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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-0906 Documents Submitted at Mtg For presentation 9/6/2016 Dave Helmich, 468 Williamson Way Mayor and Council Members: I have been a civil/structural engineer for 50 years. I have been the responsible project manager for major civil works including bridges, accelerators and a then-major SF highrise. I have been a developer of alternative energy projects, including a small-hydro project in Shasta Co. The individual costs of my projects in today's dollars ranges to a billion. For the last 25 years of my career, I was the structural engineer for at least 50 PV projects (that were built) with capacity ranging to 50 MW and rack design development for such firms as SolarWorld, SunPower and Sharp. I stand in support of your unanimous vote in favor of the ordinance qualified by the Friends of 10 by 20. During your consideration of the measure, would you please consider and discuss among yourselves the following? • Staff buy-in. How can you encourage the staff to get behind what will become your ordinance? I have heard of comments that border on obstruction and at the very least muddy the waters: • Definitions of the wording. Interpret the words any way you wish. Please just get us the new 10%--Timely and in full consideration of cost to the ratepayer once reliable estimates can be made. • Lack of current funding so project cannot be pursued until the 2017 biennium budget is approved. Please be directive to do what it takes to legally, fruitfully use the 5 months being awarded by the Council with its approval. • The BPA contract does not reward conservation, much less new local generation. Please hire an experienced utility attorney to begin what would be the 6th amendment to this contract to favor us. I know our US Senators will support us. These are only a few comments I have heard. The staff and you all must be on the team to get this done. • Put an experienced management team in place. • You need our project publicized in the industry. This should start on approval of your ordinance. • You need a preliminary, strawman schedule or schedules with milestones (checkpoints) to monitor progress as well as comparative preliminary budgets. This should start on approval of your ordinance. trust you will approve the ordinance this evening. If not, we will be back with 8,000 (and must say, frustrated) votes in November. If you do approve it this evening (which I fully expect), it is critical that progress begins so we do not lose the benefit of the 5 or so months your approval would yield. The sooner we get started, the sooner we will complete this important project. Thank you for your consideration. Jeff Sharpe, 553 Fordyce St tI I'm an active community member;--local biz Qv~+~e & F e#es~+~>naf-€ g , be-e - Aa;+4-N20. Five years ago Mayor Stromberg advised me to build and prove a local business before proposing any disruptive City development projects. To that end, with lots of hard work, SES has grown to be a respected contractor for Oregon Department of Energy projects across the state; DSM consultants for Pacific Power & ETO; and design-builders of renewable energy projects for schools' and the US Fish & Wildlife Service. From that experience platform, I'm here to share my excitement about the 10x20 ordinance, and the three requirements for the energy it provides: 1) The energy has to be New- likely sources include solar, wind and micro-hydro projects. Extra power generated by improving our existing Reeder hydro-plant will also qualify. 2) It must be Local- Including only those sources with direct connection to Ashland's existing electric system. 3) It has to be Clean- Of our three most abundant renewable energy sources- Wind at Mt. Ashland, Solar almost anywhere, and Biomass fed at an 15 receiving station; only wind & solar meet the industry- standard of "Clean". For Wind- We have a true Class-5 wind site, with supporting infrastructure in place, at our beloved Mt. Ashland. Analyses suggest that (3)3MW wind machines, akin to those in the Columbia Gorge, with direct- connect to the City, could produce the required 10%.2 For Solar- PV technologies have been booming, and Ashland has extremely good solar potential. Expansion of existing city programs to get solar on all viable municipal buildings, schools & essential facilities, coupled with about 40 acres of new community solar, could prove a healthy path for meeting 10x20, while providing both economic stimulus and vocational development for the citizenry. 3 Our Ashland Electric workforce appears excited and capable of taking on this 10x20 challenge. Expanding our crews' capabilities, while updating our electrical infrastructures, will open doors for economic development in the emerging technologies, while providing the City a measure of energy security and long-term price stability. Development of 10x20 will open doors to new ideas and strategies; Perhaps we will repurpose our beleaguered AFN to be the backbone of a new City metering, monitoring and demand-management platform.4 We may locally manufacture components for the systems we install, and micro-grid our essential facilities, freeing them from Grid vulnerabilities. Learning institutions might jump onboard with curriculums and think-tanks focused on optimizing ways to finance and develop sustainable energy infrastructures (what better use of our school and university resources than developing real-world solutions)! It's going to be fun to watch the benefits emerge from Ashland's 10x20. Thank you all for your service to our community! J# Footnotes- 12016 PV Tracker video, 22015 Mt.A wind report, 32016 1 mperatricelOMW cost study, 42014 case-study Powell Electric Fiber-Network To save council from having to type links for each, we consolidated them here- Financing- We know of 3 models financing projects like these (Utility or Industrial Revenue Bonds & Lease-Lease back arrangements), and are confident there are other new opportunities just waiting to be tapped. Energy efficiency and Demand Management are sure to play leading roles in the pursuit of a clean and stable local energy platform, and will be needed to offset the inevitable increased demand electric vehicles will bring, but they do not produce new energy, and so don't contribute to 10x20. ICt 5,,b mule-Asa anember of the CEAP committee I can see i ir'.st hared that the final reconini 2nclations are going I[o take time to Jli-iPlelilent. However, there is urgetic.y that is needed its we ii,e to address the city%'s { lIG emissions in a timely i) mime r. Can you accept that t.;limate Change is a like bio pothole? Rising to the climate challenge means pi.isliiilg ha=.::k houndaries, overcoming obstacles. being bald and doing some daniage . or-~trol. Can you accept that it is more cost effective to invest in the creation of new, clean, local, renewable energy than c.orrtiiluing hLISjnII-SS LIS t.is€-iaP Can you accept that the creation of new, clean, focal, renewable energy, is a pr-iident public health ac-Lion as well as being a prUderst 'nvironn-iental Sustainability action? As with any project-like filling a pothole - ther'c: is a lot of prep work that needs to be done. Approving this ordinance allows time for the needed preparation that should be done tpy areneI'g4`pc'i`t to develop yin E'fE''ti%c` f'li£'i`llail, You have before You an opport>uinity to take the bull by the horns, to take (a progressive step in green Douse gas reductiorIS that c°an also create a financial reward for all of us. Personal responsibility means taking care of y%_)urself (e.g., maintaining one's healthy and taking care of others (e.g., protecting their health). But let nie rennin you of the phrase: `the ethic of excellence' that -:.ails on all o,f us to n-IaKe the world better (improvii"tg the envir'onnrent or at least: preserving it.) e have a moral r ~spc)nsibility -o provide future generations with conditions that enable there to realize their own arnibitions areal goals. What Ashland does \vill Trot make a significant ,:tent in global GHG emissions, but it is OUr° city`s responsibility to do its share acid As land needs to assume its share of responsibility for the problem. I submit that it is not eiror,rglI to r'est: Oil actions toward conservation we as a city have made in the past. We need to step up and do something more to hells fix this pothole. As `secretary of State John Kerry recently said, "The choices you make about energy policy will determine whether or riot we as a p anet survive and overcome this hurdle that has been br.idt because of the ways eve adopted to provide power to communities over history from the beginning of the lndi..istrial Revolution without completely understanding what the consequences ofthose sources were.,. "But now" lie continued "we understand. Now the science is clear. And now we have a responsibility to make the right choices." Approval of the ordinance followed by Council directive to city staff to work together with 'a qualified er er expert to shov,,7case Ashland's flan for alleviating climate change is dust one of the steps necessary and is a right choice.