technologies advance and become more reliable, efficient, and affordable. Arkansas has significant renewable and sustainable energy potential, and is poised to be a beneficiary of innovation and investment spurred by the armed forces. Read here for an overview of the latest bioventure between an Arkansas company - Tyson Foods - and the U.S. Navy:

Navy Makes Big Purchase from Tyson Foods' Biofuel Venture - ArkansasBusiness.com

Sustainability Law 101: Net Metering in Arkansas

Net metering is the scheme under which power generated privately and using renewable energy sources is transfered back to the grid. The Arkansas legislature required utilities to offer net metering in 2001. The program is overseen by the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

The defining characteristic of net metering in Arkansas, as with many net metering schemes, is that private energy generators do not receive any actual cash for pushing power back into the grid. Instead, private generators receive “credits” toward future electricity bills. These credits last for 12 months; at the end of the 12 month period, excess generation is given to the customer’s utility.

Here are the basic elements of net metering in Arkansas:

• Solar power and systems generating power from wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass and microturbines are eligible for net metering;
• Residential renewable electric generation systems up to 25 kW are eligible to enroll in net metering.
• Non-residential renewable energy systems up to 300 kW are eligible to enroll in net metering.
• Any utility under the jurisdiction of the PSC must allow eligible customers to net meter. However, municipal utilities are not covered by the net metering law.
• To participate, private energy generators must sign an interconnection agreement with their utility.
• Customers are responsible for the costs associated with interconnecting their system to the grid, including the cost of additional metering equipment needed to net meter. Utilities may also charge the private energy generators a tariff.
• There is no limit for the aggregate capacity of all net-metered systems.

As noted above, Arkansas’s net metering scheme does not allow private energy generators to actually “sell” power back to the grid. Instead, “net excess generation,” known counter intuitively as “NEG,” created by the private energy generator’s system is fed back into the electric grid, earning the private energy generator credits toward future energy use. These credits are known as renewable energy credits, or, for those of you who like acronyms, “RECs.” NEG is carried over to the customer’s following monthly bill at the utility’s retail rate. Any NEG remaining at the end of an annual billing cycle is granted to the utility. Customers, however, do own their RECs, and RECs can be bought and sold.

There are at least 37 net metering systems in Arkansas: 30 solar systems with a total of 97 kW installed capacity, and 7 wind systems with a total of 128 kW installed capacity.

Governor Beebe Promotes Renewable Energy

Over my last several postings, I have been slowly making a case that, as a matter of public policy, Arkansas supports renewable energy.  Last Thursday, in the course of introducing former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm at the Clinton Library, Governor Beebe made a few brief comments that suggest I’m not suffering from visions of a non-existent public policy. 

As reported by arkansasbusiness.com, Governor Beebe “called on audience members to ‘evangelize in the old Southern way’ about solar power, biofuels, and other forms of alternative energy,” and commented that renewable energy is “good for the environment, it’s good for our economy, and it’s good for our national security.”

Admittedly, these comments lack depth and could easily be no more than lip service in support of visiting speaker and colleague.  But consider: Arkansas has already implemented statutory programs promoting sustainable building design and energy efficiency in state facilities, and the legislature did appropriate significant funding to those programs. Arkansas is quietly but steadily supporting biofuel development and has successfully recruited several significant wind energy manufacturers to the state (i.e., Nordex).  And, as the Second Annual Renewable Energy Conference earlier in the week at ASU Jonesboro demonstrated, real and significant efforts to develop renewable solar, wind, biomass, and hydrogen energy sources and bring them to market are ongoing throughout the state. 

In the view of this sustainablawger, given the significant failure of our legislature to pass any significant clean energy legislation, citizens of the Arkansas sustainasphere need to stay focused on the areas where Arkansas is leading by example.  Renewable energy is shaping up as one of those areas.

