Oregon’s green energy “crisis”

Oregon was initially doused with green energy tax credits to help bolster the economy while making it more green, but in recent months lawmakers have scaled back both energy credits and what it takes to acquire them. As part of the American Recovery Act, the options for Oregon’s green energy revolution are varied and complex. Green tax credits as an effective way to kickstart Oregon’s economy are being rethought as the number of new jobs being created is low compared to month-by-month job losses.

The Leaburg power substation, which acts a buffer, downstream from the Leaburg Hydroelectric plant, to the Eugene-Springfield area.

Green Tax credits have been used for a variety of things and not in the way that they were intended for our economy, according to Jeff Nelson, director of the Springfield Utilities Board (SUB) who says, “You’re probably creating local jobs if the project moves forward, just for the operation of the project.” According to Nelson, many companies are receiving the green energy tax credits to buy solar panels— but purchasing them from overseas, instead of locally. And while the credits have lured some companies to Oregon, there has been little in the way of proposed development here in Eugene. Uni-Chem, a Korean company, began making plans to utilize the defunct Hynix semi-conductor plant in West Eugene, but interest has waned. Other companies who are utilizing the credits are focusing on creating small-scale solar projects, and Peg Boulay, Co-Director of Environmental Sciences at the University of Oregon, notes that the majority of development will be in residential and business districts.

The potential for these projects to feed back into the grid is there as Oregon provides a discount for users who produce some of their own electricity, but it isn’t enough to offset the cost for most.

The issue that comes into question is the feasibility of Oregon for all of these projects. “Wind is not Oregon’s strongest point, but the [solar] profile in Oregon is not as bad as you might think,” says Nelson. Currently the majority of development for wind is in the Columbia River Gorge which is “gusty” as described by Boulay, but has the benefit of the Dams on the river to help mitigate energy overflow. When it’s very windy, the dam can shut down and act as a buffer for all of the excess energy that’s being produced. When the wind is negligible, the dam can go into full production to pick up the slack. As compared to the Midwest which has sustained winds a majority of the time, projects away from dams and other mitigating power sources are problematic. Nelson, contends, however; that having too much power is worse than not enough.

“Solar projects have incredible environmental damage because basically it’s a no-grow zone, a nuke zone, there’s nothing there other than solar panels,” says Boulay. Solar impacts our environment by taking up large tracts of real estate in which nothing else can grow. The threat to flora and fauna in a region is another factor, according to Boulay.

The same can be said for wind turbines, which require a large chunk of earth to be moved for a cement anchor to be placed.

Both forms of green energy generation require a lot of infrastructure in terms of control buildings and providing road access to each solar array and turbine— a lot of human activity is present in areas that were previously left undisturbed.

Anything is better than our current heavy reliance on hydroelectric energy, which is where 80% of the energy for the town of Springfield, Oregon comes from, according to Nelson. Older dams without fish ladders have an extremely high mortality rate of salmon, a precious food resource. Dams also stop the flow of silt downstream preventing the enriching of the soil near rivers as a negative coincidental impact on the bounty for local farmers.

In terms of the effectiveness of green energy tax credits, it’s complex, Nelson describes it as a “fragmented process” that needs to be taken as an aggregate.

Oregon reaching 25% reliance on green energy by 2025 is the goal the state has set for itself, but Oregon is getting a slow start on it.

As far as recovering Oregon’s economy goes, the expectation is to have 300,000 jobs created by 2025— Oregon has lost around 148,600 jobs to date due to the current recession.

In terms of training, there is a shortage: There are only two green energy worker training facilities in Oregon. A majority of the new green energy workers will come from out of state as it is not possible to churn out the numbers needed to fill jobs by 2025.

Oregon is trying hard to balance being green while trying to provide jobs. Oregon has a golden opportunity here to become a green energy leader in the nation and a blueprint for what to do — and not to do — in terms of making it happen. Oregon’s reliance on hydroelectricity has dramatic environmental impacts, but wind and solar will have impacts as well, just of a different kind. All things considered there is no one solution, and only through an amalgamation of solutions will an answer be found— figuring out the right combination of solutions is the biggest challenge.