The Green Energy Guru

The House of Representatives is expected to soon approve a scaled-back version of energy legislation approved by the Senate (USCHPA newsletter, 12/17/07).  The bill should then be on its way to be signed into law. Though, it left out some important things for the development of green renewable power, it did provide some excellent things for development, including:

• An EPA waste-energy inventory, to survey major combustion sources for quantity and quality of waste heat, and an authorization of funds to provide technical support to help owners or operators determine the feasibility of waste-energy recovery and CHP projects.
• A DOE Waste Energy Recovery Incentive Grant Program that would provide incentive payments of $10 per megawatt-hour for documented electricity produced from waste energy recovery projects.
• A provision, for sales of excess power, to enable States to require long-term contracts from utilities, retail wheeling, or the construction of private wires.
• A provision to rename the Combined Heat and Power Application Centers to “Clean Energy Application Centers” and move their administration within the Department of Energy to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; and, authorization of funds to encourage deployment of clean energy technologies through education and outreach.
• A DOE technical assistance program to help institutions develop sustainable energy infrastructure.
• A Sustainable Institutions Revolving Fund to provide low-interest loans for the construction of sustainable energy infrastructure to serve institutional entities. 
• A requirement for DOE to undertake and submit to Congress a report on the effect of private wire laws on the development of CHP facilities.

What’s lacking? Two notable items that the revised legislation removed were a proposed Renewable Energy Standard (RES) that would have mandated that a set percentage of generation must be green, and a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) investment tax credit (ITC). Both would have gone a long way to jump starting the progress of green renewable power in the United States!

Year 2008 should see some remarkable progress in green renewable power. The market is growing. But, better guidelines for an RES and investment tax credit incentive would be a big boost. Keep contacting your congressional persons and senators, both State and Federal, to continue to provide the incentives and advantages needed to get green renewable power up and running soon.

Rudd Asset Management specializes in the development and operation of green renewable power and green fuel supply. Contact us at (219) 464-7054