It's past time to get serious

by Roger Johnson

I recently returned from the EU Low Carbon Economy Tour , a weeklong study tour of the Czech Republic, Germany and Brussels organized  by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. We toured farms, energy facilities and institutions with a focus on renewable energy projects, climate policies and rural communities. It was a most interesting trip which reinforced my earlier understanding of what progressive, forward looking policies can do for our environment and for rural economic development.
 
In Třebíč, a town of 40,000 inhabitants two hours South of the Czech capital of Prague, we visited  a former coal-fired power plant that had been converted to running on nearly 100% biomass-- forest residues, straw and poor quality junk hay. I say nearly 100% because tanks of fuel oil and natural gas turbines stood ready to serve as backup in the event of emergency fuel needs only.  . An immense outside tank held the hot water which was piped around the city to serve dedicated customers in residential and commercial settings with hot water based heat.
 
In Reken, a village of 15,000 inhabitants in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia we visited an energy farm that sported its own biogas plant and a large commercial wind tower generating electricity for the grid.  The farm of Hermann-Josef Benning  received hog manure from neighboring farms and turned it into biogas which was sent in several directions through a closed circuit pipeline to generating stations which burned the biogas and generated more electricity for the grid, and firming up the wind power. Most impressively, the several generating plants were located several kilometers away in different directions and were nestled up close to apartment buildings, old folk’s homes and community swimming pools so the waste heat from the large engines could be captured and used nearby for hot water heating in these high demand residential and commercial settings.
 
How is it that Germany has more commercially deployed wind power and solar PV than does the US when we have much more sun (see comparison of solar resources in US and Germany, figure 4, page 11)  and wind? Public policies are very different inGermany . Feed- in Tariffs (modeled after the US PURPA) mean that farmers have a clear, long term incentive to produce distributed power at a profit with a reasonable return on investment. Long term price contracts guaranteeing a profitable market for the energy, coupled with a government policy requiring utilities to provide access to the grid provide a powerful incentive for individuals, farmers and small businesses to go green (For more information on the German policies, see Beyond Biofuels: Renewable Energy Opportunities for US Farmers)
 
These policies are driven by a common desire to deal with climate change by deploying renewable energy in ways that encourage local economic development, environmental responsibility, and a local, dependable source of gas. They have the added benefit of mittigating against the likelihood of continued threats from Russia to shut off access to natural gas supplies in the dead of winter.
 
Certainly, I would not suggest that the US simply adopt the same policies and expect the same results. But we can learn from what others are doing to provide a stronger rural economy, to reduce our crippling dependence on dangerous, foreign sources of oil and to begin dealing with our shared responsibility to leave a more stable, more sustainable world for our grandchildren. It’s past time to get serious.
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Roger Johnson is the President of the National Farmers Union. From September 26-October 2, 2010 Johnson participated in the EU Low Carbon Economy Tour, a 7-day study tour that brought a diverse group of 4 US representatives from veteran-, religious-, labor- and agriculture groups to the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium for discussion of low carbon growth strategies.

Watch a video interview with Roger Johnson

Listen to an interview with Roger Johnson on renewable enegy and Feed-in tariffs (first published on 10/8/10 in The Fence Post)

Read an NFU press release on renewable energies and Feed-in tariffs