Washington D.C. – June 16, 2010 - The Subcommittee on Energy and Environment today held a hearing examining the roles that federal agencies as well as the private sector play in providing forecasting data and services relevant to expanding the availability of reliable, renewable power.
“Despite many years—even decades—of growth in subsidies and vast resources targeted towards research and development, renewable energy sources remain significantly more expensive than conventional counterparts,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), a member of the Subcommittee. “Nonetheless, the last decade has seen significant integration of renewable energy onto the electric grid, fueled by many of these subsidies as well as State-level Renewable Portfolio Standard mandates.”
A significant barrier to the widespread adoption of many forms of renewable energy, including wind and solar, is that these sources are intermittent. Electric grid managers address this intermittency by adjusting the delivery of other sources of power based on expected changes in renewable power output.
Neugebauer noted that “Because renewable energy sources provide only intermittent contributions to the grid, they result in reliability concerns and must ultimately be backed by baseload power from conventional sources, which ultimately adds to the cost of delivering electricity.”
Witnesses today called for more accurate weather forecasting in order to alleviate reliability concerns associated with wind and solar energy. Dr. David Mooney, Director of the Electricity, Resources, and Building Systems Integration Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), said that “In order to reliably and cost-effectively integrate large amounts of wind and solar power generation into the power system, accurate forecasts are critical.”
However, specifically discussing the emergence of wind energy, Dr. Robert Michaels, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Energy Research, expressed doubts that wind energy will have much of an impact on displacing fossil fuels, or that government subsidies for the wind industry will create jobs. “Any possible increase in U.S. commitment to wind power should be viewed in light of recent European experience, and it should be viewed in both economic and political terms,” Michaels said. Referring to a recent study by a university in Spain, which concluded that government support for renewables actually destroys jobs rather than creating them, Dr. Michaels said that “Most jobs in that industry are in the production and construction of durable equipment and installations, with relatively few long-term operating positions.”
Michaels continued, “America's economic performance over the past two years gives little encouragement to those who believe that government spending can generate substantial and sustained increases in employment. But even if one believes in the efficacy of a stimulus package, renewables are probably a poor choice for the creation of job slots.”
The following witnesses testified today before the Subcommittee:
Ms. Jamie Simler, Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
Dr. Alexander MacDonald, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
Dr. David Mooney, Director, Electricity, Resources, and Building Systems Integration Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado;
Dr. Pascal Storck, President of 3TIER;
Mr. Grant Rosenblum, Manager of Renewable Integration, California Independent System Operator (California ISO); and
Dr. Robert Michaels, Senior Fellow, Institute for Energy Research.
For more information on today’s hearing, or to read witness testimony, please visit the GOP Science and Technology Committee website.
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