GREEN SHEET :: JULY 2010
MEMBERSHIP OUTREACH
We welcome into the new member category the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. The Authority was created on January 1, 2003 as an independent agency to manage the day-to-day operations of San Diego International Airport and address the region’s sustainable air transportation needs. Also joining the league is GreenHouse Holdings. GreenHouse is a San Diego-based global energy solutions and ethanol fuel provider. They offer consumers effective home improvement products as well as energy production that includes scalable ethanol refineries through its revolutionary at-home E-Fuel Microfueler(TM), and the GridBuster (which combines with the MicroFueler to convert ethanol into electricity) to large-scale fleet operations. Member companies renewing their membership this month include Bank of America, Latham & Watkins and Best Best & Krieger. Our June additions to the CleanTECH San Diego board of directors include former NBA star and San Diego activist Bill Walton, Julian Parra of Bank of America, and Jessica Ederer of Morrison & Foerster.
ADVOCACY
San Diego Awarded iHUB DESIGNATION
On June 29, CleanTECH San Diego Chairman Jim Waring and Board member Bill Davison of General Atomics participated in a press conference hosted by CONNECT to announce San Diego’s selection by the CA Governor’s office as an Innovation Hub (iHub). The iHub application focused on areas of technology convergence. Two of the three areas of focus in the final application were submitted by CleanTECH San Diego in consultation with its partners in each area: advanced biofuels and solar storage. While the iHub designation does not initially provide any revenue or funding, we anticipate this designation will better position the region to apply for future grant opportunities at both the state and federal level.
CleanTECH San Diego Partners on EV Infrastructure Deployment
The San Diego region is one of the select markets chosen as part of a $100MM DOE grant to deploy electric vehicle infrastructure throughout the country. CleanTECH San Diego was invited to serve on a stakeholder working group to provide guidance and help determine the strategic citing of these various charging stations in advance of Nissan’s December 2010 delivery of the “Leaf” electric vehicle. In October of 2009, ECOtality was awarded the DOE grant for the “EV Project” which will deploy 15,000 electric vehicle charging stations in 13 cities. In June of 2010, the project was granted an additional $15 million by the U.S. Department of Energy. Other partners include local municipalities, the County of San Diego, local universities, and corporations like Qualcomm. Meanwhile, the City of San Diego is preparing it’s infrastructure for increasing the numbers of electric vehicles that are scheduled for arrival this year including the Nissan Leafs and Chevrolet Volts.
CAPITAL FORMATION
San Diego Awarded Green Innovation Grant
On June 29, California Labor Secretary Bradshaw announced its $4MM Green Innovation Challenge grant award to the San Diego Biofuels Initiative. The Educating and Developing Workers for the Green Economy, or EDGE Initiative is a project to address workforce and training needs associated with the biofuels industry in both San Diego and the Imperial Valley. This project is designed to create opportunities for unemployed and dislocated workers in addition to attracting and creating career pathways involving biofuels. In a spirited team effort with BIOCOM and the EDC, CleanTECH San Diego collaborated with SD-CAB and the Workforce Partnership to submit this winning application. As part of CleanTECH San Diego’s ongoing work with the San Diego biofuels community, this grant award will serve as an important program for advancing our regional leadership in biofuels.
CREBs Coalition
June marked the announcement of the Santee School District as the first member of the CleanTECH San Diego-led CREBs coalition to successfully leverage the new federal direct-pay subsidy in securing CREBs financing at a net interest rate <3% for the 283 kW Hill Creek PV Shade Structure System. Santee Schools issued its “Notification to Proceed” with construction scheduled to begin in July. San Diego Unified School District continues final evaluation and negotiations on two attractive proposals with the potential to dramatically increase its solar PV footprint. The delivery of both immediate and long term savings on the district's utility costs may commence before the beginning of the school year. And finally, the City of Chula Vista also has an RFP out relating to its CREBs awards. Other municipal partners are also making progress on their execution strategies.
San Diego's Clean Tech Cluster Gets a Boost with New Grants
The City of San Diego, local universities and companies are giving the region’s clean tech cluster a boost through an initiative that will support the commercialization of university technologies, such as software that reduces energy consumption, new algorithms for predicting extreme weather, and catalysts for alternative fuel development.
Through the second San Diego Clean Tech Innovation and Commercialization Program, three research teams will receive grants and business mentoring to help further develop and commercialize their “clean tech” projects. Researchers from UC San Diego, UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and San Diego State University will net $50,000 each for proof-of-concept studies and prototype development, as well as mentoring assistance from UC San Diego’s von Liebig Center business advisors to help commercialize their technologies over the next year.
