Appleseed Series Recap: Utilities, Clean Energy, and Jobs (December 2009)

by Durango Youth Coalition (DYC)

The December Appleseed Series event Utilities, Clean Energy, and Jobs was hosted by the Durango Youth Coalition. Primary organizers were Charlie Erickson and Riley Neugebauer, with photography courtesy of Eirik White.

The event began with a general summary of the DYC, the Sustainability Alliance's Appleseed Series, and the plan for the evening. The youth coalition prefers a more creative approach to these events, whose topics can be quite dry at times. Therefore, props were created for the event in order to engage the audience more fully and more spontaneously. Several videos were shown throughout the evening to set the tone for the importance of advancing utility policy, including a short introductory video about climate change and the COP15 in Copenhagen.

We followed up the video by breaking the audience into two groups. Half of the audience went to one side of the room with Riley to talk about energy efficiency programs at utilities, and the other half went to the other side of the room to talk about micro-hydro applications with Charlie. Riley and Charlie facilitated the groups by asking various questions about these topics and having the audience create a dialogue given what they know and with the goal of finding out more about what they didn't know. Both groups were asked to come up with a small skit using the props in order to highlight the relationship of their topic to utility policy so that they could educate the larger audience. 

Energy Efficiency

The energy efficiency group put together a small skit using electrons, an energy hog, utility customers, fake money, the utility, a coal power plant, and solar power. Essentially, two utility customers (one who was very efficient and one who was not efficient at all) talked about their situations, then paid the utility (imagine which one paid more!).

The energy hog then appeared, to talk about how much energy he liked to use in the house that was very energy efficient. He had a gang of electrons around him at all times. The coal plant was hanging out providing much of the electricity for these utility customers. The more efficient utility customer talked about how the utility helped her save money through rebates and other programs that encouraged energy efficiency. In the end, efficiency and solar power helped chase out the energy hog, coal plant, and excess electrons! 

The efficiency group then highlighted for the larger audience the general idea that energy efficiency is the cheapest program that a utility can put into place in order to cut back on the demand from their customers. It is cheaper than building a new power plant, and energy-efficiency programs typically are called "demand-side management" programs because they focus on cutting demand instead of producing more power. Some articles report that energy efficiency programs cost only 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, much less than building new plants, whether based on fossil fuels or renewable energy.

Organizations such as the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy are a great resource to learn more about what utilities are doing about energy efficiency and about renewable energy in general. Reports from the National Research Council and McKinsey & Company show that energy efficiency could save 15–23 percent of our energy use by 2020. These are highlighted by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

See, for example:

• Anaheim Small Business Energy Management Assistance Program
• Imperial Irrigation District Agricultural Energy Efficiency Program 
• SDG&E Project Management Builder Services 
• PG&E: Save Energy and Money

States like California that are at the forefront of energy efficiency implement regulations around consumer electronics and buildings that mandate certain levels of efficiency.

 

• CO Springs Utilities: Home Improvement Financing
• City of Fort Collings: ZILCH Loans
  
• Sacramento: Promotions, rebates, and financing
• L.A. Small Business Direct Install Program
  

Micro-hydro Power Generation

The micro-hydro group did not put together a skit, but instead informed the larger group about their conversation, which focused on how you can install micro-hydro using a small stream, a hill, a small hydro turbine, and an alternator. The engineering of these systems takes into account the force of the water (head), which depends on how much water is available and how steep the grade is as it flows into the turbine, as well as how to link the electricity generated by the turbine into either a battery bank or the grid.  Because the larger discussion was related to utility-related programs, the group's focus was more on tying into the grid with a source such as this.

A BBC News video was shown that highlighted a micro-hydro installation on a sheep farm in Wales. For more on micro-hydro, see:

The rest of the evening was spent showing two videos about feed-in tariffs (FITs), in order to highlight the importance of a FIT policy in promoting renewable energy through utilities. The first video featured the first FIT put into place in the U.S. in Gainesville, Florida, and the second was a video from the UK that highlights the success of the FIT policy in Germany.

Local participants present at the event seem to support these ideas and wanted to find ways to implement them locally or on their own properties.

The Durango Youth Coalition is a local organization founded in December 2008 in order to mobilize the 15–30 age crowd in Durango, Colorado. This age bracket represents 30–40 percent of the Durango population, according to the most recent census. The DYC wants to see increased youth engagement and action in the community. Our vision is to create a cohesive, empowered youth community built around an impact-driven culture. The DYC holds sustainability to be one of its core values and recognizes that it is an issue very important to young people. Because of this, the DYC decided to partner with the Sustainability Alliance to hold this event as a part of the wider Appleseed Series.

Charlie Erickson: Charlie has lived in Durango for quite some time, attending Durango High School and now Fort Lewis College. He will complete a degree in Spanish Education in about a year and is interested in sustainability because it helps the planet.

You can contact the Durango Youth Coalition at: durangoyouthcoalition@gmail.com