A Primitive Solution to the Renewable Mandate.

Amid great fanfare, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation mandating a basically un-achievable renewable energy mandate for the state of California. Since then, there has been a lot of out-of-the-box thinking on how to meet that mandate (like the UC Davis project that seeks to turn table scraps into energy).

The Modesto Bee reports that the Modesto Irrigation District has just signed a $133 million deal to buy power generated from steam turbines that are powered by.... wood. That's right, we are back at square one. Like cavemen, we have re-discovered fire.

Here's the problem, burning wood is fraught with air quality implications and it costs more than natural gas. But acording to the Bee, we gotta do what we gotta do to meet the consequences of this new legislation:

"The power will be more expensive than conventional natural gas turbine power, Hora said, but will help the MID reach the state-mandated goal of providing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2010."

Apparently, MID was forced to go this route even though it already gets a large chunk of its power from hydro-- but the state doesn't consider hydroelectric power "renewable." Go figure.

MID to add wood as energy source [Modesto Bee]