Green Power: Boise Co-op is among businesses using it

The aisles at the Boise Co-op are bulging with healthy and natural foods that speak to the North End store´s environmental commitment.

But the Boise business also has become a major supporter of alternative forms of power.

Ken Dey
The Idaho Statesman

In the past two years, the business has invested $400,000 in ways to conserve energy and ease its reliance on fossil fuels.

Walking through the store, it´s hard not to notice the nearly 40 skylights dotting the ceiling that draw in natural light while easing the store´s dependence on electric lighting.

Behind the scenes, excess heat from refrigeration unit compressors is recaptured and used to heat the majority of the store´s hot water supply.

And what the store can´t do inside the building to support alternative energy it does outside its walls by contributing to alternative energy programs.

The Boise Co-op recently became the largest supporter of Idaho Power Co.´s Green Power program.

The program allows customers to pay a little extra on their bills each month to support so-called green power — power from wind, thermal or solar sources that don´t rely on fossil fuels.

“We can´t continue with the same resources we´ve had for so long,” said Richard Hedge, chief technology officer for the Boise Co-op.

“It´s important to move to other sources of energy, and this is a reasonable way to do it.”

Currently, the Co-op has agreed to pay a premium for 10 percent of its power needs in order to guarantee the money will support Green Power sources.

Hedge knows that the $400,000 invested in better energy efficiency efforts at the co-op will eventually pay for itself in energy savings, but the extra money spent on green power has a less tangible payback period.

Although it´s an extra cost, Hedge is hopeful it´s an investment that will eventually lead to a commercial wind farm in Idaho.

“A lot of our customers are progressive and environmentally conscious. By us doing what we´re doing, we know it won´t change the world, but it will make a difference,” he said.

Only a handful of businesses have signed up for Idaho Power´s Green Power program.

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The green power top 10

About 20 businesses have signed up for the Idaho Power Green Power program. The top 10 participants in the program, based on the percentage of green power purchased, are:

• Boise Co-op, Boise

• John Alden Life Insurance, Boise

• Peasley Transfer & Storage, Boise

• Salon Source, Boise

• Companions Animal Hospital, Boise

• Idaho Department of Water Resources, Boise

• Technichem Corp., Boise

• Sue A. Cook Design, Boise

• Architecture Plus, Ketchum

• Billingsley Creek Lodge, Hagerman

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Lori Bird, a senior energy analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., said there will always be a portion of the population that will not support renewable energy because they believe it´s more expensive than traditional power.

Alternative energy advocates like Bird say the very act of supporting green energy programs will help make them more cost-effective. And unlike traditional power generation, the price of producing green power isn´t dependent on the volatile price for fossil fuels.

Bird said customers in a green power program in Austin, Texas, found out the benefits of renewable energy during the recent energy crisis.

Customers in the program were paying a set price per kilowatt for their green energy, which at the outset of the program was higher than energy produced with natural gas.

But during the energy crisis, when gas prices soared, the renewable energy suddenly became very affordable.

A needed boost

Idaho Power officials hope that the involvement of the Boise Co-op and other businesses will help give a boost to the Green Power program.

Currently less than one-half of 1 percent of the utility´s residential and business customers participate in the program. Theresa Drake, who heads up the program for Idaho Power, would ultimately like to see at least 3,800 customers, about 1 percent of total customers, participating.

“I´m really excited about the Boise Co-op,” Drake said. “We want to tout that participation and encourage other businesses to get involved in this.”

Drake admits the program has evolved slowly since the company gained approval from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission in late 2000 to launch it.

A little more than 1,500 customers have signed up so far, including 20 businesses.

Although that tally is still well shy of the company´s goal, Drake isn´t surprised since the program launched in the middle of the energy crisis, when electricity prices were skyrocketing.

