By: Kellie Hebert

To get a good grasp on how sustainable living can be implemented into Oregon there are several different factors that must be examined. This paper is going to provide various information necessary to establish that needed background. To start there is a small briefing on Oregon’s economy, population, and geography. Not being an Oregonian, this data provides an excellent amount of material so that a feeling of comfort is gained about the knowledge of the state. Secondly, energy use plays a large part in sustainability, so common trends of the state’s consumption and use will be examined from 1960 to 1997. The current uses, 1997 data, will be delved into more specifically. The only sources of energy we know that will be around forever are the majority of the renewable energy sources that currently exist. Therefore, Oregon’s current and future outlook of renewable energy will be explored, including the possibilities and limitations that surround each renewable source. Now, let’s get down to business!

Oregon has one of the fifteen most diversified economies in the United States. Oregon’s physical geography along with its location within the country has provided the economy and population with a rapid growth, which turns out to be higher than the nations as a whole. This is partly due to the states location along the Pacific coast where major port facilities are present to help aid in the United States and foreign market trades.

The fertile agricultural lands, fisheries, and dense forests of Oregon have supplied numerous products to trade or sell. Oregon’s economy is based on forest products, agriculture and food processing, tourism, primary and fabricated metals, transportation equipment, and high technology.⁵ Oregon’s forest products produce one fifth of the nation’s softwood lumber, much of its soft plywood, and large quantities of hardboard, pulp, and paper. Making Oregon number one ranked in producing wood products.⁶ In the 1980’s Oregon’s economy had a downturn most likely due to the fact that Oregon started reducing it’s use of natural resources and switched to more industrial products. The main impact noticed by this change was that this industrial switch created more jobs in urban areas, which produced an increase in wages.

Before 1980 Oregon had a high unemployment rate and a low income per capita rate compared to the nations. After the 1980’s the state’s high unemployment rate started lowering toward the nation’s average. The employment growth rate was high at 4% in this period.¹⁰ While the income per capita in 1980 was considerably low, 90% of the national average.⁵ Due to the new high technology and industrial jobs the percentage of income per capita in urban areas, mainly in Willamette Valley which is located south of Eugene to Oregon City, compared to the nations was 95% in 1988 and 101% in 1997.⁵

In 1996 the population was 3,204,000 and in 1997 it was 3,207,000, which resulted in a population growth rate of 1.6%.⁵ In 1997, 70.2% of the state’s population lived in three metropolitan areas, Portland, Salem, and Eugene.¹⁰ Out of these three cities Portland is the only one that is not in the Willamette Valley, but its in close proximity to Salem. Statewide the income per capita was 95% of the nations in 1997.⁵ Where most of this comes from within the three major cities.

Most of the unemployment has been in the rural areas of the state as indicated by the previous statistic. Eight of the thirty-six counties in Oregon have unemployment rates of 10% or more in 1997.⁵ As previously mentioned the annual growth rate from 1995-1996 was 1.6%, but from 1990-1997 the annual growth rate was 1.8%.⁵ This percentage is almost double the national growth rate. The current growth rate is starting to cause a problem within the urban cities; congested roads and the quality of the air and water are starting to be a major concern. This is mainly due to the fact that Oregon has many small urban cities, along with an extremely clean environment, lots of open space and many outdoor recreational activities are available which draws people who value the quality of these choices.

Here is a map of Oregon courtesy of http://www.nationalgeographic.com

Just as the economy is extremely diverse in Oregon so is its geography. Oregon has many mountain ranges, moist rain forests, and fertile valleys to the west and naturally arid and harsh climates of the eastern deserts. The major mountain ranges are the Klamath, Cascade, and Blue mountains, which supplied the core of Oregon’s economy in the past. The primary land of the state is the Willamette Valley where the majority of the population, industry, and transportation can be found. The climate varies from the mild, marine conditions of the coast to the continental conditions of dryness and the extreme temperatures of the interior. The major rivers in Oregon are the Columbia River and the Snake River, which are both partially in the state while the Willamette River and the John Day River are both entirely in the state.

