LANSING – Although it was sent with no recommendations, the Public Service Commission and the Michigan Energy Office Monday sent their final report on renewable energy to Governor Rick Snyder with updated data and an added section describing energy planning. The new report reiterates the draft report’s contention that from a technical perspective, it is possible to generate up to 30 percent of the state’s power from renewable sources within the state.
The final report on renewable energy is about 25 pages longer than the draft report, and includes updates or new information on renewable portfolio standard eligibility for biomass, ground source heat pumps, and solar thermal energy; more background on wind energy pricing; an added section describing energy planning and providing background on the history of it in Michigan; and an additional incremental renewable energy scenario based on frozen 2012 renewable energy surcharge levels.
When the two agencies first released their draft report on renewable energy in late September, the prevailing theme seemed to be that Michigan’s renewable portfolio standard was among the lowest in the nation and, given the success of the renewable industry so far, could certainly reach higher goals with little to no problem. The new report reiterates the draft report’s contention that from a technical perspective, it is possible to generate up to 30 percent of the state’s power from renewable sources within the state.
In 2008, the Legislature passed and the governor signed an energy law overhaul. Many of the standards within that legislation, including those on renewable energy, will need to be revisited before their sunset in 2015 (the law mandated the state’s utilities achieve 10 percent renewable energy by 2015 and all signs point to them achieving that level).
In the draft report, the commission and the energy office had not included cumulative renewable energy capacity by commercial operation date for 2014 and 2015. Per the report, expectations are that wind will energy will dominate, with anaerobic biomass and solar operations, respectively, taking up the next largest share of the market (though far paling in comparison to wind).
The numbers are based on contracts and programs approved by the commission through 2012, which shows wind energy at about 93.8 percent, solar at 2.32 percent and anaerobic biomass at 1.78 percent.
Adding to the feather in the cap for the wind energy sector is that the updated report notes wind-generated power has not contributed to any system-wide reliability problems, according to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the regional transmission operator for most of Michigan.
Added discussion on biomass energy was met with mixed commentary. The report noted that the Natural Resources Defense Council said Michigan’s current biomass definition is too broad. The Council said over the past two years, emerging scientific evidence has discredited certain forms of bioenergy from forests as clean, renewable fuel (specifically that burning whole trees to produce electricity increases carbon emissions when compared to fossil fuels).
Another argument, though, was that the benefits of biomass generation include its baseload operating characteristics, forest products availability and job creation, particularly in the Upper Peninsula and rural communities.
And there were several comments that solar thermal and ground source heat pump projects should be able to generate renewable energy credits, the report found.
“Energy utilized by ground source heat pumps would likely qualify as geothermal energy because solar thermal and geothermal energy are listed as renewable energy resources under the current (renewable portfolio standard),” it noted. “However, solar thermal and geothermal projects do not generate electricity and a methodology is not provided under (the 2008 law) to determine how to create renewable energy credits from their use.”
The next final report on miscellaneous topics is slated to be released November 15. That will be followed by electric choice on November 20 and energy efficiency on November 26. The only public comment period that is still open is regarding the draft report on energy efficiency, and public comment will close November 6.
Sources close to the reports say they expect Governor Rick Snyder will make his recommendations on how to improve the state’s energy future some time in December, at which point the policy falls back to the Legislature to develop.
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