Stakeholder collaboration and the green energy revolution

Large-scale renewable energy projects often face stern opposition from conservation interests. Taking the giant Altamont Pass wind turbine project in California as an example, Two Tomorrows associate Elizabeth Murdock sets out how stakeholder collaboration can help in the development of renewable energy infrastructure

As concerns about global climate change grow, nations and companies around the world are investing more and more in renewable energy sources. In the U.S., many states have adopted requirements to meet 20 per cent of their electricity needs with renewable sources by 2020. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed an Executive Order mandating legislation that will require the state reach a rewewable portfolio standard of 33 per cent by 2020.

California’s push to increase renewables opens the door for energy companies to build new facilities to meet the growing demand. But new wind and solar facilities mean new construction projects – some of them substantial. And with this development comes additional impacts on open spaces, wildlife habitat, and human communities.

For example, plans to construct solar and wind facilities on some 500,000 acres of the Mojave Desert in southern California have raised considerable concern among environmentalists about degradation of desert habitat and the specialized species that live there. Many environmental groups oppose the solar developments altogether, and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein is advancing congressional legislation that would designate much of the Mojave as a national monument, which would prevent solar power development. There are also concerns about the substantial transmission lines required and their impacts on imperiled species, fragile habitats, and treasured ‘viewsheds’.

Amid this tension, some groups in California are seeking to use the state’s rigorous conservation planning process to create comprehensive, state-approved agreements for each project that will balance development with conservation and best science. California’s Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) Act was designed to conserve natural communities at an ecosystem scale while accommodating compatible land use. The NCCP program enables the Department of Fish and Game to work with public agencies, landowners, private interests, and other stakeholders to create a science-based management plan for large, area-wide protection of plants, animals, and their habitats that also facilitates appropriate economic activity.

The state’s first renewable energy conservation plans are now being crafted for the Mojave Desert region and for the San Francisco Bay’s Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, one of the earliest and largest wind farms in the U.S. Both of these conservation plans are significant, as they will establish models for future renewable energy NCCPs in California. Conservation organizations in California hope that these early NCCPs can also provide a template for how renewable energy projects around the world can effectively balance the unavoidable impacts of development with meaningful conservation of wildlife and habitat.

Altamont Pass: a model for stakeholder collaboration

The Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area is the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, but it has a troubled history. Located along an important migratory corridor for birds, Altamont’s wind turbines kill thousands of birds each year, including more raptors than any other wind facility in North America. The magnitude of the bird kills has:

• resulted in reduced energy production and higher energy production costs for the Altamont wind companies
• impeded the companies’ ability to secure financing to replace Altamont’s outdated turbines with new, ‘repowered’ turbines that may significantly improve energy production and reduce avian mortality
• raised concerns about the development of new wind farms throughout the U.S.

The Altamont Pass NCCP process is particularly precedent-setting, as it has brought together a unique group of stakeholders to design a comprehensive conservation plan that aims to significantly reduce impacts on protected bird species while enabling development of the wind farm with newer, more efficient wind turbines. The plan will include a process for piloting the repowered turbines (to ensure that both the new-generation turbines and their siting minimize impacts to birds), a monitoring program to track continuing environmental and ecosystem impacts, an adaptive management process to further reduce impacts, and mitigation measures to respond to unavoidable bird kills. If successful, the resulting conservation program should provide a model for other renewable energy facilities.

The NCCP’s Steering Committee includes representatives from the wind companies, county government, and state and federal wildlife agencies, as well as from the local Audubon Society chapter. The participation of the Audubon Society as a signatory to the plan is unique. Typically, conservation organizations engage in the planning process as stakeholders who may provide comments but who have limited say in the final agreement. (This is true for the Mojave Desert NCCP.) In the Altamont Pass NCCP, the conservation organization’s approval is crucial to finalizing the plan.

The value of stakeholder collaboration for industry

Indisputably, creating a collaborative management plan – particularly one that attempts to create consensus between environmental and industry interests – can be a significant challenge, and it is not without its share of headaches. So why would any company bother to take it on?

The motivation to participate in a collaborative process for Altamont Pass is that this will speed the project approval and development process, minimize the potential of costly lawsuits, and give the wind-energy companies the support they need to continue long-term operations at Altamont. This is particularly true when developments must demonstrate public support to overcome regulatory challenges (such as potential impacts on protected species), or where mounting public opposition to ‘business as usual’ approaches has made it extremely difficult for the regulatory agencies to turn a blind eye.

To date, the case at Altamont Pass is a unique example of collaboration for the development of a renewable energy facility, but its lessons apply to developments worldwide. Collaboration can be a messy and lengthy process. But legal challenges can be just as messy and protracted – and they can do more damage to a company’s reputation. Increasing transparency, communication, and collaboration can reduce opposition, build support in unlikely corners, and result in a better, more sustainable project. It can even result in faster, more efficient project completion.

By contrast, lack of collaboration and transparency can not only slow a project but kill it altogether. This was the case with a recent renewable energy transmission line project proposed by the Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC). Maps showing planned transmission lines were released before the agency had engaged in stakeholder outreach. These lines crossed over national wildlife refuges, conservation lands, private properties, and tribal lands. The perception that the ‘bad’ route was a fait accompli, combined with insufficient public notice issues and a lack of stakeholder engagement, hardened the opposition and led TANC to shelve its $1.5 billion proposal.

The Altamont Pass NCCP is not yet complete, so the jury is still out on how well the plan will ultimately achieve its conservation, renewable energy, and economic goals. But the collaborative process has already borne fruit for the participating companies. While environmental interests have continued to critique the ongoing species impacts and push the companies to respond to the best scientific recommendations, these organizations have also frequently served as partners for the wind companies, helping to gain access to state and national decision makers, highlighting the companies’ good-faith participation in the process, and supporting the companies’ primary goal of repowering the outdated wind farm – and thus solidifying Altamont’s place as a major renewable energy site for the state of California.

To find out more about Two Tomorrows’ views on the place of renewable energy in organizations’ sustainability strategies, contact Todd Cort, chief executive officer of Two Tomorrows (North America) Inc, at todd.cort@twotomorrows.com