|
|
PUERTO RICO
Cleaner Energy Sources Prove Divisive
By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero*
SAN JUAN, Jan 24, 2012 (IPS) - As Puerto Rico seeks to lower soaring utility rates while
simultaneously shifting toward cleaner energy sources, it
faces grassroots opposition to two major projects even though
at least one is 100-percent renewable.
Objections to the projects – a natural gas pipeline and wind
installation – revolve mostly around their locations, underlining the
complex interests involved in actually implementing changes to the
island's power grid.
The pipeline would start on the island's south coast, head northwards
through the central mountain range and the ecologically delicate
karstic zone, and then eastwards into the densely populated San Juan
metropolitan area.
Dubbed "Vía Verde" (Green Way) by the government-owned Puerto Rico
Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and "el tubo de la
muerte" (the tube
of death) by its opponents, the project is more generally known as
"el gasoducto" (the gas duct or pipeline).
PREPA holds a monopoly on electricity generation in the island, but
since the 1990s it has purchased power from private facilities.
The government claims the gas pipeline will lower utility rates,
which have skyrocketed in recent years, and reduce dependence on
dirtier fossil fuels.
Most of the utility's power is currently produced by thermoelectric
facilities which use highly polluting petroleum-based fuels, like
Bunker C and "destilado #2".
"Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel there is," PREPA says,
adding that it generates 64 percent less atmospheric pollutants than
oil and is more economical.
Citing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the
utility says that natural gas will remain cheaper than oil and that
world supplies will be sufficient for decades to come.
But Puerto Rico will be doing no more than trading one dangerous,
non-renewable fossil fuel for another, says University of Puerto Rico
professor Arturo Massol-Deya, one of the gas project's most outspoken
opponents.
"As an island we are in the dead end of oil dependence, and the
government is trading that for the dead end of natural gas, when we
have abundant sun, wind and water resources with which to generate
the energy we need," Massol-Deya told IPS.
Massol-Deya is spokesperson of Casa Pueblo, a grassroots
community
organisation in the mountain town of Adjuntas, which the proposed
pipeline would bisect from south to north.
"We have strong, well-founded objections with regards to
environmental impact, as well as safety in the face of inevitable
natural challenges like steep slopes, flood-prone areas, high
rainfall, geological faults and many more," said Massol-Deya. "And
besides, the savings of switching from one fuel to another will
barely amount to one cent per kilowatt hour."
Casa Pueblo and other groups opposed to the gas line are at pains to
make clear that they do not necessarily oppose natural gas. They
believe a transition can be made from thermoelectric power to natural
gas without building a tube across the island.
The proposed "gasoducto" will begin in Ecoelectrica, a natural gas
generator in Puerto Rico's south coast that provides the island with
about 13 percent of its electricity. Ecoelectrica, which commenced
operations in 2000, is barely two kilometers away from Costa Sur, a
PREPA thermoelectric complex that generates 30 percent of Puerto
Rico's electricity.
"Switching Costa Sur to natural gas would require no major
modifications," geographer Alexis Dragoni told IPS. "It would only
require that the facility's burners be replaced."
Dragoni is a member of Casa Pueblo's technical team.
Retrofitting Costa Sur to run on natural gas would have PREPA use gas
for no less than 43 percent of its electricity, with no need for a
"gasoducto" cutting across Puerto Rico. A pipeline has indeed been
built from Ecoelectrica to supply gas to Costa Sur but its final
segment, of about 50 metres, has yet to be built, said Dragoni.
The "Via Verde" pipeline is to be built by the Spain-based Fenosa
Corporation, which bought Ecoelectrica from the controversial U.S.-
based Enron in 2003.
The Casa Pueblo leaders are strong advocates of solar energy. All the
organisation's facilities in the town of Adjuntas have been powered
by photovoltaic panels since 1999.
Renewables currently comprise a tiny fraction of Puerto's Rico's
energy, with hydroelectricity the main source. Twenty-one hydro dams
produce 1.8 percent of the island's electricity.
However, the Santa Isabel wind power project is under fire from
farmers, local communities and environmental groups, who have created
an Agriculture Resistance Front (FRA).
The civil society coalition advocates for the protection of Puerto
Rican farmland from threats like urban sprawl and the windmill
project, which entails 44 to 65 windmills being built by the U.S.-
based Pattern Energy Corporation in the heart of Puerto Rico's
fertile southern plains.
The windmills are expected to generate 75 megawatts, which Pattern
claims can power 25,000 homes.
Construction of the wind project began in November. "They have
already compacted the soil with their heavy machinery, they have
destroyed the drip irrigation system and damaged the topsoil, which
takes centuries to form. The best agricultural lands are slipping
from our hands," said FRA member Karla Acosta.
According to FRA spokesman and UPR student Warys Zayas, "The project
will impact between 3,500 and 3,700 cuerdas." (3,700 cuerdas equals
3,594 acres) "The area affected will include not only the windmills'
bases, which together would occupy 21 cuerdas, but also the area
within a radius of 1.6 kilometers of each windmill base."
FRA cites U.S. Agricultural Census data that indicate that Puerto
Rico has already lost 19 percent of its farmland between 2002 and
2007, as well as studies by University of Puerto Rico professor Myrna
Covas on food security, which estimate that local agriculture
produces no more than 15 percent of the food Puerto Rico residents
consume - the rest is imported.
Food security advocates are alarmed by these figures, given that with
approximately 350 inhabitants per square kilometre, Puerto Rico is
one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Population has
more or less doubled in the last 40 years, environmentalist Juan
Rosario of Mision Industrial told IPS.
Santa Isabel has some of Puerto Rico's top farmland, generating some
30 million dollars in crops per year including tomatoes, peppers,
melons, mangoes and onions. Farms provide about 3,000 jobs in the
region, according to farmer Ramón González, president of the PR Farm
Bureau (Asociación de Agricultores).
"We must not destroy the few lands that feed us," added FRA
spokesperson María Viggiano. "We suggest that the windmills be placed
on lands that have already been industrialised and have no
agricultural value."
With regards to energy alternatives, there is no consensus among
local experts and activists as to what would work. FRA does not
oppose wind energy, just as long as such projects are not placed on
farm land.
However, other groups do not favour wind power and see better
alternatives elsewhere.
"We oppose wind energy projects. Wind is an intermittent,
unpredictable energy source," activist José Francisco Sáez-Cintrón
told IPS. "We support other options like solar, hydroelectric, tidal
power and ocean thermal energy."
Sáez-Cintrón is spokesperson for the Coalición Pro Bosque Seco, a
group that seeks the protection of the Guánica Dry Forest, in the
island's southwest. The organisation opposes a wind energy project
proposed for the forest's immediate vicinity.
"But what is even more important is to educate about energy
consumption," he added. "Renewable energies can be no more than a
complement to fossil fuel sources."
"By implementing policies to save energy we can get six to 10 times
the cost savings of renewable energy," said Luis Silvestre of the
Puerto Rico Ornithological Society. "They require a much smaller
investment and do not lead to debt."
"Renewable energies cannot possibly lower utility rates. That can be
achieved with operational improvements in the utility, as well as
modifications of the currently existing grid."
*This article is one of a series supported by the Climate
and
Development Knowledge Network.
(END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
