City looks for energy savings

By SCOTT SMITH

For Kokomo health food store owner Joan Kelsey, it seemed like a can’t-miss idea: putting up solar panels on her business, Sunspot Natural Foods.

The fact Kelsey and co-owner Michael Anderson qualified for a state grant to put up the panels probably didn’t come down to the name, but being called the Sunspot couldn’t have hurt.

“I thought, if we don’t get this, something’s wrong,” Kelsey joked. “It just went with everything we did.”

Atop the building, 27 panels work to light the Sunspot. Anderson estimates they’ve lowered the business’ electric bills by $200 a month.

And using sustainable energy for the past three months has already saved almost exactly one ton of carbon emissions, according to the meter clicking away in the Sunspot’s utility room.

What’s good for business, the thought goes, is good for jobs.

And what’s happening at the Sunspot could be a prelude to something similar happening — on a much larger scale — with the city of Kokomo.

City development specialist Dave Galvin has been working for months on an idea framed under the broad banner of “Kokomo Energy Partnerships.”

The idea is one that until a few years ago might have struck some as far-fetched — saving money and growing jobs by investing in renewable energy.

But in 2008, with both presidential candidates touting the idea of sustainability, a new national energy policy seems to be in the offing.

And city officials are among those anticipating an emerging market for renewable energy.

Figuring out how to sell energy to that emerging market is the easy part.

Solar panels, wind turbines and the methane created by human waste are all readily available sources of “green” energy. Further down the road, the cellulosic material in everyday trash could become the nation’s main source of ethanol.

Harvesting that energy, however, will require major investments.

Galvin’s job — his directive from Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight — is to figure out a way the city’s taxpayers can benefit from the emerging renewable energy market.

And that’s where the word “partnership” becomes key.

The technology exists to generate “biogas” from the stuff flowing into the Kokomo Wastewater Treatment Plant.

But building a digester to harvest methane and generate electricity could cost $3 million to $10 million, Galvin said.

If the city could find a partner for that investment, it would mean jobs for area residents, lower energy costs for the city, and a reduction in the amount of carbon flowing into the atmosphere.

For the partner, the project would produce credits toward carbon emissions and renewable energy goals.

As global warming and national energy independence concerns are translated into federal and state mandates, both partners would be ahead of a very large curve.

That’s the thinking behind the city’s initiative, a long-term plan to establish Kokomo as a progressive, sustainable community, Galvin explained.

“Our energy costs are a problem, so what can we do? One solution is simply ‘Don’t turn on the lights.’ Or we can change the light bulbs,” Galvin said. “But what about doing those things, but also doing something that creates jobs, helps the economy and creates renewable energy?”

It could begin with a project like the Sunspot’s, mainly because the city owns an 80,000-square-foot building with complete southern exposure.

The building, constructed in the late 1990s to house a composting operation, sits along Markland Avenue at the city’s wastewater plant.

Galvin envisions a large-scale solar panel array sitting atop the building, generating electricity. Inside the building, a biogas processing facility could be producing more electricity.

And Kokomo also sits within a geographic area suited to wind-power generation, another opportunity Galvin sees for renewable energy generation.

The key to making it all work, however, may be the Indiana General Assembly and whoever holds the governor’s office for the next four years.

“We’re talking with state leadership,” Galvin said. “We’re fighting for incentives for municipalities to not only help deal with the environment and energy costs, but also so we can deal better with House Bill 1001.”

House Bill 1001, the property tax reform vehicle forcing cities and counties across the state to cut spending, is another reason to look at anything which can save taxpayer dollars, Galvin said.

Any green initiatives the city rolls out will have to meet three criteria, Galvin said.

The projects will have to actually save the city money and reduce the city’s overall energy costs. Third, only Indiana labor — preferably from Kokomo — will be used, he said.

The overall goal is to win national recognition for Kokomo’s sustainability efforts.

“We’re talking about developing an economic sustainability program, designed to improve the economic environment of the area so we can compete and attract new jobs,” Galvin said.

And what is sustainability?

The standard definition these days is moving away from an economy based on fossil fuels and landfilling waste, to an economy based on renewable energy and recycling.

The technology of the future will push toward sustainability goals, and Kokomo can be a part of that, Galvin said.

Imagine a coal-fired power plant, Galvin said, where the carbon dioxide emissions are contained and pumped into huge beds filled with algae. The algae feed off the CO2, return oxygen to the atmosphere, and are eventually harvested for the production of biofuels.

That, he said, is a sustainable model.

Sustainability could also be something much more simple, like running a diesel fleet off used restaurant cooking oil. McDonald’s Corp. is already doing it.

Somewhere, Galvin believes, sustainable solutions will flow from the drawing board into real life, once economic incentives are in place.

That someplace, he said, ought to be the City of Firsts.

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