Burlington, VT 100% renewable energy powered
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There is a fairly large part of the "rest of the story" that they don't talk about. Burlington Electric's Biomass plant is the real deal and has been for 20 plus years. The ratepayers have elected to pay a long term surcharge for the power and the plant has supplied it. IBM the major employer in town has paid a big chunk of those surcharges over the years and recently they had to pay another company to take the assets off their hands. If they close down, the power demand should drop.
BEis dispatchable so if they can respond to changes in demand up to the plant capacity. On the other hand the wind turbine projects in Lowell and Sheffield are not dispatchable and the city has to buy the power when its produced at an inflated rate. The backup source of power is predominately hydro quebec which under Vermont statute, was not defined renewable until a last minute change in law signed the day before major holiday suddenly now become renewable so that allows them to stamp the 100% renewable sign on the electric power source. Of course HQ has on occasion decided that they don't want to sell any power to the US due to system issues but I guess 100% renewable has a hidden asterix. HQ power is highly controversial as the environmental impact of the HQ dams is quite significant. Effectively anyone who buys it is just pushing the ugliness and impact into another country.
VT also has recently been caught with their hand in the till where renewable power plants are selling SRECs to other entities and also claiming that power they produce count towards a renewable portfolio. This has made VT SRECS "stinky" and many SREC buyers tend to avoid VT SRECs due to the double dipping. I am not sure if Burlington is playing that game but it would be worth checking.
Depending on the definitions all of Northern NH is 100% renewable. We have a 100 MW wind farm, several hydroelectric plants and 70 MW biomass boiler. The demand is low and the majority of the power is sent elsewhere. Of course in NH, the SRECs are sold to other entities so we cant claim the local plants are renewable as the green stamp has been sold to somewhere else.
BEis dispatchable so if they can respond to changes in demand up to the plant capacity. On the other hand the wind turbine projects in Lowell and Sheffield are not dispatchable and the city has to buy the power when its produced at an inflated rate. The backup source of power is predominately hydro quebec which under Vermont statute, was not defined renewable until a last minute change in law signed the day before major holiday suddenly now become renewable so that allows them to stamp the 100% renewable sign on the electric power source. Of course HQ has on occasion decided that they don't want to sell any power to the US due to system issues but I guess 100% renewable has a hidden asterix. HQ power is highly controversial as the environmental impact of the HQ dams is quite significant. Effectively anyone who buys it is just pushing the ugliness and impact into another country.
VT also has recently been caught with their hand in the till where renewable power plants are selling SRECs to other entities and also claiming that power they produce count towards a renewable portfolio. This has made VT SRECS "stinky" and many SREC buyers tend to avoid VT SRECs due to the double dipping. I am not sure if Burlington is playing that game but it would be worth checking.
Depending on the definitions all of Northern NH is 100% renewable. We have a 100 MW wind farm, several hydroelectric plants and 70 MW biomass boiler. The demand is low and the majority of the power is sent elsewhere. Of course in NH, the SRECs are sold to other entities so we cant claim the local plants are renewable as the green stamp has been sold to somewhere else.
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