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Community Wind Farms: US Legislation and Project Financing

Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 8:30-9:30am (San Francisco) / 11:30-12:30pm (New York) / 5:30-6:30pm (Paris/Frankfurt)
Wind Energy
According to the Environmental Law and Policy Center, wind power is the fastest growing source of renewable energy. It is easy to comprehend why: it has the highest median capacity factor of renewables and under reasonable settings, could contribute 40x the global demand of electricity (source: PNAS). Despite this, wind constitutes a paltry 2% of our domestic energy mix.
 
Community-owned wind farms are a viable solution to the problems of local opposition, inadequate transmission infrastructure, and intermittency that plague wind’s status in the US. This ownership model puts the decisions and benefits of wind power in the hands of the local community resulting in local economic benefits and unity around a socially and environmentally beneficial cause. In addition, their small to midsized scale enables easier connectivity to grid infrastructure and avoids permitting issues. Thus, the aim of this meeting will be to examine at what points policy and project finance can meet to encourage community ownership of wind power. What are the methods for abating risk and cutting operating, capital, and transaction costs? How can we change the market structure from its fragmented state to one of uniformity and standards? 
 
Project Financing
  • What types of debt financing/flip models have shown to be the most successful in recent years?
  • What are the most recent models? Can these models accommodate more dispersed generation?
  • What financial models exist for determining profitability? What are the most troublesome/nebulous variables?
  • What is the current and projected size of the market?
  • What has been the success rate? How can the biggest obstacles to proof of concept be bypassed? Case studies.
  • What is the optimal size of a community wind farm?
  • How can project development stages of siting, feasibility studies, permitting, construction, and postconstruction assessments be consolidated so as to shorten the timeline?
  • What are the ways of mitigating risk for utilities, communities, and wind technology companies with regard to REC/power purchase/service agreements, siting and technology? After the vesting period, how can community members be insured against longterm operational issues?
  • How can the costliness of compliance with standards regarding acoustic ecology, impacts to wildlife and wake disturbance be diminished?
Policy and Legislation
  • What is the model upon which federal and local legal incentives should interact? As they are local projects, should municipal/state governments have the upper hand or is standardization across states still needed?
  • In which areas are legislation and public opinion most accommodating and which areas are best suited for CWFs based on energy needs and land availability. Is there a discrepancy?
  • Outlook on:

             -renewal / creation of federal tax incentives

             -governmental investment in technology for increasing capacity factor, gearbox longevity and transmission
              infrastructure
             -Federal RPS
             -laws and wholesale market structures for determining rollover rights and revenue
  • Where does there exist a lack of coordination between policy and finance? Which is more equipped to address market inefficiencies? 
 
 
 
 
Speakers:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Mark Bolinger, Research Scientist
OwnEnergy, Ray Henger, CFO
 
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