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Elizabeth Cutright Elizabeth Cutright Distributed Energy Editor

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DE Editor's Blog

February 16th, 2009 12:14pm PST

A Glimpse of the Future?

Posted By Elizabeth Cutright Comments

There’s been a lot of talk about sustainability, “green jobs,” and the potential of renewables, but it’s not often that you find all three rolled into one under the mantel of distributed energy—even rarer … the source behind this combination is not a private commercial venture, but rather, the Mayor of Alamo City, TX—Phil Hardberger’s.

Hardberger hopes to transform his city into an international, renewable energy leader.  The first step towards this goal, according to the mayor, is the decentralization of the city’s electrical infrastructure.  The plan is to replace the city’s power plants with smaller power sources placed throughout the city—including rooftop solar and backyard wind turbines. 

The plan does not enjoy universal support, with many residents and political adversaries pointing to the high cost of implementing the new program, and skepticism as to the ability of a decentralized energy system to deliver new jobs and reduce electricity bills.  Advocates of the plan insist the project can succeed and ultimately pay for itself via the creation of new local jobs and financial support through the federal stimulus package. 

Ultimately, it seems to me that a distributed energy model—especially when combined with a Smart Grid—is the future.  Victor Flatt, chair of environmental law at the University of Houston, TX, was recently quoted saying the very same thing. “Even if there were no climate change, this makes sense,” he says. “It makes economic sense, because it provides jobs, it increases power efficiency, it helps lower bills—all of those things.” (http://sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69849)

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