Utilities' green goal is looking attainable

It's not easy going green -- but the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts are making it look doable.

The green target, as ordered by the governor, is for utilities to obtain one-third of their energy from renewable sources by the year 2020.

What's considered renewable?

The state doesn't allow utilities to count their big hydropower plants, such as Don Pedro, even though water is obviously a renewable resource. And while small hydro plants do count, renewable energy generally refers to sources such as solar, wind and geothermal.

Last fall, we were skeptical about whether districts could achieve this mandate.

But it's looking more and more promising.

Both irrigation districts have invested heavily in wind power from out of the region -- because this area typically doesn't get sufficient wind. The TID bought a project in Washington state along the Columbia River, a notoriously windy area. That project, with 62 turbines, generates enough green power to serve about 44,000 households each year.

The TID also has a fuel cell that generates energy from the methane coming off Turlock's waste-water treatment facility.

The MID could get a big boost in renewable energy from two projects proposed within the district by private firms. In both cases the MID would buy all the power from the privately owned facilities for 25 years.

The proposals:

A biomass plant that would burn orchard prunings and uprooted trees that have been chipped into small pieces. Last week, the district's board agreed to be the lead agency in the environmental review for the plant.

The developers are counting on a federal grant of up to $20 million to help cover the $80 million in costs. The financing is typical; most renewable energy projects are moving forward because of the availability of tax credits, outright grants or other government incentives.

If the plant materializes as planned, it could supply about 8 percent of MID's energy needs.

A 160-acre solar farm is proposed at McHenry Avenue and Ladd Road. Representatives of SunPower, a Bay Area company with solar installations around the world, have been meeting with neighbors and others to respond to concerns about appearance, noise and other impacts.

The site currently is used for strawberries, but the solar plant would not permanently remove it from ag uses. After the life of the facility, it could be returned to farming or for other uses. Before the economy collapsed, the city of Riverbank had eyed expanding that far.

Neither of these projects is a sure thing; both firms will need to get through the environmental review process and secure financing.

We like that both projects are within the boundaries of the MID, which means they would not require expensive and intrusive transmission lines.

Furthermore, it appears that green energy won't be quite as expensive as anticipated. The MID staff estimates that electricity generated from renewable sources will cost an average of about 10 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 7 cents for so-called brown energy from natural gas and coal-burning plants.

In the end, going green may not be so hard after all.