By Robert L. Candiotti, August 27,
2008
I am still slightly intoxicated from spending almost a full week imbibing "renewable
elixir" at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
It was not an alcoholic brew, but it was a potent quaff
of information, developments and visions regarding renewable energy in the Southwest USA.
On Monday,
August 18, former President Bill Clinton opened the National Clean Energy Conference at UNLV saying Nevada should be the nation's
"first completely self-sufficient clean energy state in the United States."
The following
day, continuing the National Clean Energy Conference, there was an impressive number of luminaries and masters of oratory all
talking about the need for, and potential of, renewable energy.
"Renewable fever" is
contagious.
Wednesday, August 20, was a day of academic reports at the 2008 UNLV Renewable Energy Symposium.
The symposium continued the energetic mood of the week. Most definitely, there was electricity in the air.
On Thursday and Friday there were field trips to the Nellis Air Force Base Solar Array and the Springs Preserve and Hydrogen
Fueling Station.
The field trips were fun. Utterly interesting, too.
However,
as I was attending each day's program, slowly but surely I started to sense there was a theme of caution running
through the week. Once I started looking for evidence of it, it became obvious.
Looking over my notes
from a week of renewable energy talks and field trips, it became clear there was an emphasis made repeatedly from the first
to the last day, and the emphasis was on the pressing need for transmission lines to carry the renewable energy from origin
to destination points. The passion and profit aspirations of so many people for renewables will not lead to success unless
there are adequate transmission facilities to get the new - and mostly rural - energy products to where they are
needed.
Over two days, Dina Titus, the Democratic candidate for Las Vegas' 3rd Congressional
district, mentioned the importance of transmission lines. She spoke at both the National Clean Energy Summit and the 2008
UNLV Renewable Energy Symposium.
Utah's Governor, Jon Huntsman, said that renewable energy infrastructure
requires "enhanced transmission capability."
At the Symposium on Wednesday, Thomas Fair,
renewable energy executive, Sierra Pacific Resources, said his company needs 500 miles of "new backbone transmission."
Later in the week, during a field trip on August 22 to Las Vegas' Springs Preserve, Dr. Oliver Hemmers, Director
of UNLV's Office of Strategic Energy Programs, said, essentially, that wind, solar and geothermal are all around
and are promising, but what is predominantly needed is an elaborate transmission grid.
