By Bob Seidenberg
rseiden914@gmail.com
Evanston has made good use of renewable energy certificates in the past, purchasing them to buy a stake in renewable energy projects elsewhere, even though the sources of that renewable energy may be some far-off wind farm in North Dakota.
City Council members reaffirmed continued use of that strategy Monday, voting 7-0 in support of buying the certificates.
Council Member Devon Reid (8th Ward), among those in favor, said he thought purchase of renewable energy credits has its place. “But I also think that we need to do more to make investments here locally,” he said. “And I just want to continue to put pressure on us.”
In April 2021, the city launched the second iteration of its Community Choice Aggregation program with MC Squared Energy Services, said Cara Pratt, the city’s sustainability and resilience manager.
Community aggregation, which Evanston has been part of since 2012, provides most residents with renewable energy services automatically, unless they choose to opt out.
Evanston receives a $500,000 grant annually as a result of the agreement. Staff recommended that a portion of the grant go toward purchasing renewable energy certificates “to reflect the City’s ambitious energy and climate goals and to remain true to the aggregation program, which has always purchased RECs on behalf of the enrolled accounts,” Pratt wrote in a memo to council.
By tapping the renewable energy from outside the city, Evanston receives emission reduction credits which it can apply to its overall carbon emissions use.
Reid argued that the city might consider shifting its strategy closer to home, given “that we are on a path where these sources of energy [wind and solar] are becoming more and more less expensive than other sources of energy.” He said tapping into those sources locally would “put Evanston on a better footing for the future.”
“I’m happy that there are communities elsewhere in the country, in the world, where they’ll breathe a slightly cleaner air and have access to these energy sources,” he said about Evanston’s investment in those renewable systems. He added, though, that doing that locally “will be the biggest dividend moving into the future.”
Council Member Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th Ward), a strong advocate for “green” causes on the council, said he was in full agreement that we need to do “whatever we can to maximize the amount of energy we generate here within the borders of Evanston.”
Council Member Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th Ward). Credit: City of Evanston YouTube
He said practically, that would mean solar energy, with Evanston not likely to put up a wind farm any time soon.
“And there’s no way [with] our tree canopy, which in and of itself is very important and valuable, that we are going to have enough solar panels to virtually take everything off the grid,” he said.
“So we are going to for the foreseeable future have to bring electricity from elsewhere,” he said, in support of remote renewable energy purchases.
Pratt told council members in a report last year that the city and its partners have made significant progress implementing the city’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan since 2018.
According to available 2021 data, she said, Evanston has reduced communitywide greenhouse gas emissions 38.3% compared with a baseline established in 2005. Without renewable energy certificates, emissions would have increased 2% from 2020 to 2021, she said.
Evanston buys renewable energy certificates from wind and solar energy produced elsewhere. Credit: Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
At Monday night’s meeting, she said staff discussed the aggregation program and the history of purchasing renewable energy certificates at the Utilities Commission and Environment Board meetings last month.
“The general consensus at those meetings was to purchase RECs on behalf of the accounts eligible for the Community Choice Aggregation Program this year,” she said in her memo, “but to consider alternative uses of the civic contribution grant in the future that result in further additionality of renewable energy locally.”