Past Energy Use (data in this section was supplied form resource 3)

From 1960-1980, Oregon’s total energy consumption more than doubled, at a gradual increasing rate, from 471.5 trillion BTU’s to 946.8 trillion Btu’s. During the period 1979-1986 the state’s consumption slowed down and then started falling in 1981. This was due to the switch in the economy. Jobs were being lost that revolved around the natural resources of the state, while work that involved high technology were increasing rapidly. Therefore, many Oregonians were cutting back on their total consumption. The two sectors in the state that were not increasing during this time period were the residential and commercial sectors. Oregon’s use of energy jumped ten trillion BTU’s in the following two years. Then is started its gradual increase again until present time.

In the year 1960 petroleum was the number one supplier of energy to Oregon at 212.7 trillion BTU’s, a little more than half of this was used for transportation. Oregon’s petroleum use for transportation increased by approximately 1% each year until 1991 when it reached 80%; from 1991 until 1997 petroleum’s use for transportation has steadied itself around 80% with a 2% variance. Hydroelectric power was the second biggest energy supplier to Oregon at 134.1 trillion BTU’s in 1960. Since 1960, hydroelectric power has more than tripled. Where almost all of the hydroelectric power has been used to the electric utility companies for the past thirty years. Hydropower’s use over the last thirty-seven years has not presented a common trend. There was a constant increase until the period 1975-1980 when there was a small, about 50 trillion BTU’s, decrease. This was due to the fact that nuclear power was just getting introduced into Oregon’s power supply. This caused less need for hydroelectric power. Nuclear power was only used for the electric utility companies; therefore with the decrease of hydroelectric power from 1975-1980 there was an equivalent increase in nuclear power. From 1980-1985 the high cost and social dislike of nuclear power caused Oregon to level off its use of nuclear power and start relying on hydroelectric power again. There was a drastic increase of about 180 trillion BTU’s during this time period. In the last fifteen years there have been major fluctuations in Oregon’s use of hydroelectric power use. From 1993-1997 there was another large increase in hydroelectric power use, which was caused by the end-use of nuclear power in 1993.

Biomass has been used in the residential and industrial sectors for the last thirty-seven years without a major increase or decrease in energy use compared to the other energy sources used in the state. In 1960, biomass use was at a low of 56.4 trillion Btu’s and in 1988 it was at a high of 111.7 trillion Btu’s. The major difference that occurred in biomass’s use was that over the past thirty-seven years wood was used less and less each year in the residential sector and more in the industrial sector. In 1960, the industrial sector used 66% of the biomass used in the state compared to 89% in 1997. The main reason for the decrease of biomass use in the residential sector was that more and more homes were starting to use more electricity and natural gas.

Natural gas is the third most used source of energy in Oregon. From 1960 to 1975 its use was on a gradual rise. From 1975-1987 there was a gradual decrease in the state’s natural gas use. From 1987 to 1997 there has been a drastic, more than double the energy consumption of 1986, occurring in a stepping pattern.

Oregon uses coal the least out of all the energy sources available to the state. Coal’s total use in Oregon for the last thirty-seven years is almost half of the amount of the total nuclear power used in the state for the twelve years that nuclear power survived in the state. Coal is primarily used at electric utility companies. The limited use of this source is mostly because of the large inexpensive energy that hydropower produces for the state.

Other than hydroelectric power and biomass, there has been an extremely small use of renewable energy sources. In 1989 there was 0.6 trillion BTU’s of geothermal, solar, photovoltaic, or wind power consumed. By 1997, there was a 0.4 trillion BTU increase in the use of these sources. Even though this number is relatively small, if you factor in the use of hydroelectric power and biomass then 50% of all energy consumed in 1997 was from renewable energies. While in 1960, 43% of all the state’s consumption was from renewable energy sources.

Current Energy Distribution (data in this section was supplied form resource 3)

The above graph shows the current energy distributions for the state of Oregon, and the following chart shows the breakdown of how much energy is actually being consumed in each sector. The electrical system energy losses are the amount of energy lost in the generation, transmission, plant use, and distribution of electricity.

