On renewable-energy priorities, 'a good step forward'

When we talked in January, you had a list of renewable-energy priorities you wanted lawmakers to tackle. How did the Legislature do?

Gabrielle Stebbins: I commend the Legislature for the six renewable-energy bills passed this year. They will ultimately lead towards more clean, local energy and more green energy jobs in our state.

BFP: Let’s talk first about the big renewable-energy bill that passed in the last days of the session. What were its highlights for your members?

GS: The highlight would be the expansion of the standard offer program, which tells developers of community-scale renewable energy projects (up to 2.2 megawatts) that they will receive a certain price per kilowatt hour for what they produce. This program allows project developers to go to a bank and say, I have a contract — if you give me a loan, I can build this project and will be able to pay back the loan. It creates the opportunity for financing.

Farmers, restaurant owners, community-scale wind developers need the standard offer to make their projects buildable. The original program allowed a total of 50 megawatts of standard-offer projects. By the end of this year, 28 megawatts should be built and a lot of projects are under construction. That’s great for a program that is three years old.

Development and installation of renewable energy has a direct impact on jobs in Vermont — on manufacturers, installers, excavators, makers of component parts. Vermont just dropped below 5 percent unemployment. A big part of that was green energy jobs.

So not only do we get job creation, we also see economic stability, because renewable-energy costs don’t go up and down, as fossil fuels do — the sun doesn’t charge a different rate from one day to the next. We also get energy security and independence, by having these projects located here in the state, instead of relying on power from elsewhere.

Source:http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120513/GREEN01/120511029/On-renewable-energy-priorities-good-step-forward-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s