Renewable energy to play a big part in Ohio's future

Infrastructure, work force exist to make investments in alternative energy pay off, an official says.

How Ohio measures up to other areas and countries when it comes to renewable energy efforts

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 12:11 AM Sunday, March 28, 2010

DAYTON — If Ohio were a country, its electricity demand would rank 19th among the world’s nations — right above Iran and below Saudi Arabia.

Coal burning quenches about 90 percent of that industry-fueled thirst, and 70 percent of that coal must be imported from other states.

Ohio is not regarded as an energy-producing state, but that’s slowly changing. What’s changing too is the focus on energy as an economic driver. Some believe energy projects can help the region recover from the toxic mix of vanishing jobs, idled factories and devastating foreclosure rates.

“If you look at Ohio today, we are in the perfect storm. We have a lot of idled manufacturing infrastructure in the region. In some cases it has been abandoned,” said Mickey McCabe, the University of Dayton’s vice president of research. But when you are restructuring the power equation “that manufacturing infrastructure is exactly what’s needed. We have plants sitting here waiting to be used by some other technology — coupled with a work force largely out of jobs.”

Shifting from such a heavy reliance on coal won’t happen overnight, but the region is making a huge investment in alternative energy projects.

Ongoing ventures

• A 1.1-megawatt Dayton Power & Light solar array will test sun power in Washington Twp. A second, smaller array will complement energy research at the Mound Advanced Technology Center in Miamisburg. The state has also approved a wind turbine power project for Champaign County that will include about 50 turbines, the first such project of any size here.

• A solar production line, awarded $50 million in federal tax credits, will expand a Circleville DuPont plant. A DP&L coal plant in Adams County burns test mixes of pulverized, compressed plant matter.

• The U.S. Air Force, leery of foreign oil dependence, awarded $50 million to UD, a record school contract. A six-year goal: figuring out how U.S. coal and biomass can be used to make jet fuel.

Key to an energy-based economic revival is not only building projects to blunt dependence on fossil fuels, but also beating international markets. And in the race for renewable power, Ohio is already playing catch-up.

“This will be heavy lifting,” said Mike Grauwelman, president of the Mound Community Improvement Corp., the manufacturing and research cradle at the former Department of Energy plant. “We have to reach deep down inside and find the opportunities to rebuild this community. We have rested on the laurels of the past, and ridden the wave of success that entrepreneurs created for us here. We didn’t need to do anything differently (then). Frankly, now we have to.”

Research money

Public investment into new energy tech hasn’t been lacking. Ohio has channeled $123 million in Third Frontier Project research grants to the Dayton region since 2002, according to the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, the third highest to any Ohio city. Much of that was for fuel cells and energy related projects.

The next step is putting those projects into practical use, and that’s a task as “profound as the telecommunications revolution, but more complex,” said Bruce Katz, the Brookings Institution co-author of a wide-ranging report released in February titled “Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy.”

“We need national government, state and cities to make smart decisions here,” Katz said.

In some ways, Katz said, the state’s legacy of industrial innovation is on the line.

Ohio “might be battered, but it still has enormous assets and enormous potential. We should not forget that,” he said. “We use phrases like the ‘Rust Belt’ and diminish the industrial power of the country. I believe the U.S. can compete globally, but we have to get our act together.”

A massive undertaking

Changing Ohio’s coal-based power system has been likened to turning around an ocean liner — one with plenty of icebergs in its path.

There are many reasons to do it voluntarily, but the state also doesn’t have a choice. It’s imposed a deadline.

Under state-mandated energy requirements approved in 2008, 25 percent of all electricity sold in Ohio must come from alternative energy by 2025. Wind, solar, hydroelectric power, geothermal, and biomass must account for at least half that. The other half can be nuclear, fuel cells, energy-efficiency, and cleaner coal. The Brookings Institution called it the seventh most aggressive energy transition standard in the nation.

Getting there won’t be easy. For example, Ohio will need approximately 800 more solar arrays like DP&L’s to meet the state’s 2025 solar power mandate. Another ongoing effort plans 250 wind turbines in Lake Erie to generate 1,000 megawatts of power by 2020, powering 300,000 typical homes, said Steve Dever, executive director of Lake Erie Energy Development Corp.

Exchanging old technology for the new requires time, commitment and lots of money. FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron is working to convert one plant from coal to biomass combustion, making it one of the biggest in the nation to convert. The ocean liner has a ways to go before it changes course.

“It’s a huge shift for a big electric state like Ohio,” said Mark Shanahan, Gov. Ted Strickland’s energy adviser.

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