Center helps develop plan for Kentucky’s future energy production, use
October 23rd, 2007
An economic revolution is poised to take place in the United States that will make the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries pale by comparison. Get ready for the agricultural revolution.
Centering on the search for alternative fuel sources, it could pull the hub of the nation’s economy back to the land and to rural areas. More than that, those alternative sources — from plants and waste products — could give the United States a good start toward energy independence, said Cam Metcalf, executive director of the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center (KPPC) at the University of Louisville.
Already in Kentucky, Metcalf said, there are communities where farmers grow corn that is refined locally into ethanol. Area auto dealers carry vehicles that run on E85 ethanol, which the farmers (and others) buy and use on their farms.
Metcalf calls this “closing the circle,” and said that by doing that in more and more communities, it will help to keep the cost of alternative fuels affordable, and the country will gain energy security.
KPPC is helping to instigate the agricultural revolution by providing oversight for the Kentucky Rural Energy Consortium. The consortium was started in 2005 to sponsor research and development in renewable energy resources and bio-based products, provide education and encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy efforts throughout Kentucky.
An initial $2 million federal appropriation secured by U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning is being used to fund research by UofL and University of Kentucky professors. KPPC recently received an additional $308,900 from the Governor’s Office of Energy Policy to fund, among other things, KREC’s participation in the Kentucky 25 x ’25 Roadmap initiative.
For that project, KREC is charged with developing the initiative’s strategic plan and vision. The roadmap mirrors the national 25 x ’25 initiative, and is focused on increasing renewable energy from Kentucky’s farms, ranches and forests to the point that they provide 25 percent of the commonwealth’s total energy need by the year 2025.
One goal, Metcalf said, is to reach the 25 x ’25 goal without adversely affecting the affordability of other products that come from the land, such as food, animal feed and fibers.
KREC is putting together a three-part report that includes an economic analysis, information gathered from farmers in town hall sessions around Kentucky, and data from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture on the possible types of energy sources available in the state, including sun, wind, canola oil, waste wood and timber — even waste from pigs and chickens.
The plan, Metcalf said, also will outline the policies, tax incentives, legislation, training and awareness that will be needed for the next 17 years to meet the 25 x ’25 goal. KREC expects to have it completed by the end of the year.
KREC is only one component of KPPC’s work. Since 1995, KPPC has helped schools, businesses and industries learn how to become better managers and consumers of energy. It also has shown them how to better use federal and state environmental management resources and tap into other incentives for responsible environmental stewardship. The KPPC mandate came from the Kentucky legislature in 1994.
Related Link
Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center
25 x ’25
