Value of clean local energy - Clean Coalition (original) (raw)
Clean local energy provides communities these benefits and more:
- Avoids the expensive, inefficient, and polluting long-distance transmission of power.
- Enhances resilience and energy security.
- Boosts local economies.
- Provides new power sources more quickly than central energy generation.
- Boosts energy independence.
Avoiding expensive transmission infrastructure
Generating renewable energy in the communities where it is used avoids the expensive and inefficient long-distance transmission of power.
- Massive transmission infrastructure — which is needed to get energy from large, distant power plants to communities where it is consumed — is expensive to site, build, and maintain.
- In 2017 – 2018, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) cancelled $2.6 billion worth of approved transmission projects because faster-than-expected deployment of distributed energy resources (DER) and energy efficiency eliminated the need for this expensive transmission.
- Long-distance energy transmission is inefficient — about 11% of all the energy bought in California is lost during transmission.
- Emissions from electricity loss on long transmission lines are significant.
Providing resilience
Clean local energy enhances energy security by providing for a more robust and resilient grid.
- Our current system of large, centralized power plants is vulnerable to massive outages from severe weather, natural disasters, human error, and acts of terrorism.
- Incorporating smaller, decentralized power plants diversifies the energy supply and reduces the risk of widespread power outages. With solar+storage, a community can keep critical services going even during widespread blackouts.
See our value-of-resilience methodology, VOR123
Boosting local economies
- Developing clean energy locally creates jobs within the community — and it creates more jobs than developing traditional, centralized power plants.
- Generating clean energy locally keeps dollars in the community. And it can give residents, businesses, and institutions a path to entrepreneurship in the fast-growing clean energy economy.
- A 2014 report showed that 1 MW (megawatt) of locally owned solar means as much as $5.7 million in lifetime economic benefits for a community
- Developing clean local energy generation turns underused spaces such as parking lots, fields, and rooftops into energy-producing assets — without the controversy and cost involved in building large power plants on undeveloped land.
Coming online quickly
Clean local energy comes online more quickly than large, centrally located energy generation.
- The 550 MW Topaz Solar Array took seven years to develop and construct.
- During those same seven years, over 8,000 MW of distributed solar were installed in the U.S.
- A well-designed Feed-In Tariff (FIT), like the one the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) launched in 2010, can accelerate deployment of clean local energy. Within just one day of program launch, SMUD received nearly enough bids to fill its entire 100 MW FIT. Within two years, 98.5 MW had been successfully installed.
Boosting America's energy independence
Updating our power system will boost America’s energy independence.
- A modern power grid incorporating clean local energy can fully support electric vehicles, reducing our reliance on foreign oil.
- An intelligent grid can support high levels of renewable energy, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels in favor of clean energy made in communities across America.
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