Renewable Energy Projects

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Created on Thursday, 09 May 2013 16:32
Written by Courtland Hanley

SPEED programNORTHEAST KINDGOM - Sustainability and renewable energy are both features of an emerging eco-friendly lifestyle. The Sustainably Price Energy Enterprise Development (SPEED) program is one specifically designed to create and fund renewable energy projects around the state, including the NEK.

The SPEED Program helps companies such as the Lyndonville Electrical Department by buying and selling renewable electricity.

The goal is to get the Lyndonville Electrical Department to 20% renewable energy by 2017, and to 75% by 2032. Asa Hopkins of the Department of Public Service says "In the energy sphere, renewable energy is really the only kind of energy that we have that meets that sustainability threshold... We believe that in the long-term that's where the value for Vermonters will be."

The SPEED Program also works with the Sheffield Wind Farm, where a wind power resource project is currently under way. The project capacity is forty mega watts, with an output of 112,000 megawatt hours.

Not everyone agrees with Hopkins. Lyndon State College physics professor and Sustainable Studies Program Chair Ben Luce finds faults with the Speed Program. "So we basically have a fraudulent program, and it tends to drive the wrong types of development, and it also tends to be financially unfair to Vermonters," said Luce. Luce points out that the SPEED Program doesn't take advantage of other renewable energy sources.

Investments are already locked in, however, and the SPEED Program expects to create more renewable energy throughout Vermont in the coming years.