http://www.azdailysun.com/
This article dated January 26, 2008 discusses a movement in Flagstaff towards sustainably produced power. A varied mix of organizations including Coconino Community College, Flagstaff Medical Center, the Museum of Northern Arizona, the City of Flagstaff, Xanterra Resorts, Nestle Purina Pet Care Co. and Northern Arizona University have come together and agreed to purchase approximately 5% of their power needs from renewable sources sometime in 2009 -2010. Obviously this mix of participants includes the private sector as well, but essentially this is planning for sustainability at the local government level.
The endgame of this coalition of actors is to generate enough demand for renewable sourced energy that an entity will invest in the local infrastructure to supply it. Based on the figures in the article this seems like a reasonable assumption if this consortium is willing to agree to a contract to ensure stabilized and continued purchasing volumes that will offset the costly investment of building the necessary infrastructure. As Wheeler notes some scales of planning are better suited for different types of planning and that some are “particularly salient” at the local level. While this consortium may generate enough demand to warrant investment locally, I am not convinced this is the most effective level for planning and certainly not salient.
While the City of Flagstaff is well suited to participate in aspects of local planning that can facilitate this movement towards locally produced energy from renewable sources, it may not be the ‘best’ level of planning. For example, the City can rezone areas as needed to locate an energy facility to maximize wind power or ease the permitting process. However, energy generation and distribution are extremely complex. As the article notes “In actuality, buying green power doesn't necessarily mean getting juice directly from a wind turbine or solar array, thanks to the complexity of the power grid. Customers who buy renewable energy usually receive whatever power is generated nearest them, but their utility company must purchase and bring into the grid whatever amount of electricity they purchase.”
Given this complexity of power transmission it seems likely that planning at the regional level may be more appropriate or effective. This is because at a regional level, say something including the Phoenix metro area, a larger scale will be achieved. This will facilitate better planning for future power needs as a larger view of growth planning can become considered in the design of the power facility. This could potentially create a facility that provides much more power for many more people. In fact given the complexity of power needs in the southwest a much larger region still could be used to develop more comprehensive programs. Though there would be some drawbacks to these larger levels as more actors are involved and the process would likely becomes increasingly bureaucratic and time consuming. The implementation could be years out and reaching consensus among the members could be highly political and difficult.
Ultimately though I think it may be more environmentally sound if a regional plan was considered and executed. Flagstaff may well court the development of a local investor, but what happens when the needs quickly outweigh the production? Will forest lands be consumed to make way for more power production? Perhaps it would be more environmentally sound to utilize large barren and untenable acreage in the dessert to produce energy from renewable sources. Solar power generated in the vast open dessert of Yuma perhaps?
