Climate Matters: Columbia renewable energy growth faces setbacks and potential tariffs

Renewable energy continues to grow and has gotten cheaper and more accessible over the years. This has been seen nationwide and in Columbia, but the city is still below its goal of 25% renewable energy that it planned to reach in 2023, and may not reach the 30% goal in place for 2030.

Matt Nestor, the Public Information Specialist for City of Columbia Utilities, says there have been some setbacks in local projects.

"We had an agreement for the construction of Boone-Stephens Solar Purchasing Power Agreement, which was a 65-megawatt facility. When the contractor started looking into the plans, the costs has risen exponentially," Nestor says, "That would have required us to increase rates 12 to 13% and we felt that that was not a feasible option for us."

With other project delays, the City of Columbia Utilities forecasts stagnant growth in renewable energy through the end of the decade, but this may improve if other projects come through.

Matt says a planned agreement to purchase electricity from the Grain Belt Express Transmission Line is slowly moving forward but would push Columbia closer to its renewable energy goals by 2030.

However, new complications could arise from waves of tariffs aimed at steel and other products. 

"Especially if the tariffs on steel remain, the United States gets a good percentage of their transformers and their gear switches from Canada and Mexico. So if those tariffs are in place, just even that equipment, the prices on those could go up." Matt explained. He says it is hard to know the local impacts until tariffs become more set in stone.

Nestor says the city is always responsible when investing in renewable energy. "It's not just, you know, going whole hog, contract after contract, then we're not being good stewards of the city's money." He says, "We want to be careful about how we do it. We want to push forward with it, but we have to do it in a responsible way."