The 290-page Plan includes future projects that will take advantage of a wide range of advanced communications, computing, sensing and control technologies. PG&E hopes to improve service and reliability, lower customer costs and incorporate more renewable energy onto the grid, all in accordance with the California Public Utility Commission’s decisions and policies implementing California's Smart Grid bill.

The Plan adopts several high-priority objectives to guide PG&E’s Smart Grid investments and initiatives over the next 10 years. Those objectives include the following:

1. To engage customers, PG&E will:
   1. Use the existing SmartMeter^TM technology to allow customers not only to view but to modify their energy usage;
   2. Improve the use of demand response resources in energy and ancillary service markets; and
   3. Invest in infrastructure to support the electric vehicle market.

2. To support Smart Energy Markets, PG&E will:
   1. Improve its forecasting of market conditions; and
   2. Integrate renewable resources (primarily wind and solar) on a large scale into the grid.

3. To support Smart Utility practices, PG&E will:
   1. Improve its response to outages;
   2. Enhance its grid monitoring and control;
   3. Maintain system voltage levels; and
   4. Improve substation monitoring.

4. PG&E will also continually improve and upgrade the infrastructure supporting the smart grid. 

The Plan can be found at:  

http://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/shared/edusafety/electric/SmartGridDeploymentPlan2011_06-30-11.pdf) 

The theme of the workshop was to identify and address the barriers to the inclusion of Electric Energy Storage (EES) and to brainstorm action that the CPUC could take to ameliorate those barriers, both internally and by its participation in other forums. A ruling seeking additional comments from the workshop participants will be issued in the next week or so – we will keep you posted.

The overarching takeaways from the workshop were:

• EES encompasses many different technologies and many potential applications for generation, transmission, distribution and customer-side.
• There needs to be a valuation methodology endorsed by all stakeholders that encapsulates all the benefits that EES can provide.
• A meaningful cost/ benefit analysis of any EES technology cannot be conducted independent of its application. CPUC could address some of these challenges itself, particularly in the following areas:
  • Contract evaluation
  • Rate design
  • Avoidance of over-generation and subsequent curtailment
  • Load, resource adequacy and capacity
• CPUC could also participate in other forums:
  • CAISO’s transmission analysis and planning process
  • FERC through a Notice of Intent

A pall was cast over the proceedings by the news that Michael Colvin (whose enthusiasm for EES has been a key component in maintaining the momentum of the R10-12-007 proceeding) is leaving his current post to take up a staff position with Commissioner Mark Ferron and California does not currently have the budgetary wherewithal to backfill Mike’s position.

Yesterday U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that six projects have been selected to receive nearly $7.5 million over two years to advance next-generation designs for wind turbine drivetrains.  Drivetrains, which include a turbine's gearbox and generator, are at the heart of the turbine and are responsible for producing electricity from the rotation of the blades. The selected projects selected will also help promote and accelerate the deployment of offshore wind turbines.

Some of the projects are early stage R&D projects which will focus on reliability or may redesign drivetrains to eliminate certain components altogether. Other projects will focus on  increasing the amount of energy produced by turbines, or designs that minimize the use of rare earth materials.

The awards will be issued through DOE's Wind and Water Power Program, which funds research, testing, development and deployment of innovative wind energy technologies.

Each project listed in the table below will receive up to $700,000 to conduct technology cost and readiness assessments during the 6-month Phase I. Some of the projects will be selected for Phase II and each Phase II project could receive up to an additional $2 million over 18 months.

	Project	Town, State	Technology
1.	Advanced Magnet Lab	Palm Bay, Florida	A superconducting direct-drive generator for large wind turbines
2.	Boulder Wind Power	Boulder, Colorado	Magnet-based direct-drive generator to validate performance and reliability of large utility-scale turbine. Has offshore applications
3.	Clipper Windpower	Carpinteria, California	Drivetrain design that enables increased serviceability over conventional gearboxes
4.	Dehlsen Associates	Santa Barbara, California	Drivetrain configuration that eliminates gearboxes, power electronics, transformers, and rare earth materials
5.	GE Global Research	Niskayuna, New York	10 MW direct-drive generator using low-temperature superconductivity technology that reduces the risk of fluid leakage.
6.	NREL	Golden, Colorado	Hybrid design that uses a single-stage gearbox and non-permanent magnet generator that reduces the need for rare earth materials

	Name	City, State	Amount $	Technology
1.	GeoTek Energy, LLC	Midland, Texas	up to 2.85 million	Gravity-driven downhole pump
2.	Gtherm, Inc.	Westport, Connecticut	up to $200,000	Single well geothermal system
3.	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	Berkeley, California	up to $4.99 million	Heat from superheated pressurized carbon dioxide in deep geothermal formations
4.	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	Livermore, California	up to $874,000	Integrated energy production with carbon capture and storage
5.	Louisiana State University	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	up to $997,000	Circulation of reservoir fluids to increase heat extraction
6.	Physical Optics Corporation	Torrance, California	up to $200,000	Wellbore condenser converting hot vapor into cooler liquids
7.	Terralog Technologies USA, Inc.	Monrovia, California	up to $541,000	Optimization of vertical and horizontal well systems
8.	University of Utah	Salt Lake City, Utah	up to $671,000	Development of deep sedimentary and crystalline reservoirs

The W.T.O. Government Procurement Agreement, which requires free trade in government purchases, has been signed by virtually all industrialized countries. China agreed to sign it on joining the W.T.O. in November 2001, but still has not done so, possibly because of internal pressure that strongly favors steering lucrative government contracts to domestic companies.

