WCGA Schedules Marine Spatial Planning Workshops
In response to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's federal funding opportunity ("FFO") to support Regional Ocean Partnerships ("ROPs"), the West Coast Governors' Agreement on Ocean Health ("WCGA") will hold workshops in California, Oregon, and Washington next month to help develop its proposal for a portion of the funding. The WCGA is the ROP for the West Coast and as such will be engaging tribal governments, state and federal agencies, scientists and technical experts, and stakeholders to identify regional coastal and marine spatial planning priorities and needs that will support a coordinated response to the FFO. Prior to the meetings, the WCGA will prepare a scoping document that will provide the foundation for workshop discussions. The deadline for WCGA's submission is December 10, 2010, so these meetings will be an essential way to engage in the process.
The meetings will take place at the following times and locations:
California Workshop: Friday November 12, 2010, from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, 50 California Street, Suite 2600, San Francisco, CA 94111 (lunch will be provided).
Oregon Workshop: Monday November 15, 2010, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Oregon Coast Community College, Central Campus, 400 SE College Way, Room 140, Newport, OR 97366 (lunch will be provided).
Washington Workshop: Tuesday November 16, 2010, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Heritage Room at Capitol Lake, 604 Water Street, Olympia, WA 98501 (lunch will be provided).
Everyone is invited to attend the workshops, but space is limited. Please RSVP by emailing the WCGA Coordinator, Lisa DeBruckere, at lisad@createstrat.com.
US-China Wind 2010: Building Strategic Cooperation
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., San Francisco
Thursday, December 9, 2010 9:45 a.m. –5:30 p.m., San Francisco
As a member of the Advisory Board and the Conference Chair, I would like to extend to you an invitation to US-China Wind 2010, presented by Infocast. Join me and my fellow colleagues in San Francisco as we gather with industry experts from both the US and China for an unparalleled educational and networking opportunity.
This 3-day event will include dual track tutorial workshops, and presentations from Stoel Rives Partners William Clydesdale, Ed Einowski, and Michael Mangelson. Hear in-depth discussion and analysis of how wind works on both sides of the Pacific, and explore the opportunities for mutual profits between industries.
Infocast does in fact have a LinkedIn Group for the US-China Wind Summit set up. We would appreciate your support along with your connection’s support in growing our group and making our event better than ever! Here’s a link to our group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3526091
For more event details and registration information, please see our website: http://www.stoel.com/showevent.aspx?Show=7113
REMINDER: Applications for SBIR and STTR Phase I Grants Due November 15th
Don't forget that the deadline for Phase I grant applications under the U.S. Department of Energy's ("DOE") Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") and Small Business Technology Transfer ("STTR") programs is 8:00 p.m. Eastern, November 15, 2010. Qualified small businesses with strong research capabilities in science or engineering in any of the research areas identified in the September 28, 2010 Funding Opportunity Announcement are encouraged to apply. Phase I grants of up to $150,000 will be awarded in FY 2011 under the SBIR; and grants of up to $100,000 will be awarded under the STTR.
The Phase I Technical Topics document lists several areas of particular interest for the renewable energy industry. Note that the following is not an exhaustive list. The full list and descriptions can be found in the Phase I Technical Topics document.
- Advanced Cooling and Waste Heat Recovery: Advanced Cooling; Advanced Waste Heat Recovery; Geoexchange heat pump (GHP) component R&D; Innovative GHP System/Loop Designs.
- Production of Bioenergy and Biofuels from Cellulosic and Non-Food Biomass: Biomass Feedstock Stabilization and Drying; Biomass Torrefaction; Sugar Catalysis to Advanced Biofuels and Chemical Intermediates; Pyrolytic Thermal Depolymerization.
- Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Reducing the Cost of High Pressure Hydrogen Storage Tanks; Fuel Cell Balance-of-Plant; Demonstration of Alternative-Fuel Fuel CElls as Range Extenders.
- Innovative Solar Power: High Efficiency, Low Cost Thin Film Photovoltaics; Low Cost Building Integrated Photovoltaics; Static Module PV Concentrators; Solar-Powered Water Desalination; Distributed Concentrating Solar Power ("CSP").