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
GREENING SAN DIEGO
The City of Santee is now soliciting proposals for an investment-grade audit that will provide the city’s "prioritized roadmap" for use in implementing its next wave of "The Sustainability Project." This audit encompasses previously identified EECBG energy efficiency projects, additional SDG&E On-Bill financing project options, as well as validating the financial viability of various CREBs-identified solar renewable projects. Meanwhile, the City of Lemon Grove received notification of its $132,374 grant award from the EECBG tranche allocated under the program’s "Small Cities" provision. Lemon Grove's priority focus for EECBG retrofits includes street lighting and HVAC. Stay tuned for continued progress on the thorough execution of our two pilot city’s respective cleantech agendas under this Greening San Diego program.
STREET LIGHTING WORKING GROUP
In June the Cities of El Cajon (960 street lights) and Santee (894 street lights) conducted their public bid openings and will make final award of these two contracts later this month. Combining Carlsbad's ongoing installation of 7,000 street light retrofit and Chula Vista's pending procurement of 4,600 street lights, the total of 13,000 street lights scheduled for retrofitting in FY 2010 will deliver ~6 million kWh in annual energy savings, 4,300 tons of CO2 emissions reduction, $5 million in project expenditures creating 50 new jobs while saving taxpayers ~$1 million in annual energy and maintenance savings. The City of San Diego is now leading the SLWG effort on the next street light procurement and is expected to include at least another 10,000 retrofits and is scheduled to be issued this summer. CleanTECH San Diego, the City of San Diego, and SDG&E collaborated on an application to be considered for a Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in the Environmental and Economic Partnerships category. In addition to the significant environmental and economic benefits of the SLWG program, we now have established a "Regional Sustainability Best Practices Implementation Platform" that will be applied for other broadly applicable regional sustainability initiatives.
MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
Raise Your Glass to UCSD's Byron Washom
UC San Diego’s director of strategic energy initiatives, Byron Washom, was recognized in the June issue of Fast Company magazine as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business 2010,” ranking him number two in its green category. Since joining the university in 2008, Washom has teamed with faculty researchers, campus-operations engineers and students to pursue projects related to solar power, smart-grid technology, alternative-energy projects and novel renewable-energy financing. Described as a “solar soothsayer” by Fast Company, Washom said, “I regard this honor as an institutional award since I have long contended that the best part of my job is my inability to exceed the imagination of my colleagues at UC San Diego.”
http://www.newswise.com/articles/solar-soothsayer-on-fast-companys-most-creative-list.
UCSD Vice Chancellor Leaves to Become Provost at City University of Hong Kong
Following four years of distinguished service as Vice Chancellor for Research and 3 years as CleanTECH San Diego Board Member, Dr. Arthur B. Ellis has announced his decision to leave his administrative position effective August 31, 2010 to become Provost at City University of Hong Kong in September. Dr. Ellis joined UC San Diego in 2006 as Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. An internationally recognized chemist, he came to UC San Diego from the National Science Foundation (NSF) where he held the position of Director for the Division of Chemistry.
Please join us in thanking Art for his contributions to the successful launch of CleanTECH San Diego as we wish him and his family much success in Hong Kong.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
JULY EVENTS
Charged2020: The Global Energy Storage Forum co-sponsored by CleanTECH San Diego
JULY 1, 2010
Location: University of San Diego, CA
Register: http://www.charged2020.com/Registration.html
Member Event: CleanTECH San Diego Education and Outreach Committee Meeting
JULY 7, 2010
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 PM PST
Location: CleanTECH San Diego - 4510 Executive Drive, Plaza One. McGraw Conference Room
Infocast's 3rd Annual STORAGE WEEK co-sponsored by CleanTECH San Diego
JULY 12-15, 2010
Location: San Diego, CA
Register/More Info: davidc@infocastevents.com
Waste to Energy Finance & Investment Summit co-sponsored by CleanTECH San Diego
JULY 19-21, 2010
Location: San Diego, CA
Register:
olinm@infocastinc.com
CleanTECH San Diego Executive Committee Meeting
JULY 20, 2010
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 AM PST
Location: BIOCOM - 4510 Executive Drive, McGraw Conference Room
for Executive Committee Members
EngEx 2010 Conference and Expo
JULY 29-31, 2010
Location: San Diego Convention Center
Register:
http://bit.ly/8Z2Nnn
Vist CleanTECH Web site for
more information on all Events
http://www.cleantechsandiego.org/
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Why San Diego?
San Diego is world renowned for
its culture of collaboration and
collegiality and is a natural setting
for a clean tech “collaboratory.”
Through meaningful partnerships
with private and public sector
champions, CleanTECH San Diego
promotes sustainable best
practices in the San Diego region
and promotes the region’s high
concentration of clean tech activities.
By collaborating with the multitude
of stakeholders, we leverage these
assets and position ourselves
effectively as a world leader in
the low carbon economy.
See our list of San Diego
networks and partnerships
Partnerships and Networks »
