At first glance, Georgetown, Texas, doesn’t seem to be a likely city to commit to 100% renewable energy. It is a small town in fossil fuel rich Texas. It has a large population of senior citizens and its civic pride comes from the “old-school charm” of the central town square. It doesn’t share the progressive values that have informed similar decisions in a dozen or so other U.S. cities and it doesn’t have the green branding that the City of Vancouver has, which also recently committed to 100% renewable energy. Indeed, Jim Briggs, the City Manager who led this decision making process, was called names for first suggesting they consider renewables, names like Al Gore. This is conservative country.
But, when you scratch the surface of this decision, it starts to make a lot of sense. Texans like to think of themselves as pragmatic and in this case you have to hand it to them. Briggs has said “we didn’t do this to save the world – we did this to get a competitive rate and reduce the risk for our consumers.” Renewables were simply cheaper and less volatile than any other source of electricity.
Georgetown has signed a 30-year agreement with SunEdison to supply 150 megawatts of power from their soon to be built solar energy plants in West Texas. The remaining balance of Georgetown’s electrical needs will be served by a purchase agreement with an EDF wind energy farm near Amarillo. The combined plan will provide electricity at 9.6 cents per kilowatt hour, similar to current rates from conventional sources and cheaper than the national average. A similar rate could have been obtained from natural gas sources, but it would have been subject to price fluctuations. Renewables provide price stability.
Mr. Briggs may say he is the “furthest thing from an Al Gore clone you could find,” but on this particular issue the two men may share some common ground.