I am an engineer and President of Integrated Renewable Energy in Seattle, WA, USA. After 30 years doing systems engineering for space programs, I decided to transition to renewable energy systems and energy efficiency strategies. I am working to develop and implement energy strategies for industrial and commercial users in the Pacific Northwest of the United States....
What to Do With an Extra Kilowatt?
How can salmon benefit from our energy savings?
In a recent post, A Nominal Egg, I wrote that in order to maximize the effectiveness of our electricity conservation efforts, we needed to make sure that the electricity we saved did not just end up on the open market where it would actually lower prices for others and ENCOURAGE them to use it. I advocated that we invest the actual resources saved in not producing the electricity to restore other resources that we may have depleted. Here's one example on how to do it in a specific region.
A recent report by The Wilderness Society found that the top ten National Forests for carbon storage are all in Washington (3), Oregon (6), and Alaska (1). This is the heart of "Cascadia,' a region defined by salmon runs, evergreen forests, and, coincidentally, hydro power derived from the extensive river systems.
Currently, dam systems on many of the region's major rivers are damaging salmon runs, or outright running them to extinction. Logging has historically devastated watersheds where salmon return to spawn, rendering spawning streams unusable. Climate change is of course complicating the whole picture, changing ocean conditions and making it even more difficult for salmon runs to continue.
So here's how it would work in this situation. When we save energy, the water typically passed through the turbines to generate power is instead reserved for two other purposes. Part is released into the rivers to foster the salmon runs, and part is sold to irrigation districts being pressed to provide water for its members in the face of hotter and drier seasons.
Revenue from a fishing license surtax, and revenue from the irrigation districts is then used to retire logging rights on the forests. This in turn maintains healthy forests that capture carbon, filter water, and provide habitat for salmon (as well as a plethora of other species) to reproduce.
What we've done with this system is translate our electricity conservation into a rebuilding of other impacted resources. We've taken the saved electricity off the market, encouraging others to follow our conservation lead rather than take advantage of the continued lower electricity price.
So here's how it would work in this situation. When we save energy, the water typically passed through the turbines to generate power is instead reserved for two other purposes. Part is released into the rivers to foster the salmon runs, and part is sold to irrigation districts being pressed to provide water for its members in the face of hotter and drier seasons.
Revenue from a fishing license surtax, and revenue from the irrigation districts is then used to retire logging rights on the forests. This in turn maintains healthy forests that capture carbon, filter water, and provide habitat for salmon (as well as a plethora of other species) to reproduce.
What we've done with this system is translate our electricity conservation into a rebuilding of other impacted resources. We've taken the saved electricity off the market, encouraging others to follow our conservation lead rather than take advantage of the continued lower electricity price.
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