Ed White, Vice President of Energy Products at The National Grid discusses how the company has re-evaluated the way that view energy solutions for their customers.

As an industry, it's becoming increasingly important for utilities to re-evaluate the way we view the energy solutions we provide to our customers.

When discussing energy solutions, energy efficiency needs to be a priority. Moreover, energy efficiency should be looked at as an "and" statement and not as an "or" statement as it relates to renewables. For far too long many in our industry have taken sides and either focused on one or the other. So simply put, it should not be energy efficiency or solar energy, but energy efficiency and solar energy or more broadly renewables.

All energy sources - both renewable technologies and traditional power, are important factors to consider if there is to be a change in the energy landscape that serves our customers. This is why the efficient use of energy needs to be the first priority.

For National Grid, the second largest utility in the U.S., that discussion has been an evolving one. With well over 20 years of experience in both energy efficiency and solar, we are committed to being a leading advocate of solar generation and other renewable technologies across the Northeast. These measures are more achievable when states share a similar vision of developing and encouraging a green economy. This type of cooperation also sets the tone for a winning solution that benefits customers in so many ways.

In July 2008, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed the Green Communities Act (GCA), which set goals to meet 20 percent of the Commonwealth's electric load by the year 2020 through new renewable and alternative generation. At that same time, the Commonwealth also set a target to install 250 megawatts (MW) of solar generation by the end of 2017 and called for a dramatic increase in energy efficiency over the next three years.

Excited by these opportunities, National Grid was among the first utilities to submit a filing to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to construct, own and operate approximately 5 MWs of solar generation on five separate company-owned sites. National Grid's participation was, and continues to be, focused to help advance the solar market, raise awareness of the benefits of solar power and create jobs in the Commonwealth.

In May, after a relatively short construction time of three months, we unveiled the first of these 1 MW projects - the first project is located on a 2-acre roof in central Massachusetts. This particular project holds a lot of significance as it is the largest solar site in Massachusetts and was also the first utility-owned solar generation facility operational under the GCA legislation. The environmental benefits of this rooftop solar project alone is estimated to save more than 1.3 million pounds of CO2, which is equivalent to removing more than 400 cars off the road every year. We anticipate the remaining four solar projects will be online by the end of 2010.

By the numbers, the 5 MWs of solar generation in Massachusetts will decrease emissions by approximately 2.9 tons of sulfur dioxide, 6.37 tons of nitrogen oxide and 3,044 tons of carbon dioxide per year. At that emission rate, 5 MW of solar generation would save approximately 160 tons of sulfur dioxide, 73 tons of nitrogen oxide and 76,100 tons of carbon dioxide over 25 years.

While conservation and energy efficiency are among the most affordable ways to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs, at National Grid we have seen and also believe that investment from the utilities and the government is equally important in enabling renewable generation that will help to advance greener local economies and use more clean energy.

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