Renewable Energy FAQs (CLICK HERE)

Renewable Energy Challenges
REU is committed to providing green energy to our customers, along with the lowest-cost, most reliable power available.  However, developing renewable energy sources can be challenging because of the following reasons:

Location
Most forms of renewable energy are limited in the locations where they can be developed. For example, geothermal resources are only found in a few specific areas within California; windmills must be built in locations where the wind blows consistently year-round; solar PV is best suited for places that receive a lot of sun; and biomass plants should be close in proximity to forestlands to reduce the transportation cost of gathering and delivery of the fuel to the generator plant. Construction of renewable energy generation facilities can also be negatively viewed upon by neighbors, which can further hinder the deliverability and development of renewable energy.

Deliverability
Due to the site-specific nature of many forms of renewable energy, the power that is generated may not be easily transmitted to our customers.  New transmission lines will be essential to the growth and development of renewable energy.  Development of new transmission infrastructure can take many, many years to build and is extremely expensive. 

Intermittent Nature
Most forms of renewable energy are not capable of producing energy on demand. Wind power is reliant on the wind and solar power is reliant on the sun, both of which are  not available at all hours of the day. With current technology the ability to store or shape the power to customer needs is limited and costly. For example, for every wind generator on the electric grid, a conventional generator has to be on-line and ready to step in and replace the wind source whenever the win speed changes up or down.

Cost
Renewable energy can be more expensive to develop and operate than fossil fuel-based generation. As mentioned above, an electric system has to build two generators in order to utilize wind energy. Further, with renewable technology so new, the life cycle cost of these resources may be uncertain.

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