- Advanced Water Power Technologies: Pumped Storage Hydropower; Advanced Hydropower Systems; Wave and Current Energy Technologies; Advanced Component Design for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Systems.
- Wind Energy Technologies: Transportation and Assembly of Extremely Large Wind Turbine Components for Land-Based Wind Turbines; Wind Energy Capture in Non-Conventional Wind Resources; Offshore Grid Infrastructure Hardware Development; Offshore Mooring and Anchoring Technology.
Detailed descriptions of each subtopic are included in the Phase I Technical Topics document.
DOE Offers First Loan Guarantee for Transmission Project
DOE announced on October 19 its offer of a conditional commitment for a $350 million loan guarantee to develop the One Nevada Transmission Line (ON Line). ON Line consists of a new 500-kilovolt transmission line that will run 235 miles from Ely, Nevada to just north of Las Vegas. The project will carry approximately 600 megawatts (MW) of electricity, including renewable energy resources in northern Nevada. It will also integrate existing transmission systems in northern and southern Nevada, improving grid reliability and efficiency, and reducing power costs. This is the first transmission line project to be offered such a commitment by DOE's Loan Programs Office.
The ON Line project will be the first phase of the Southwest Intertie Project which, when fully completed, will carry approximately 2,000 MW of electricity and will enable wind and solar resources in Wyoming, Idaho, and Nevada to power the Southwest and California markets. The ON Line project is expected to contract about 85% of its parts and labor from U.S.-based companies, and it will create approximately 400 construction jobs.
Idaho PUC Issues Proposal to Revise Prices Paid to QF Wind Generators Under PURPA
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has issued a straw man proposal that lays out plans to revise the surrogate avoided resource (SAR) methodology used to calculate avoided cost rates for wind generators. The "avoided cost" is the price paid to Qualifying Facilities that are selling power to Idaho utilities under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).
The PUC included six cost categories in the wind SAR: capital costs; fixed and variable O&M costs, transmission costs; tax credits; wind integration; and forecasting costs. The PUC assumed transmission costs of $1.90/kw-month, production tax credits at $0.021/kWh, a $0.00 REC premium, and wind integration at $6.50/MWh. With those inputs and others, the PUC arrived at 20-year levelized wind rates for a 2010 project as follows:
| Utility | Wind SAR | Gas SAR |
| Avista | $86.31/MWh | $79.17/MWh |
| Idaho Power | $84.72/MWh | $79.19/MWh |
| PacifiCorp | $85.06/MWh | $79.31/MWh |
The PUC proposed that where the Wind SAR is higher than the Gas SAR, a wind developer may choose whether to sell power at the wind or gas rate. If the wind developer opts for the latter, it retains ownership of RECs. If the wind developer opts for the former, RECs go to the utility. However, when the Gas SAR is higher than the wind SAR, wind developers would only be eligible for the wind SAR, meaning that the utility would automatically receive RECs under a PPA. Non-wind projects would be entitled to the gas SAR when the gas rate is higher, and RECs would remain with developers.
The PUC is accepting written comments on the straw man proposal until November 23, 2010.
ODOE Announces Funding for Small Renewable Projects Gone
Earlier this year, the Oregon Department of Energy (“ODOE”) allocated $10 million in tax credits for renewable energy projects with costs of less than $500,000 (“Tier One Projects”). On Wednesday, October 13, ODOE announced that it will no longer accept applications for Tier One Projects because as of October 11 ODOE had received applications for credits in excess of the $10 million allocated for Tier One Projects. ODOE expects funding for Tier One Projects to become available in January 2011.
Upcoming Webinar: Legal Implications of Energy Storage
Join Stoel Rives renewable energy partners Bill Holmes, Marcus Wood and Edna Vassilovski for this EUCI-sponsored webinar on Wednesday, October 20. They will be speaking on the Legal Implications of Energy Storage. This webinar will appeal to anyone involved in and with renewable energy.
- Overview of the role of energy storage in the overall energy system
- Intellectual property issues: invention and use of advanced storage technologies
- Patent law basics
- Licensing agreements
- Is energy storage transmission or generation?