Chinese leaders have strongly criticized provisions like the “Buy America” provision in the 2009 economic stimulus legislation, despite having similar restrictions on the use of its own stimulus funds.

China accounted for at least half the world’s production of solar panels in 2010 and its market share is rising. While the United States and Europe have focused on subsidizing solar panel purchasers, China has focused on subsidizing its solar panel manufacturers. It then exports virtually all of its panels to the United States and Europe, taking advantage of American and European consumer subsidies.  

Industry experts predict that the new legislation will boost the American solar panel market, partly by requiring future military contracts to specify American-made panels and partly by encouraging Chinese solar panel manufacturers to establish factories in the United States, with the concomitant higher labor and overhead costs.

The Funding Opportunity Announcement (Reference Number DE-FOA-0000233) won’t be issued until early next year but you can look at the Notice of Intent by going to https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/ and plugging in the Reference Number. Stay tuned for  more information via this blog or in a client alert.

The Funding Opportunity Announcement (Reference Number: DE-FOA-0000239) addresses the development of key technologies required to achieve large scale adoption of competitive, cost-effficient, advanced vehicles such as plug-in electric hybrids (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs).

The FOA released today focuses on several approaches to improving vehicle efficiency, including:

• Advanced fuels and lubricants
• Use of lighter weight materials
• Advanced cells and design technology for electric drive batteries.
• Advanced power electronics and electric motor technology
• Efficient and emission-reducing engine technology.

The FOA can be found by entering the FOA reference number on the FedConnect Web site: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities.aspx

Applications for the solicitation are due February 28, 2011. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov to be considered for awards. The DOE expects to announce the awards by summer 2011

Successful proposals will focus on optimizing and integrating processes that convert biomass into biofuels and bioproducts that can be used to support hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals. These process improvements could include, for example:

• Pretreatment methods that alter the biomass to improve the yield of sugars in subsequent process steps;
• More cost-efficient enzymes that produce sugars;
• Fermentation organisms and catalysts that convert the sugars into fuel and chemical intermediates.

Successful applicants will demonstrate the economics and efficiency of their proposed process.

This FOA is largely focused on agricultural residues but other feedstock sources can be proposed if the applicant can show compelling evidence that the feedstock will be sustainably available by 2015. However, certain feedstocks and processes are excluded from the scope of this FOA:

• Proposals that use pure sugar feeds and ‘model’ hydrolysates are not eligible for funding under this FOA
• Proposals that include thermochemical processes (example: fermentation of syngas from a gasification process).
•  Early- and late-stage processes  (i.e. prior to pretreatment and saccharification or after conversion to final product)  will not be eligible for funding.
•  If a catalytic conversion process is proposed, the hydrogenation process may not be included in the proposed process improvements to be funded under this FOA.

A complete description of the FOA solicitation, eligibility requirements, and application instructions can be found at https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities.aspx  

Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov by no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on February 7, 2011.  Applicants are requested (but not required) to submit a letter of intent by January 17, 2011.

On Tuesday, December 7, 2010, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, together with several other  government agencies, announced a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export Initiative.

The Initiative brings together the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee Working Group on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency,  the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation,  the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative.  This coordinated effort is the first of its kind.

The goal is to promote and increase renewable energy and energy efficiency exports as part of a cohesive program during the next five years.  The U.S. Government plans to offer new financing products for exporters and facilitate market access, among other things.

See http://export.gov/reee for the  report released on Tuesday by the Commerce Department.

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.  

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.

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.

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).

• Address the environmental risk factors associated with heat recovery from the earth's subsurface (earthquakes, water consumption and pollution);
• Add innovative methods for extracting heat from geotlogic formations, particularly permeable sedimentary formations; and
• Reduce financial risks.

Successful applications will address all three of the listed issues.  Applicants should note that  if the application does not address the first two elements listed above, it will be tossed out.  Applicants must submit a pre-application concept paper by October 1, 2010,  and will be informed by DOE if they are eligible to submit a full application (whihc will be due November 30, 2010).   

The funds will divided between feasibility studies (Phase 1) and validation and proof (Phase 2) with the bulk of the funds being awarded for Phase 2 activities.  The funds will be paid out over 3 years and there is a 20% cost share.  

Eligible applicants include most domestic entities who  are encouraged to form consortia to apply.  Foreign entities or persons may participate as a subrecipient of the funds. 

• $1.45 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar Inc. for the construction and start-up of a concentrating solar power (CSP) generating facility in Solana, Arizona and a
• $400 million loan guarantee to Abound Solar Manufacturing for the assembly of state-of-the-art thin-film, cadmium-telluride solar panels.

