100% renewable energy for Fairfield Iowa - class project

1. FairfieldFairfield
Where We Are and Where
We Can Go
Where We Are and Where
We Can Go

3. 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

4. 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

5. Percentages of Energy From Different
Sources In the Fairfield Community

6. Fairfield Government’s Energy
Consumption

7. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Biomass

14. 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.

15. 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

16. Ammonia instead of petroleum

17. 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.

18. 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?

19. 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!

20. We can do it!
• Together higher efficiency and clean
production lead to capable generation and
distribution of 100% renewable energy