Fairfield

Where We Are and Where We Can Go

Fairfield Background• The town of Fairfield has 9,215 residents living in

approximately 4,000 homes• The community uses 78,300,000 kwh yearly for residential

and commercial use.• Town government uses 2,350,000 kwh yearly

Fairfield’s Annual Energy budget

• Annual Total Energy Budget, 2008: $19,168,929.32• Fairfield energy use comes from:– 54% COAL – 6% NATURAL GAS– 1% RENEWABLES– 39% OIL

• Energy bill for a single family home– $2,200 annualy

Percentages of Energy From Different Sources In the Fairfield Community

Fairfield Government’s Energy Consumption

Renewable Power Sources We Have Available • WIND• SOLAR• BIO FUEL• HYDRO• Combinations of all

these technologies will help us bring Fairfield into a holistic and sustainable future.

Wind

• Turbine Farm to produce 16 million KWH/year– Roughly 30% of projected needs

• How many turbines needed to generate power for 1/3 energy use of Fairfield?

– Five 1.5 MW Turbines– Each producing 3.3 million KWH/year– Approximately costing 7.5 million dollars

Solar Pv• 1kw system on each household– Generates 1611 kwh/year, roughly 30% of

projected power needs.– Costing from $5,000-$12,000 before rebates

• Or 10mw of solar capacity split between local businesses to take advantage of commercial scale incentives.– Generating roughly 13 million kwh/year, again

about 30%– Costing between $50-$120 million before rebates.

Solar Hot

Water

• There is no reason to use electricity to heat our water.• Solar PV for every building.– Approx. 185,000 square feet of panels to provide hot

water for ever person.– Costing roughly $23 million before rebates.

• Instant hot water heater as backup.

Biomass

Combined Heat and Power Anyone?

• Baled switchgrass plant could heat Fairfield• 2mw plant Produces enough heat for 4,800

efficiency retrofitted homes.– Enough to heat the 4,000 existing homes and

acres upon acres of greenhouses to aid in four season local food production.

Hydro• Skunk River– Multiple generators

along river• Generate electricity

to run irrigation pumps

• Harness mechanical energy– Energy harnessed for

microenterprise• Local grain mill• Wool spinning and

dying

Ammonia instead of petroleum

Transportation• Velib system for getting around town (requires

really good snow removal services).• Zip-Car based neighborhood car share of electric

cars.– Charging these cars at night can help balance the

peak/off-peak load issues that can occur when using wind turbines.

• Ammonia fueled cars will also be available in the Zip-Car system when longer trips need to be made.

Municipal utility and small energy cooperatives

• Cooperatives within neighborhoods– When some houses in a neighborhood don’t have

adequate solar resources, they can pitch in together for a large system on one house.

• Cooperatives literally give the power back to the people.– Great community project.– Perhaps this kind of empowerment can lead to

greater political empowerment… who knows?

Being Bada$$

• Cream, get the money… dolla dolla billz yall• "I don't see any difference between a dollar brought

in by a new business and a dollar that's saved due to energy conservation," Wes Birdsall, Supervisor, Osage Municipal Utilties

• Be an example of influencing policy.• Fairfield Energy Use Information Center.• Show everyone how we did it!

We can do it!• Together higher efficiency and clean

production lead to capable generation and distribution of 100% renewable energy