Oregon often needs to buy or sell electricity from other states to keep up with the states demand for energy. Therefore, there is an interstate flow of electricity that must be accounted for, whether the energy is coming in or out of the state. In 1997, 10.8 trillion BTU’s of electricity went out of the state into the surrounding states. Following is a chart of Oregon’s past net interstate flow of electricity. If the value is positive then the electricity is coming into the sate, otherwise it is being sold out to different states.

Several companies supply Oregon’s electricity; the state’s electrical system is a part of a regional network. There is a share of electricity crossing the borders into other states. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and utilities buy, sell, and deliver electricity over transmission lines that link the Northwestern United States. The BPA is a government agency that markets the electricity in the Northwest from federal resources such as dams. BPA primarily services customer-owned electric utilities. Oregon has thirty-six customer owned utilities: eleven municipal utilities, nineteen cooperative and six people’s utility districts. Also, Oregon has three investor-owned electric utilities. Two major utilities supply 70% of Oregon’s electricity, Portland General Electric (PGE) and Pacific Power.⁵ Currently PGE has two renewable power choices- Clean Wind Power and Salmon-Friendly Power. The Clean Wind Power will be discussed in the next section, but the Salmon-Friendly Power uses the funds to help preserve and improve the habitat of the streams and rivers throughout the state. For the Sake of the Salmon, which is a northwest salmon recovery organization, receives the funds from PGE and allocates how the funds will be distributed.

Current Renewable Energy Use (1997, unless stated otherwise)

Currently all possible renewable energy sources are being used in Oregon. Energy is consumed mainly in a few different ways- for electricity or directly used on-site by a sector. Solar energy is used to produce five million kilowatt-hours of electricity. There are ninety-one photovoltaic systems used in the residential sector of Oregon. There are only a few photovoltaic systems within the commercial and industrial sectors. The newest project was started in 1995 in Bend, Oregon. Located here is a 0.005-megawatt grid connected photovoltaic array. Solar energy is directly used in 16,000 water heating systems and 1,600 space heating systems in the residential sector. The state of Oregon uses 288 million kilowatt-hours of geothermal energy. An example is the city of Klamath Falls, which used this source for a district heating system. Unfortunately, there is no supply of geothermal energy from Oregon. The commercial and industrial sectors are the primary users of direct geothermal energy; using approximately 308 billion BTU’s per year. The main commercial and industrial uses are for heating buildings, swimming pools, resorts, and industrial uses. The residential sector uses direct geothermal energy for space heating; approximately 113 BTU’s per year.

Currently wind power is creating 18 million kilowatt-hours for electricity. There is only one commercial-scale wind farm operating in Oregon at Vansycle Ridge in Umatilla County. This is a new project, which started in December of 1998 and contains 38 Vestas turbines. Its generating capacity is 24.9 megawatts, where Portland General Electric acquires 100% of the output. Also, there is the Wyoming Wind Energy Project that produces 41.4 megawatts and contains 69 Mitsubishi turbines. Pacific Corp electric utility company receives 80% of this power and Eugene Water and Electric Board in Eugene, Oregon receives the remaining 20%. Also, BPA buys 15 megawatts of the energy from one of the two previous companies and sells it to Salem Electric. There is no direct use of wind power in the state of Oregon.

In Oregon 28,652 million kilowatt-hours are produced by hydroelectric power for electricity. The plants on the Columbia and Snake River produce 60% of Oregon’s electricity. Since 1991 there has been 660.5 megawatts of new generation by hydropower. The newest projects are in Minidoka and the Grand Coulee Dam. In 1997, 6.8 megawatts of new generation was produced at Minidoka. While in 1998, an efficiency upgrade at Grand Coulee Dam produced 315 more megawatts. There is a small amount of direct use of hydroelectric power in the industrial sector. The dams that produce power use the hydropower for their power needs. This amount is irrelevant because it is considered into the cost of electricity.

