Rutland Herald Editorial: Renewable progress

Below is an editorial reposted here from the Rutland Herald. Published: January 28, 2012

Over the past six years production of wind turbines in the United States has grown by 12 times, according to a report in The New York Times. There are now more than 400 facilities in 43 states, and according to one consulting group, the industry will support 78,000 jobs this year.

The solar industry is also growing, according to the same report. The number of solar installations in the third quarter of 2011 exceeded the number for all of 2009. A federal cash-grant program that awarded $1.76 billion has helped to create 22,000 solar projects, and it is estimated that an extension of the cash-grants will create an additional 37,000 jobs this year.

These numbers suggest why President Barack Obama has continued to emphasize the importance of renewable energy, both as an innovative way to achieve energy independence and as a job creator. “Because of federal investments, renewable energy use — sources like wind and solar — has nearly doubled,” Obama told a crowd in Colorado this week. “Thousands of Americans have jobs because of those efforts,” he said.

Some of those jobs are in Vermont. Green Mountain Power has been busy on the ridgeline of the Lowell Mountains clearing the way for about 20 wind turbines it will install in one of the most ambitious wind projects in the state. When completed, it will provide power enough to meet the needs of 20,000 average homes — equal to a potential capacity of about 63 megawatts.

The project has been enormously controversial because of residents in Lowell and surrounding towns who view development of the Lowell mountaintop as a desecration. Critics of wind power also note that wind generation creates only intermittent power, not base-load power that is needed for 24-hour electrical generation. They also say the project was dependent on the subsidy provided by the federal government.

Green Mountain Power has felt the heat. Mary Powell, president of GMP, acknowledged in a recent conversation that Vermont may need to take a breather on new wind projects to assess how and where to proceed after the battle in Lowell. At the same time, she views the Lowell project as a major asset for the company and for GMP customers. After the wind turbines are up and running, the company expects it to produce a sizable amount of nonpolluting power at a low price for years to come. It is the cost of putting renewable infrastructure in place that has required federal intervention.

And yet the cost of wind and solar technology has fallen rapidly in recent years. Promoters of renewable energy have long argued that the way to bring the price of the technology down is to increase demand so that the unit price of the machinery drops. It is like the manufacture of cars. It is cheaper to build a Ford than a Bentley, partly because Ford mass produces its cars.

Federal subsidies have helped stimulate demand for the technology, bringing down the price and further stimulating demand. And yet reluctance in Congress to continue the subsidies has caused the wind and solar industries to plead that now is not the time to pull the plug. The subsidies have helped get the industry off the ground, with those thousands of jobs, and the rush to sustainable energy will slow if Congress discontinues the subsidies.

Free market purists sneer at the idea of subsidies. They believe that if wind and solar are worthwhile investments, the market will reward them. They ignore the enormous subsidies that have benefited the nuclear and fossil fuel industries. The energy industry is far from the level playing field that is the premise of free market ideology; indeed, subsidies for renewables can probably be considered a way to make the playing field more level, not less.

Obama is right to press for an expansion of home-grown renewable energy, both for the sake of our economy and of the climate. Vermonters will continue to be sensitive to the treatment of their mountains, but there are renewable options remaining to be explored.