Debate begins on Oregon's planned solar highway

www.energycurrent.com
7/30/2009

Solar highways now join wind turbines and wave-energy projects on the list of innovations that pit Oregon's increasingly green ethos against not-in-my-backyard activism. Some residents in West Linn and Oregon City are gearing up for a battle with the Oregon Department of Transportation over a proposal to install what promoters say would be the world's largest highway-related project along southbound Interstate 205 in West Linn.

Critics contend the proposal would require the removal of too many trees, ruin expansive views of the Willamette River landscape and leave taxpayers to foot the bill with generous tax credits. The project would be the state's second solar highway installation, after a prototype started last December just north of the I-205 interchange with Interstate 5. That project uses 600 panels to power freeway lights.

In West Linn, Oregon transportation officials propose installing 13,600 to 17,000 solar panels on about 15 acres of the 43-acre site. The panels would produce 3.2 million kW-hours of power each year, enough to power 168 homes, or about one-sixth of ODOT's needs in the Portland General Electric service area, which includes Portland and Salem.

"It's not the kind of thing that people can jump up and down and say it's the most beautiful thing in the world," said Scott Burgess, a West Linn councilor who supports the project. "It's not an issue of beauty. It's an issue of positive benefits from an environmental standpoint."

ODOT is legally barred from buying power at above-market rates, including higher-priced green-source power. That means that to meet the department's objective of using 100% renewable energy, officials must find other ways to supply the 47 million kW-hours of energy the state transportation system eats up annually, according to Allison Hamilton, director of ODOT's solar highway project.

At the West Linn site, the power generated would go onto the PGE grid. PGE would then sell ODOT green-source power for the price of traditionally produced power. "We want to make the project something the public embraces," Hamilton said. "By and large, the public response has been positive. I would find it to be a matter of public pride, personally, not something to rise up against."

State officials caution that the flagship project remains in the early stages. Plans call for private partners and utility companies to use tax credits, grants and other incentives to pay the $20 million price tag, which includes the purchase, installation, operation and maintenance of the panels. Officials are also considering expanding the current project at the I-5/205 interchange and also installing solar panels by the Baldock Safety Rest Area near Wilsonville, along I-5 near Medford and a few other sites.

The West Linn site is one of the most urban settings under consideration, and some neighbors say it's the wrong place to install an otherwise appropriate project. Residents complain that the removal of 150 to 300 trees would be counterproductive. But most of those trees would be small, project officials contend, and the amount of carbon offset by the solar panels would be far greater than the amount of carbon the trees could absorb.

It's the proposal that the state provide tax credits and incentives for PGE and other companies that doesn't sit well with Oregon City resident Paul Edgar. PGE has "use of Oregon land, but they've got it completely paid for free," said Edgar, who can see the site from his house in the Canemah neighborhood. "The way the law is written, we can't capitalize on it, period. This is not smart. We should be able to do something better."

Although the project can proceed without local support, ODOT officials said they probably wouldn't install the panels in a city that opposes them "This is the first time we've done a project of this size, so it's new territory," said James Whitty, manager of ODOT's office of innovative partnerships, which heads the project. "I can't say how it'd come out with mixed support."

History, beauty and the future converge on this patch overlooking the meandering Willamette River. Verdant bluffs and hills hug the horizon as sunlight reflects off the shimmering water. "This is a site we need to be saving for future generations so they can understand the end of the Oregon Trail and Willamette Falls," said Ed Lindquist, an Oregon City resident and former state legislator. "Now we're going to make it a solar capital? Wow, it's a little hard to put your arms around."

The cachet of having the world's largest solar highway project could easily fall to a larger project elsewhere, West Linn Mayor Patti Galle said at a recent City Council meeting. "Once the hype is gone, and it's no longer the largest," she noted, "we're going to drive by it every day and look at it."