Renewable Energy
Electricity produced from renewable resources can reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
Energy from the sun, wind, tidal currents and biomass creates challenges
for electric utilities that most people that are not in the industry
fail to realize. Using renewable electric energy generation to reduce
dependence on foreign oil has been proposed by some. How this can be
accomplished is not necessarily as straightforward as it first appears.
Additionally, renewable electric energy generation does not reduce
the need for new conventional fuel plants.
In August 2007 the North Carolina General Assembly passed, and the governor signed into law, legislation requiring
Renewable Energy will have an increasing role in future power generation.
North Carolina’s electric utilities to incorporate, over the next few
years, an increasing amount of renewable source electric power
generation into the power they supply to their customers. Included in
the law are defined amounts of solar and biomass electric power
generation.
The NC Utilities Commission has released the rules it was directed to
develop to put the legislation into action. Included in the legislation
is additional energy efficiency and conservation. The efficiency and
conservation program that will be developed for consumers will be
planned to meet the requirements of this legislation once the rules
are released. CHEC is joining with a group of other NC electric
cooperatives to develop a comprehensive program to take advantage of
the most cost effective methods to achieve the goals of the
legislation.
Renewable energy has a positive place in the generation mix as this
source will displace some fossil fuel use. Renewable power sources
will not likely become the major source of electric energy in the near
future, however. Additionally, many renewable resources are much more
expensive to utilize on a utility scale than are conventional
generation sources. Most renewable power sources require that another
type of generation be available due to their intermittent nature. Bio
mass renewable energy sources also produce CO2, and will not improve
significantly the greenhouse gas situation mentioned previously
concerning fossil fuel use. Some parties exclude certain renewable
energy resources by narrowly defining renewable resources to not
include hydroelectric, wind power, some bio fuels and some other
renewable sources.
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