The 2011 Arkansas Renewable Energy Conference

Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, will host the 2011 Arkansas Renewable Energy Conference next Monday, April 18, 2011. This annual event is an important clearinghouse for all things renewable energy in Arkansas, and thus far there are over 125 registered attendees. While the focus of the conference is on research and development advances and opportunities, the undercurrent of much of the conference program is the continuing growth of the renewable energy and sustainable business economy in Arkansas. Here is the conference agenda:
8:00 am REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST Alumni Lounge

Session I: Moderator: Paresh Patel
8:30 am Lynita Cooksey, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Services, ASU
Welcome
8:35 am Gregory Phillips, Dean, College of Agriculture and Technology, ASU
Overview of Renewable Energy activities at ASU

8:45 am Peter Nelson, Director, AgBio Works and Co-Founder of Biodimensions Inc, Memphis, TN
Photosynthesis: Economic Driver for Energy, Fuels, and Chemicals in the Mid-South

9:10 am Frank Kelly, President, Solar Source Consulting and Chairman, Arkansas Renewable Energy Association, Little Rock, AR
From Passive to Active. Why Design With the Sun in Mind?

9:35 am Gibson (Sunny) Morris, Arkansas Delta Training and Education Consortium (ADTEC), West Memphis, AR
ADTEC- The Power of Partnerships = The Power of Success!

10:00 am Benjamin Brenner, Sustainability Attorney, William & Anderson PLC, Little Rock, AR
Recent Developments in Renewable and Clean Energy Law in Arkansas: A Short Course on What Did and Did Not Happen in the Last Session of Arkansas' General Assembly

BREAK 10.25 – 10.45 pm Alumni Lounge

Session II: Moderator: Rajesh Sharma

10:45 am Mark Cochran, Vice President for Agriculture, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Little Rock, AR
An Overview of UA Division of Agriculture Research and Extension Programs in Bioenergy

11:10 am Dan McDevitt, Vice President, Operations, Nordex USA Inc., Chicago IL
US Wind Industry: Challenges and Opportunities

11:35 am R. Paneer Selvam, Director of Computational Mechanics Laboratory, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Solar thermal energy conversion and energy storage work at the University of Arkansas

12:00 am Mr. Omar Mendoza, US Air force
USA/DOD Renewable energy initiatives

LUNCH 12.25 – 2.00 pm Centennial Hall

Session IV: Moderator: Robert Straitt

2:00 pm Rajesh Sharma, Renewable Energy Technology Program, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro.
Photo-electrochemical Hydrogen Production

2:20 pm Robert Engelken, M. Jason Newell, Maqsood Ali Mughal, ShyamThapa, Joshua Vangilder, John Hall, Frederick Felizco, Zachery Hill, and David McNew, Arkansas State University Optoelectronic Materials Research Laboratory, Electrical Engineering and Environmental Science Program, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro.
NASA, NSF and NIH-funded photovoltaic/optoelectronic materials research at Arkansas State University

2:40 pm Kwangkook Jeong and Brad Edgar Center for Efficient and Sustainable Use of Resources, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro.
Advanced concentrating solar power plant technologies and experimental and computational approach for novel molten salts development

3:00 pm Robert Straitt1, Nadine Straitt2 and Walter Ellis3, 1Resource Efficiency Manager, Little Rock Air Force Base (LRAFB), Little Rock, 2Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, 3Consultant, Washington DC.
Renewable Energy Systems for Families and Communities in Developing Regions

BREAK 3:20 – 3:40 pm

Session V: Moderator: Gauri Guha

3:40 PM Paul Armah, Professor of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture and Technology, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro.
The Economic Impact of Crude Oil and Ethanol Prices on Arkansas Livestock Feed Prices

4:00 pm Brett J. Savary1,2*, Prasanna Vasu1, Jose C. Tovar1 1Arkansas Biosciences Institute and 2College of Agriculture, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR
Biochemical technologies for generating value co-products from plant biomass processing residues

4:20 pm Steve Green, Associate Professor, College of Agriculture and Technology. Arkansas State University-Jonesboro
Towards Sustainability in Biomass Energy Crop Production

4:40 pm Chris Barnoud, Renewable Energy Instructor, Mid-South Community College, West Memphis, AR
Biomass to Bio-based Products in the Champagne-Ardenne Region of France

5:00 pm Gregory Phillips, Dean, College of Agriculture and Technology, ASU
Concluding remarks

5:10 pm Conference adjourns

There will also be a “poster session” during the lunch hour.