This spring, Idaho Power is set to announce its first major rate decrease in two years, and Drake is hopeful the lower monthly bills will spur customers to consider participating.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection agency, if a customer were to agree to spend $10 a month to buy power from non-polluting energy providers, that power would be enough to prevent 5.6 tons of carbon dioxide from polluting the atmosphere over the course of a year.

Mixed reviews

Drake and other Idaho Power officials say a growing interest in the Green Energy program could be one of the factors that influence the utility´s decision to invest in its own green energy production.

A fall 2001 study released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that among the 40 million American households with access to green power, only 350,000, roughly 1 percent, actually chose to purchase the power.

Programs similar to Idaho Power´s are in place across the country, and while some companies tout them as ways to aid the green power industry, others wonder if they´re worth the effort.

Dave Luck, who heads up business development for Enxco, a Danish company currently evaluating eight sites in Idaho for potential wind farms, said he´s “ambivalent” about green power programs, in large part because of their dismal participation level.

Luck also has concerns that some of the green power programs give the unfair impression that wind power is more expensive than traditional power.

“We have projects in the Midwest where a proven wind source and an enthusiastic power company have kept the costs down to considerably less than 3 cents (per kilowatt-hour),” Luck said.

Although wholesale power prices vary from region to region, many of the markets tracked by Idaho utilities have been selling power in the 3.5-cent to 4-cent range.

The wholesale power rate is different than the retail rate paid by utility customers.

On average, Idaho customers are paying about 6.8 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Wind power, however, does have the advantage of a 1.7-cent per kilowatt-hour federal production tax credit.

That credit expires at the end of this year and has yet to be renewed, but Luck is confident that it will be.

Luck also acknowledges that wind is the exception in the green power portfolio. Other sources of power, like solar and geothermal, still remain far more expensive than traditional power, he said.

Although green power programs have developed slowly, Bird, the energy analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said the programs do help green energy developers.

One of the biggest boosters of wind power and other alternative energy sources in Idaho is the Idaho Department of Water Resources, which participates in Idaho Power´s Green Power program.

“The green power program is a very effective way to sensitize people to the value of alternative fuels,” said department spokesman Dick Larsen.

“It´s a way to let them know we can create energy without having to use irreplaceable energy like oil.

“A lot of people want to do the right thing, and this gives them the opportunity.”

Doing the right thing is a common theme that resonates with the Boise Co-op and other businesses participating in the Idaho Power program.

“We´re the caretakers of this land, and as caretakers, it´s our duty to protect it for the future,” said Patsy Keeney, a co-owner of the Billingsley Creek Lodge in Hagerman.

Continuing the trend

The changes at the Boise Co-op are too new to accurately gauge the energy savings, but the business is moving ahead with plans for even more ways to conserve energy.

Hedge said the next project on the company´s horizon is installing more skylights that bring in more light and installing a lighting system that will use photo cells to read the amount of light coming in from the skylights and either dim the light or shut it down completely when it´s bright enough.

The heat-reclaiming system from the refrigeration units is one example of where the co-op is taking the lead for small businesses.

Ron Hiatt, president of Boise Refrigeration Service Co., said larger grocery stores use similar systems, but it hasn´t yet caught on with smaller businesses.

“It´s not difficult (to install),” said Hiatt, whose company installed the co-op system. “There is some cost involved, but the cost is pretty minor compared to the saving that they´re going to gain.”

Heat from the compressors is gathered into a copper piping system that feeds into two 100-gallon water storage tanks that heat the water to nearly 140 degrees.

The system supplies nearly all the store´s hot water needs. An additional energy efficient hot water heater was installed to provide an extra boost of hot water when it´s needed.

Because the Boise Co-op opted for this system, they were able to eliminate the need for five 30-gallon electric water heaters.

Hedge said the skylights have given workers and customers a non-economic benefit, as well.

“The most significant change is that people haven´t been as sick, and I think everyone is in a little better mood,” Hedge said.

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Ken Dey
[email protected] or 377-6428

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=36933