Repowering Humboldt With Community Scale Renewable Energy

Energy policy is at a crossroads. Attempts to meet targets for carbon emissions, energy security and affordable energy for vulnerable households are all on a trajectory to failure. Aggressive ambitions to roll out huge off-shore wind, nuclear and clean coal plants are proposed, but without any clear plans on how funds will be mobilized, or transmission and distribution infrastructure developed. In this book Prashant Vaze and Stephen Tindale ask politicians and regulators to consider a different path. Using abundant examples of small scale local solutions Repowering Communities examines how cities, communities and local authorities from across Europe and North America have driven reductions in energy use and rolled out small scale, community level solutions. Among the issues examined are the drivers behind behavioural change, the methods used to secure necessary investment and what government and civil society can do to foster such action on a wide scale. Based on extensive first-hand research and drawing on the latest global energy data the authors provide essential information and inspiration for readers who wish to drive the policies that encourage community-level energy development.

Large-scale electricity production using wind generators began attracting attention in the United States in the 1970s due to the energy crises initiated by oil embargoes. The first wind plants began to be installed in 1980, stimulated by aggressive policy provisions. Although some of these first installations were under-designed and did not survive the early years of operations, some of the best technology continues to operate, some 30 years later, producing electricity as part of profitable commercial businesses. As wind power facilities age, project owners are faced with plant end-of-life decisions. This book is intended to inform policymakers and the business community regarding the history, opportunities, and challenges associated with plant end of life actions, in particular, repowering. Specifically, the report details the history of repowering, examines the plant age at which repowering becomes financially attractive, and estimates the incremental market investment and supply chain demand that might result from future U.S. repowering activities.