Biomass is used directly in several ways, but mainly to supply heat for industrial processes and space heating in residential and commercial buildings. Biomass boilers currently heat 73 industrial facilities. In the residential sector, 50% or approximately 600,000 households use wood heating for their main space heating or backup-heating source. Another biomass process is anaerobic digestion, which is part of sewage treatment in thirty wastewater treatment plants in Oregon. All of these plants deal with an average wastewater flow of at least one million gallons per day. The newest plant of this type, digestion gas, is the Columbia Blvd. Wastewater Treatment Plant in Portland; it produces 0.2 megawatts and has been operating since 1999. Lastly, there are two landfills that collect the gas and use it for electricity, creating together 4.6 megawatts in1998. There are eight industrial sites, seven wastewater plants, and one dairy farm that co generate steam and electricity, which therefore generates 522 million kilowatt-hours of biomass energy.

Oregon is on the frontline of renewable energy uses compared to the rest of the nation. There are not many possibilities for further expansion, but there are some opportunities. Furthering solar energy use or photovoltaic systems, is mainly possible in remote areas that do not have access to the power grid. Below is where the possibilities of solar energy exist in the state.¹

The development of wind power in Oregon is currently under investigation. The Oregon Office of Energy in cooperation with Oregon State University and the Wind Research Cooperative has started a three-year project with funding from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at two Oregon sites to monitor wind conditions. Below is a map for Oregon’s wind potential.¹

In the past, three sites have been explored in Oregon for potential geothermal sites: near Newberry Volcanic Monument in Deschutes County, near Vale, and in the Alvord Dessert. No substantial potential could be found, but the possibility still exists. The most prosperous site would be in Deschutes County where it could possibly produce 30 megawatts of energy.

Again, here is a map showing the geothermal potential available to Oregon.¹

The opportunity for more power from hydroelectric power mainly deals with more efficient power plants. Currently, there is a large quantity of hydroelectric power sites and environmental concerns are starting to arise. The concerns focus on if the power plants are hurting our environment and fish. Therefore, the possibility of a new plant being built is highly unlikely.

Oregon has several tax incentives. These incentives can be categorized into three areas: state financial incentives, state programs and regulatory policies, and utility program incentives. The types of incentives that are receivable are tax credits, tax exemption, loans, rebates, and grant programs.

The state financial incentives currently available are The Business Energy Tax Credit "Betsy", Renewable Energy Production Credit, Renewable Energy System Exemption, and the Small Scale Energy Loan Program (SELP). "Betsy" began in 1980 as a corporate tax credit for the commercial and industrial sectors. This program is very well established. The program allows a 35% investment credit with a maximum limit of $100,000.¹ This credit is for constructing systems that use renewable sources. The system must be able to replace 10% or more of the electricity, gas, or oil used in the building. Over a seventeen-year period, from 1980-1997, a total investment of $401,403,559 has been put into this program. 4, 653 projects have been completed which has saved approximately 13.5 trillion BTU’s.¹

The Renewable Energy Systems Exemption is a property tax exemption for the residents of Oregon, which started in 1976. This program is very similar to other state programs in the country. It states, " The added value to any property derived from the installation of a qualifying renewable energy device shall not be included in the assessment of the property’s value for property tax purposes."¹ Next, the Renewable Energy Production Credit, which started in 1978, is a personal tax credit. This statute provides credit toward personal income tax, which is based on the energy savings in the first year that a renewable energy device is installed. This incentive saved the consumer $0.08 per kilowatt-hour in 1998.¹ This incentive is very different from most personal tax credits because it is based on production. This is unique because it emphasizes on the output rather that the investment costs.

The last state financial incentive is SELP, which was created in 1981. This is a loan program available to any sector within the state’s structure. The program offers low-interest loans to locations that conserve gas, electricity, and oil; produce energy from renewable sources; or use recycled material to make products. This program is split into two sections – commercial/ industrial and municipal/school. The primary requirement is that the energy savings be enough to supply the majority of the loan repayment.

