Senate energy legislation

By Dick Munson

September 22, 2009

Summary of provisions impacting cogeneration and recycled energy

Clean Energy Deployment Administration offers direct loans or loan guarantees for clean energy technologies, advanced energy infrastructure, and energy efficiency applications. It seeks to enhance the DOE’s existing loan-guarantee program. The fund begins with an initial investment of $10 billion.

Federal Renewable Electricity Standard calls for a minimum percentage of 15 percent by 2020. Renewable technologies solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, hydropower, marine and hydrokinetic, coal-mined methane, waste-to-energy, and others as determined by the secretary. On a governor’s (or TVA board’s) petition, 5.33 percent of the standard can be met from energy efficiency, including CHP (defined as the increment of electricity output of a new CHP system that is attributable to the higher efficiency of the combined system, as compared to the efficiency of separate production of the electric and thermal outputs). The alternative compliance payment is 2.1 cents/kwh (as adjusted for inflation). Biomass CHP receives 1.5 credits if 90-percent efficient or more (1.25 for 70 percent, and 1.1 for 50 percent). The Secretary can waive the annual requirement if a utility’s incremental cost of compliance exceeds 4 percent per retail customer in any year.

Biomass collected from federal land must be harvested in ways that maintain or contribute toward the restoration of ecological sustainability. Acceptable materials include slash; brush and trees that are byproducts of ecological restoration, disease or insect infestation control, or hazardous fuels reduction treatment; or brush and trees that do not exceed the minimum size standards for sawtimber.

Industrial energy efficiency revolving loan program provides grants to eligible lenders to provide loans to commercial and industrial manufacturers that reduce systems energy intensity and improve industrial competitiveness. Authorized $1.5 billion.

Industrial efficiency section calls for better coordination of existing programs, studies of energy-efficient technologies that could be implemented within energy-intensive industries, road maps that set efficiency targets for key industries, integration of industrial research and assessment centers, and a sustainable manufacturing initiative between DOE and NIST.

FERC is to set interconnection standards for facilities of 15 kilowatts or less, and the Commission shall create a model standard for facilities up to 20 megawatts.

DOE is to complete an efficiency review to quantify the efficiencies of, and annual carbon dioxide and other emissions from, electric generation facilities in the U.S. The study must also identify technologies, equipment, and procedures that could increase generation efficiency; calculate the greenhouse-gas emissions that would be reduced by such efficiency; and highlight obstacles to achieving such increased efficiency.