ABENGOA SOLAR: Once operational, the CSP plant will add 250 MW of capacity to the electrical grid using parabolic trough solar collectors and a six-hour thermal energy storage system (the first of its kind in the United States). The plant which will be about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, will use mirrors to direct sunlight onto receiver tubes that will heat molten salt fluid to over 700°F. The system's heat will turn steam turbines and the thermal energy storage can provide power during cloudy days and evenings. The plant will supply power to approximately 70,000 homes through a long-term PPA with Arizona Public Service Company.

Abengoa Solar estimates the project will employ approximately 1,600 workers during construction, of which 80 will be permanent jobs. As an added benefit, two assembly factories will be constructed on the site, and a new mirror manufacturing facility will be needed to supply more than 900,000 mirrors to the plant.

ABOUND SOLAR: A $400 million conditional loan guarantee has been offered to Abound Solar Manufacturing for the assembly of state-of-the-art thin-film, cadmium-telluride solar panels. The assembly will take place in in Longmont, Colorado, and Tipton, Indiana. Abound estimates that the project will create approximately 2,000 jobs during construction, as well as 1,500 permanent jobs.

Abound’s manufacturing technology was jointly developed by NREL, Colorado State University, and the National Science Foundation and deposits thin films of cadmium-telluride onto glass panels. This technology reduces overall product costs and provides better film quality, efficiency and reliability. Abound anticipates that it will produce millions of solar panels annually (enough panels to support up to 840 MW of new solar power per year) for less than it costs to produce crystalline silicon modules.  

The DOE has issued a Request For Information ("RFI") to get the public's input on the development of a Wind Energy Workforce Roadmap, which will provide details on the current workforce landscape in the wind industry as well as future steps necessary to train and develop a green workforce for the sector.  Ultimately, the Roadmap will help shape  policy objectives and the overall development of a wind energy workforce.

Here is the link to the RFI: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0000392&agency=DOE

On Monday, the DOE announced that is had awarded up to $24 million to three research consortiums for the commercialization of algae-based biofuels. The three consortia include partners from academia, national laboratories, and private industries located across the country. Projects are expected to continue for three years.

The three awardees are:

• The Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium led by Arizona State University, will get up to $6 million for testing the acceptability of algal biofuels as replacements for petroleum-based fuels,  investigating the biochemical conversion of algae to fuels and products and analyzing the physical chemistry properties of algal fuels and fuel intermediates.
• The Consortium for Algal Biofuels Commercialization led by the University of California, San Diego, will receive up to $9 million developing algae as a robust biofuels feedstock by focusing on algal crop protection, algal nutrient utilization, and genetic tools.
• The Cellana, LLC Consortium led by Cellana, LLC, of Hawaii, will also receive up to $9 million for examining the large-scale production of fuels and feed from microalgae grown in seawater, new algal harvesting technologies with pilot-scale cultivation test beds, and for developing marine microalgae as animal feed for the aquaculture industry.

Yesterday, the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) and the Department of Energy (“DOE”)  entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) to bring together resources and expertise from both agencies as the US develops commercial-scale offshore wind and water energy projects on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

The wind and water resources off the US’ coastline are vast yet largely untapped energy potential. According to DOE's “20% Wind Energy by 2030” report, offshore wind alone has the potential to produce 54,000 megawatts by 2030. The MOU allows for priority leasing and more efficient regulatory processes (including permitting) for sites with high, commercial-scale offshore wind and water power development potential.

Yesterday DOE announced that up to $6 million to be awarded to one or two teams over two years to improve short-term wind energy forecasting, which will enhance the ability of utilities and electricity grid operators to forecast wind power generation. 

One to two competitively-selected recipient team(s) will work with DOE and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) to deploy atmospheric measurement systems, and demonstrate the value of these forecasting improvements for electric utility operations. The recipient team(s) will include wind plant operators, wind forecasting and meteorological services companies, electric utility system operators, and research organizations.

DOE will provide $3 million this year - $2 million to NOAA to fund its technical support of the selected projects and  $1 million to the selected team. DOE also anticipates providing an additional $3 million in fiscal year 2011 to NOAA and the recipient team(s) to complete the project.

Go to the FedConnect Web site for additional details.

The DOE announced today that it will provide up to $11 million over three years for improving the conversion via pyrolysis of non-food biomass to biofuels, that can use the existing fueling infrastructure. (Pyrolosis is the process that decomposes biomass using heat without oxygen to produce bio-oil.)

Successful applications for projects will (among other things):

• Address how to make corrosive bio-oils compatible with the current infrastructure
• Catalytically de-oxygenate the molecular fragments in bio-oils
• Demonstrate the ability to produce a liquid transportation hydrocarbon fuel that can be blended at up to 30 percent by weight with petroleum fuels, or produce an upgraded bio-oil compatible with existing petroleum refining unit operations
• Include an analysis of greenhouse gas reductions using the applicant’s technology

DOE anticipates selecting three to four projects under this announcement and will require a minimum of 20% cost share from applicants. Eligible applicants include universities, national laboratories, or companies.

The deadline for the applications is July 9, 2010. Go to  Grants.gov. for a copy of the funding opportunity and application.