Antinuclear

Non Profit organisations funding decentralised renewable energy

“If we can deliver energy on site, whether it’s a school, college or small town, all that infrastructure is already in place. We just have to bring in the actual equipment. We don’t have to build tens of millions of lines,”

(USA) MountainNonprofits Find Ways To Pay For Renewable Energy, Colorado Business News, CATHERINE TSAI, Associated Press WriterDENVER (AP) May 2, 2010― The Upper Scioto Valley School District in Ohio, battered by a slowdown at a nearby Ford Motor Co. plant, wanted to explore alternative energy when it developed a plan to fix its budget and create jobs.

It had a square mile of land where it could put wind turbines and tap some of the best wind resources in the state. It just needed the money.That’s where Boulder, Colo.-based NexGen Energy Partners came in.NexGen builds and maintains onsite wind and solar systems for customers, sparing them construction and maintenance costs. Using renewable energy grants and credits to defray its costs, it makes money selling power to customers over long-term contracts.
NexGen erected two 100-kilowatt turbines for Upper Scioto Valley schools, which paid $35,000 in upfront costs for some of the power and an engineering fee, Assistant Superintendent Jim Bowser said. The district projects the turbines will save it about $1.7 million over 15 years on utility bills.

“Are we breaking even? You bet. And we’re making money,” Bowser said.

The district is looking at adding more turbines, a solar power system, and possibly turning biomass into energy with other corporate partners……”It’s really interesting to see how much innovation is happening in the clean energy space in terms of financing,” said Karlynn Cory, the renewable energy finance team lead at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. “It’s helping to accelerate the pace of development.”

The key for NexGen is finding projects where it can build on site, with no need for complex transmission systems to deliver power.

“If we can deliver energy on site, whether it’s a school, college or small town, all that infrastructure is already in place. We just have to bring in the actual equipment. We don’t have to build tens of millions of lines,” said NexGen President John Brown, formerly of NREL.

Nonprofits Find Ways To Pay For Renewable Energy – cbs4denver.com

May 3, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | energy, wind | antinuclear, climate change, energy, radiation, radioactive, renewable, wind