For more information on the conference, contact Dr. Paresh Patel or Dr. Rajesh Sharma at ASU – Jonesboro.

(Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: This sustainablawger will be presenting at the conference on recent developments on renewable and clean energy law in Arkansas.)

Arkansas Legislative Update: The Arkansas Clean Energy Act (SB 721)

Will Arkansas make the use of renewable energy technologies and resources a part of its sustainasphere? SB 721, filed earlier this week, is a step in that direction.

SB 721 would create the Arkansas Clean Energy Act and would establish that, as a matter of public policy, that it is in the public interest to promote, encourage, and foster investment, development and use of renewable energy resources.

In simple terms, the Arkansas Clean Energy Act would require Arkansas’s electric utilities to purchase renewable energy and include renewable energy resources “as an integral part of its energy resource plan.”

Under the proposed Act, the purchase of renewable energy would be governed by a “feed-in tariff.”  Electric utilities would be required to file with the Arkansas Public Service Commission for the tariff, which in turn would require the utility to purchase renewable energy produced in Arkansas for a period not to exceed 20 years.

Significantly, the Act would require electric utilities to purchase at least 20% of their electricity supply requirement from an electric generation facility that is:

• Located in Arkansas;
• Is fueled by a renewable energy resource (which means a solar, wind, water, geothermal, or biomass resource located in Arkansas); and,
• Has an effective capacity of not more than 20 megawatts.

The Act would also permit electric utilities to recover the costs associated with the purchase of renewable energy and with the construction and upgrade of facilities necessary to receive the purchased renewable energy.

The deadline for filing bills is looming, and we can expect SB 721 to be hotly debated. The 20% purchase requirement is significant, as are the costs associated with building and upgrading the facilities that will be necessary to receive the renewable energy.  Utilities will themselves heard on those points.

And the Act does not specify how utilities could recover their costs, though it seems logical that at least part of any recovery plan would include passing those costs onto consumers through a rate increase or surcharge. Given the ongoing debate over the state’s fiscal condition and the overwhelming focus of the current legislature on tax cuts and increases, expect a flash point for debate here, as well. 

One thing, however, is certain: the Arkansas Clean Energy Act would be vast improvement over current Arkansas law on the subject, the Arkansas Clean Energy Development Act.  That Act, a toothless statement of aspiration, states only that, "All electric public utilities subject to the jurisdiction of the Arkansas Public Service Commission shall consider clean energy and the use of renewable resources as part of any resource plan."

In the end, if Arkansas wants to be a player in renewable energy technology and generation, it is going to need to find a way to push the technologies, build capacity, and, attract venture capital investment from outside the state – indeed, from outside the country. SB 721 is a strong move in that direction.

(Department of Citation: The Arkansas Clean Energy Development Act can be found at section 23-18-701 et seq. of the Arkansas Code Annotated)

October Renewable Energy Recap

It is not widely known, but Arkansas is poised to be a leader in green and renewable energy development, technology, and manufacturing. Consider:

• On October 4, 2010, German wind turbine manufacturer Nordex opened a 42-employee manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The plant is Nordex’s sole manufacturing presence in the United States.

• Three days later, on October 7, 2010, Mitsubishi Power Systems broke ground on a $100 million wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The plant is expected to be operational in the fall of 2011 and will create 330 jobs.

• On October 23, 2010, one of the premier venture capital forums for emerging technologies, WBT 2011, announced that Arkansas technology start-up Silicon Solar Solutions will be one of 100 companies selected to present to interested investors and venture capitalists. (Silicon Solar Solutions is a Fayetteville-based company committed to making solar energy more accessible and affordable. If the Silicon Solar Solutions folks are right, they have invented the better mousetrap.)

And that’s just the news for October 2010 – so far. The end of this week will see the Little Rock Sustainability Summit, (see previous post) and I expect Arkansas’s emerging place in the sustainasphere to be on display. Stay tuned….

(Department of Full Disclosure: My firm, Williams & Anderson PLC, is outside general counsel for Silicon Solar Solutions.)