Fowler,
a small town in Colorado, USA, with a population of slightly over 1,000
have recently became a standard-bearer for towns looking to become
green town. It went grid neutral, i.e., producing as much or more power
than it uses.
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| Image: city-data.com |
How
many towns, or even villages around and near you that have population
of 1,000? Many, I bet. I know of some villages/towns that span some tens
of acres that boost a population of 1,500 and above. We are not
particularly interested in the inhabitants but rather lessons we can
learn from what the folks did in Fowler.
Fowler's green initiatives
The
initial motivation, according to the town's former administrator, Wayne
Snider, was to save money but they realised that it was also the
potential to create more jobs.
One
initiative that came to fruition was a 600 kWp photovoltaic panels at
seven sites around the town on municipal property. It was a $1.2 million
project that sells the electricity back to Fowler at about half the
rate of the current utility. First year saving from this initiative was
estimated at $20,000.
Others
that have been planned were 2 MWp solar array at the south of the town,
and an anaerobic digestion plant that would create 45 jobs which could
bring Fowler closer to grid-neutrality. These did not materialise though, after
the change in the leadership of the small town lead to changes in the
solar rebates policy. Snider has since move to work on similar green
projects at other towns in Colorado.
Lessons to learn
With
the numerous green campaigns by both public and private sectors in
Malaysia, I believe that a large majority of Malaysians would have now become aware of the importance of Renewable Energy and many would like their
energy coming from clean energy sources. This can be done less
expensively if the appropriate structure is developed. It takes people
with an open mind who have a desire to make change for the better.
We
know that we can benefit from the recently gazetted Renewable Energy
Act 2011, but I feel that sometimes we don't need everything to be
legislated for new green ideas to flourish. Fowler is a small town and
it is the smaller townships that are more suited for these sort of
programmes as they can cut much of the cities red tape.
Lastly,
if you have small town that is away from the grid, why not think about
combining solar photovoltaic, bio-gas and wind mills to supply small
power for the town? It's called decentralised power and it's green!
More lessons can be learn from what Gussing, Burgenland did for its 3,764 or so population.
Note: The Fowler story can be found at Renewable Energy World.