- Legal impact of adding to the distribution system, the bulk transmission system, or both
- Energy storage tolling agreements
- Basic terms and conditions
- Incorporating storage into renewable energy development plans
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When: |
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 2:30 p.m. ET; 11:30 a.m. PT |
For more information about this webinar and to register, please click here.
New Defender of the PACE Program
There is new hope for the PACE financing program (the acronym stands for: “property-assessed clean energy”). The PACE program was started in Berkeley, CA in 2007 and made loans available to homeowners to help defer the cost of renewable energy/energy efficiency equipment and installations. The loan funds come from municipalities who raise the money through bonds and is paid back through assessments on the homeowner's property tax bill. This innovative program has a huge benefit: the loan stays with the home and the homeowner can transfer the loan to a buyer on a sale of the home.
About 20 other states saw the benefit of the California program and passed some sort of PACE legislation by the first quarter of 2010. The Obama administration supported PACE programs with the Department of Energy awarding more than $150 million in federal stimulus funds to back the program.
But last September, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced if a homeowner wanted to refinance or sell their home, the PACE loan had to be paid off in full. This effectively halted all PACE activity and the application of federal stimulus funds.
Last week, the National Resources Defense Council (“NRDC”) filed a lawsuit in a New York federal district court against the (a) Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”), which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and (b) the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCO”), which regulates national banks. The NRDC’s complaint protests the cessation of the PACE program and alleges that the FHFA and the OCO put a stop to the programs without solid justification and without following the proper legal protocols (which would include an environmental review and getting public comment).
We will continue to follow the story and you can read a copy of the complaint here: http://docs.nrdc.org/energy/files/ene_10100601a.pdf.
Smart Grid Oregon Announces Its First Policy Conference--November 9, 2010
Following on the heels of a September 2010 report by GTM Research forecasting that the smart grid market in the U.S. will grow more than 70%, from $5.6 billion in 2010 to $9.6 billion by 2015, Smart Grid Oregon today announced the new organization’s first conference to be held on November 9, 2010 at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland.
The conference will feature keynoters Kurt Yeager, Executive Director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Electric Power Research Institute; and Roy Hemmingway, past Chair of the Oregon Public Utility Commission and also past Chair of the New Zealand Electricity Commission.
Smart Grid Oregon is a trade association that was launched in June 2009 and is dedicated to making Oregon a leader in the implementation of Smart Grid technologies and in supporting companies that build and market Smart Grid products and services. The aim of the first Smart Grid Oregon Public Policy Conference is to help public and utility officials, regulators, legislators, city and county governments and other stakeholders in Oregon and the region gain a better understanding of the Smart Grid and policy decisions that will need to be addressed in the coming years.
Stoel Rives is a member of Smart Grid Oregon, and we are a sponsor of the November 9 conference. See you there!
To learn more, go to www.smartgridoregon.org or contact Ashley Henry at Ashley@smartgridoregon.org or 503-866-9191.
Summary of Federal Biofuels Incentives
The Congressional Research Service has put out a useful and concise summary of federal programs that provide direct and indirect incentives for biofuels. The report lists over eighteen active programs administered by five different agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Department of Energy and Internal Revenue Service. For each program, the report lists the authorizing legislation, the annual funding, the expiration date and the targeted beneficiaries of the programs.
A copy of the report can be found at http://www.stoel.com/files/R40110.pdf.
A special thanks to Penny Hill Press for making this report available.
New FTC "Green Guides" Are Out of the Gate
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Following several years of development, and much anticipation in recent months, the Federal Trade Commission has finally released “Proposed, Revised Green Guides.” The new Green Guides will be open for public comment until December 10, 2010. Thereafter, according to the agency’s press release, the FTC will determine if and how to issue the new Guides.
The proposed, revised Green Guides are summarized here and published with substantial analysis and comment here; the FTC invites submissions of public comments here.
The current official Green Guides, last updated in 1998, provide non-binding “interpretations” of federal consumer protection laws, including Section 5 of the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. § 45), which is the law that empowers the agency to punish deceptive practices. In general, the Guides establish that false or deceptive environmental marketing claims can be challenged under the FTC Act. The Green Guides also provide instruction and interpretations of marketing buzz words that were popular in 1998, such as “biodegradable,” “compostable,” “recyclable,” “refillable,” and “ozone safe.”
