Co-op innovation shines with renewable energy

During their 75-year history, electric co-ops have made a name for themselves as trailblazers and innovators. For starters, co-ops efficiently and affordably ran power lines to parts of rural America that big investor-owned utilities didn’t see as profitable. Many experts consider rural electrification as the greatest engineering achievement of the twentieth century.

In addition, electric co-ops began promoting energy efficiency decades ago, long before it became mainstream. And today co-ops are finding innovative ways to use renewable energy generation while keeping electricity affordable — no easy feat.

Government-mandated renewable portfolio standards (RPS) require that more of the electricity being produced come from renewable sources, which are typically more expensive than traditional sources like coal- and natural gasfired power plants. Laws already passed by this state and 28 others and the District of Columbia require investor-owned utilities, as well as some electric cooperatives, to add increasing amounts of “clean and green” electricity to their retail power supply mix by a certain date.

While Ohio’s law doesn’t require electric cooperatives to achieve a certain target, it doesn’t mean renewable energy isn’t part of the mix. Wind energy from Iowa and hydropower from New York are important parts of Ohio’s cooperatives’ generation along with biodigesters in northwest Ohio. Ohio coops also have ongoing in-state wind and solar test projects and are investigating generation projects utilizing landfill methane.

To meet these requirements without breaking the bank, electric co-ops across the country are finding ways to make renewable sources of power work for their members.

More than 80 percent of our nation’s 900-plus electric co-ops provide electricity produced by wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass (like landfill gas, livestock waste, timber byproducts and crop residue) and other “green power” sources. All told, co-ops today receive 11 percent of their power requirements from renewable sources compared to 9 percent for electric utilities as a whole.

North Dakota’s Verendrye Electric Cooperative has been installing solar-powered livestock water pumping systems for the last 20 years. Thanks to recent grant money, the co-op has installed 120 of the units in the last three years alone. And here’s the kicker: running a power line to these remote locations would cost $20,000 per mile; the solar-powered units cost $4,000. That’s innovation in action.

In the mountain town of Rabun Gap, Ga., the Green Power Electric Membership Corporation, a partnership of 38 local co-ops, is purchasing power from a waste woodfired biomass generator set up in an old Fruit of the Loom plant. It’s a winning situation for everyone: the wood scraps go to good use, the co-ops have green electricity to distribute and the community has had an uptick of 100 jobs as a result of the plant and the supply of wood that feeds it. More innovation at work.

In addition, co-ops across the country are banding together to deliver renewable energy to regions that may not have the best wind resources or the sunniest days. The National Renewables Cooperative Organization (NRCO) was formed in 2008 as a clearing house for renewable energy “credits.” Through NRCO, a co-op in the Southeast, for example, could buy wind power from a Midwest wind farm to satisfy a renewable portfolio standard law. That’s a truly innovative partnership.

As renewable energy continues to develop across the nation, rest easy knowing that Darke Rural Electric Cooperative and others are working together to achieve common goals and provide our members with safe, reliable, affordable electricity. As it has been for 75 years, that’s the co-op way.