Winds of Change
By AJ Frank | November 10, 2004With America's growing dependence on foreign sources of oil and the recent increase in fuel costs, large energy consumers such as the University are looking to minimize their energy consumption and utilize other, more environmentally friendly, sources of power. The recent fall elections ballot at the University included a referendum asking students if they would be willing to pay an extra $7 a semester to have the University purchase approximately 12 percent of its total energy usage, 33 kilowatt hours, in the form of wind power, as opposed to currently used sources of fossil fuel and nuclear energy. Though only ten percent of students participated in the election, an overwhelming 87 percent of students who did vote approved the referendum, which the initiative's creators view as a clear sign that students are in support of their mission to bring clean, renewable energy to the University. A true windfall? The referendum appeared on the ballot largely due to the efforts of two environmentally focused student groups: Student Environment Action (SEA) and Student Alliance for Virginia's Environment (SAVE). "We got the idea for the referendum by learning about other schools' projects and how successful they were in making a substantial environmental impact," SEA President Khalial Wibhen said. According to SAVE President Elizabeth Dubovsky, if the administration agrees to the ballot-approved plan, the $7 per student would be used to buy wind energy credits from different wind farms dispersed around the United States. These certificates would subsidize the cost that it takes the wind farms to put wind energy on the grid, Dubovsky said, and in exchange the University would get a contract that guarantees that a certain amount of energy will be "earmarked" for the University and then added to the grid. Because there are no turbines near the University, the system of buying credits is the only way to guarantee that the 12 percent of energy it uses is replaced on the grid by wind energy, Dubovsky said. By buying such credits, the University would be increasing the demand for wind energy, in turn increasing the supply of wind energy and, more generally, increasing the general use of clean, renewable energy, she said. The biggest problem with integrating wind energy into the existing power grid, according to University Environmental Science Prof.
