Athens turns out big for alternate energy event

The Athens area made a big showing on Monday when the Ohio House of Representatives Alternative Energy committee had a field meeting at the Hocking College Energy Institute in Logan.

State Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, co-chairs the committee, which heard testimony from a local alternative energy installer and the director of energy and environmental programs at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, among others.

Matthew Bennett, president of Dovetail Solar and Wind in Athens, said that his company is one of the oldest installers of solar electric photo-voltaic, solar thermal and wind-energy systems in Ohio.

He said that Advanced Energy Fund grants are the primary reason that Ohio is enjoying economic stimulus from the current growth in the renewable energy sector.

“The fact that the legislation authorizing this fund is set to expire this year threatens to derail the new renewable energy economy in Ohio,” he warned. “Renewal of this program is the single most important issue facing solar and wind companies such as Dovetail.”

He argued that the indirect benefits stemming from the fund go way beyond installing clean-energy systems.

“Educational enhancements, energy independence, consumer cost savings, supply-chain growth and improved environmental protection are felt across the state as a result of this program,” he said.

He added that improvements to the fund’s structure and implementation are needed along with its renewal. Grants are still taking up to four months to get processed, he said, and paperwork gets lost in the system.

“The residential program is set up in a manner that prevents a steady flow of projects and has caused a huge backload of residential customers waiting to be allowed to submit grant applications,” he said.

With most of the money for the fund coming from residential customers, Bennett testified that it’s an egregious mistake that the money ends up going to commercial projects. Every customer of a regulated electric utility pays 9 cents per month into the fund, he said.

“That a residential customer using only a few hundred KWH per month pays the same as a commercial customer using tens or hundreds of thousands of KWH per month is a slap in the face and illustrates the misplaced political muscle of the commercial sector in Ohio,” he said.

The underlying barrier to a smooth adoption of clean energy is a lack of a comprehensive strategy for Ohio and the United States, Bennett argued.

Meanwhile, Scott Miller, from OU’s Voinovich School, spoke about the university’s energy products, saying they are working with policymakers and state and federal agencies to change the way government, businesses and the education community collaborate.

He pointed to the university’s Consortium for Energy, Economics and the Environment, which has grown OU’s externally sponsored research significantly with more than $32 million received since its inception in 2004.

“More than 30 faculty and staff members university-wide researching energy and environmental issues can be credited for 38 invention disclosures, 96 patent applications, nine patents and $745,000 in royalty fees generated from energy-related technologies since 2005,” he said.

He also cited TechGrowth Ohio, one of six Ohio Third Frontier-funded entrepreneurial signature programs. TGO clients with advanced-energy technologies include solar, geothermal, biomass and other solutions, he said.

“We are guided and motivated by the promise of a better future, and when the last stone is in place, our creation will serve as an analogous testament to what can be achieved when great ideas are given a voice,” he said.

Jerry Hutton, the dean of Hocking’s Energy Institute, offered up a fitting quote by Thomas Edison in 1931 in his testimony:

“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy – sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

ATTENDEES AT THE conference also heard a presentation from OU associate professor Gerri Botte about her system for producing hydrogen from a plentiful source – human urine.

Botte has worked for eight years researching turning ammonia from waste into hydrogen for use as an energy source. She and Ken Shields set up E3 Technologies, Inc., and have developed a “greenbox” that companies can use to reduce energy costs.

Jeff Hatfield, the CFO of Sunpower in Athens, also gave a presentation on his company.

Sunpower is a world leader in free-piston Stirling engines, coolers, and linear compressors.

The company provides Stirling engines to NASA for deep-space exploration, Hatfield explained.

Rep. Phillips said that the field hearing was a chance to showcase southeast Ohio.

“I am pleased that we could gather legislative and industry leaders to demonstrate the enormous influence and innovation of the alternative-energy sector in our area of the state,” she said. “Southeastern Ohio has established herself as a hub of advanced-energy technology with the potential to propel Ohio to a leadership position in the economy of tomorrow.”