The proposed new Green Guides address the terms found in the 1998 edition, but also address several new issues that arise in present-day green marketing, including:
- environmental seals of approval,
- “free-of” and “non-toxic” claims,
- carbon offsets,
- claims concerning renewable energy, and
- claims about renewable materials.
The proposed Green Guides reinforce and restate the FTC’s reasonable policy position that environmental marketing claims should be supported by credible scientific evidence. In addition, the proposed Guides expressly discourage sweeping unqualified claims. For example, the Guides explain that an unqualified claim that a product is “eco-friendly” is inherently deceptive. In contrast, a simple clarification – if it can be substantiated – may be acceptable. The proposed Guides state that a claim such as “eco-friendly: made with recycled materials” is not deceptive if the clarification is prominent, and can be proven.
For the most part, the proposed Green Guides do not represent a radical shift from the 1998 version of the Guides. And on a careful reading of the revised Guides and the preceding 186 pages of analysis and comment provided by the FTC, it’s clear that the fundamental issue is deception. It’s deceptive to say your product has 50% more recycled contents than it used to, when your product only increases recycled content from 2 to 3 percent. It’s deceptive to mark your product with your own green “seal of approval” and not disclose that you made up the seal yourself. It’s deceptive to claim that you’ll plant trees to offset carbon emissions from your products, when it will take 10 years for the trees to get big enough to actually offset those emissions.
Ultimately, it does not appear that the FTC is proposing a major shift in regulations. The key question for any environmental marketing claim remains: is the claim “deceptive” under Section 5 of the FTC Act? The bigger question is, how will enforcement change? Last February, The New York Times reported that the FTC has filed seven complaints concerning environmental marketing claims since President Obama took office (compared to zero during the prior administration). If enforcement remains at that level, there cannot be substantial application of the new Green Guides. Then again, given the rapid growth of environmental marketing claims in recent years, the FTC’s renewed interest in this subject, and the threat of state consumer fraud actions, it would be imprudent to disregard the new Guides.
United States and Iceland Collaborate to Develop and Deploy Clean Geothermal Energy
The United States and Iceland have signed a bilateral agreement aimed at increasing the world's understanding of advanced geothermal technologies and accelerating their deployment. The new agreement is designed to allow the US and Iceland to exchange researchers, establish joint projects, and create educational opportunities to accelerate advanced geothermal development, and to identify key obstacles to increasing the use of this renewable energy resource.
The signing of the bilateral agreement between the United States and Iceland is part of the international meetings on geothermal energy hosted this week by Iceland in Reykjavik (which you will remember was one of the few airports unaffected by Iceland's glacial eruption earlier this year).
Report Identifies Transmission Corridors to Deliver 8,600 MW of New Wind in the Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest Transmission Development Initiative (UMTDI) issued its final report last week on transmission planning and cost allocation issues associated with delivering renewable energy from wind-rich areas to the region’s customers. Through UMTDI, the governors of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin collaborated to identify six renewable transmission corridors that could serve as the primary pathways to move thousands of megawatts of wind power. This buildout would cost an estimated $3 billion and serve as a backbone for future energy needs in the five-state region and potentially further east.
Considering the significant cost and shared benefits of regional transmission development, UMTDI also developed a set of general cost allocation principles. This work occurred in parallel and with similar goals to the development of the Midwest ISO’s multi-value project cost allocation proposal filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July (Docket No. ER10-1791-000). UMTDI is deferring further development of its cost allocation principles while it monitors the progress of the Midwest ISO’s tariff filing. UMTDI does not take any position on the tariff filing, but acknowledges that construction of transmission lines in its six corridors would be very difficult without a cost sharing mechanism.
UMTDI’s renewable transmission corridors are based on the Midwest ISO’s estimate that about 8,600 MW of new renewable capacity will be needed in the region by 2025 to serve the renewable energy standards and goals of these five states. The group identified twenty “wind zones” where it would be most efficient to develop wind power based on available wind resources, existing wind generation, existing interconnection queue requests, and local geography. The six transmission corridors were chosen as the best general areas for transmission lines to move wind energy from the wind zones to load centers in a cost-effective manner.