There are four state programs or regulatory policies: Solar Contractor Licensing, Solar Equipment Certification, Solar and Wind Access Laws, and Net Metering. Information was only obtained on Solar Contractor Licensing and Solar Equipment Certification so the other two will not be discussed in depth. Basically both of these programs state that to have solar energy systems they must be certified by Oregon’s Office of Energy to receive any tax credit, tax exception, utility grant and loan program, or to comply with building codes.

There are currently three utility companies offering direct incentives: Portland General electric (PGE), Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB), and the Emerald People’s Utility District (EPUD). PGE has a program called Renewable Energy Supply, which started in 1996, it focuses on the large customers in the commercial, industrial, and utility sectors. There are two methods as to how the company can receive renewable energy, either by having a certain percentage of energy come form renewable energy, or to specify the amount of energy the company want to receive per month of renewable energy. Participants that choose to go the percentage route must pay a monthly fee of one cent per kilowatt-hour. The minimum percentage that a company can choose is three percent. Where if the customer decides to pay for a specific amount of renewable energy per month the minimum they can choose is 20,000 kilowatts. Currently, the largest customer is the City of Portland, which has a five-year contract that they will buy $11.2 million kilowatts of power, which is five percent of the city’s total consumption.

The second utility incentive is from EWEB, it is called the Bright Way to Heat Water, which was started in 1990. This program is a loan, grant, or rebate service getting the customer to use solar units instead of electric water heaters. EWEB provides all the funding for the program, where borrowers pay zero interest but they must pay back the money within sixty months. The customer will also be applicable for the state of Oregon Tax Credit. Currently, over 660 customers have been using this program.¹

The last utility incentive is from EPUD, it is very similar to the previous program. The Solar Water Heater Program started in 1997. It supplies grants, rebates, and loans to interested customers. There is zero interest on the loans and each participant is also eligible for the state Tax Credit that goes up to $1,500. The grant budget is $18,000 per year, where a one-time grant from $400-$600 is received per solar water heater. So far, this program has 60 participants.¹

The limitations that currently exist for the majority of the renewable energy sources are that these sources are newly used and the long-term consequences are still unknown. These consequences mainly concern wildlife and environmental issues. Solar energy has good potential for small-scale use in the state but use on the large scale is not practical or economical. The main limitations with wind power are the competition of cheaper energy sources and the unknown issues surrounding the wildlife, especially our air born friends. The limitations for hydropower are a little different than any other renewable in Oregon because water power plant development is no longer feasible. No more dams are to be built, if anything they are going to be taken out. The loss of hydroelectric power is very possible. This is mainly due to the potential risk of the extinction of salmon and steelhead fisheries. The limitations that exist around geothermal energy are mainly the uncertainty surrounding the resource potential, along with the cost of the development and exploration in the state. Lastly, biomass’s main limitations are supply uncertainty, transportation costs, and risks of new technologies.

1. Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Network, Department of Energy. http://www.eren.doe.gov. (30, March 2000).
2. Energy Information Administration, Department of Energy. http://www.eia.doe.gov. (30, March 2000).
3. Energy Information Administration. (1997). State Energy Reports. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/sedr/contents.html. (6, March 2000).
4. Eugene Water & Electric Board. (1999). http://www.eweb.org/. (20, April 2000).
5. Office of the Secretary of the State, Bill Bradbury. (18, April 2000). Oregon Bluebook. http://www.bluebook.state.or.us/. (20, April 2000).
6. "Oregon" Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://www.eb.com:180/bol/topic?artcl=11280&seq_nbr=1&page=n&isctn=2. (20, April 2000).
7. Oregon Office of Energy. (22, September 1999). http://www.energy.state.or.us/. (22, April 2000).
8. Portland General Electric. (2000). Connecting People, Power, and Possibilities. http://www/pge-online.com. (20, April 2000).
9. Public Power Council. A Short History of Public Power in the Pacific Northwest. http://www.ppcpdx.org/web_pages/ppc_public_power_history_page.htm. (20, April 2000).
10. U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce. http://www.census.gov. (30, March 2000).