GREEN SHEET :: MAY 2011
MEMBERSHIP OUTREACH
This month we welcome our newest Member company Siotec. Soitec is the world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semi-conductor materials for electronic and energy industries. As an industrial company, they've built a reputation of developing and manufacturing its flagship material, Silicon-on-Insulator. We also welcome the continued leadership and membership renewals from our partners at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, Barney and Barney, Lightsource Renewables, Deloitte and Port of San Diego.
ADVOCACY
CleanTECH San Diego Member Enel Green Power North America Gains Approval for MET Facilities
Enel Green Power North America received approval from the County of San Diego's Zoning Administrator to install meteorological, or MET, facilities on private land in Boulevard. The April 19 decision allows for the testing of wind and solar energy potential at the proposed Jewel Valley Project site. Original county applications for the equipment were submitted in October 2010. In that 6-month process, the Enel team met with numerous stakeholders working to optimize the MET facilities for the community's benefit. With the approval of these applications, the installation of up to four MET towers, seven smaller Sonic Detection and Ranging (SoDAR) units and one pyranometer to measure wind speeds and solar radiation will help determine the proposed site's renewable energy potential. If approved, the Jewel Valley Project would create new jobs, generate tax revenues for County services, improve air quality byoffsetting greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. For more information visit: www.jewelvalleyproject.com.
CleanTECH San Diego Participates in Sacramento Cleantech Day
As a founding member of the California Clean Technology Leadership Council (CCTLC), CleanTECH San Diego participated in a series of educational Council meetings in Sacramento to tout the region's cleantech cluster. Meetings involved the California Energy Commission, the CA Governor's office and the Governor's Office of Economic Development. In addition, CleanTECH San Diego participated in the Green California Summit and Exposition. CCTLC was formed in 2010 to provide a unified voice in Sacramento for the cleantech clusters throughout the state. Cluster members include CleanTECH San Diego, Cleantech OC, Cleantech LA, Bay Area Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance.
CleanTECH San Diego and the San Diego Regional EDC Celebrate Earth Day
CleanTECH San Diego joined its EDGE partners at the San Diego Regional EDC for an Earth Day breakfast celebration on the region's leading biofuels sector. CleanTECH San Diego's Jason Anderson provided an overview of the region's cleantech sector and the status of the EDGE Initiative. Joining the panel discussion was Dr. Dominick Mendola from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Barry Toyonaga of Kent BioEnergy. As part of the EDGE Initiative, CleanTECH San Diego seeks to identify biofuels companies to offer internship opportunities to pre-trained interns as part of their workforce training. Hiring an EDGE-sourced intern not only benefits local biofuels companies, but also helps to produce the region's highly skilled biofuels workforce. For more information, contact jasona@cleantechsandiego.org.
CleanTECH San Diego Presents at the SD-CAB Algae Symposium
CleanTECH San Diego participated in the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology's (SD-CAB) 2011 Algae Symposium. Hosted at The Salk Institute, the Symposium brought together academic and commercial sector scientists at the forefront ofdeveloping advanced biofuels from algae. Jason Anderson, representing CleanTECH San Diego, provided an overview of the region's cleantech sector. Representatives from General Atomics, UC San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography also participated in this two-day event.
Smart Grid Stakeholder Working Group Examines Electric Vehicle Adoption in San Diego
CleanTECH San Diego joined with SANDAG, EcoTality and SDG&E to host the third Smart Grid Stakeholder Working Group meeting. In this invitation only meeting of regional leaders, participants heard how SANDAG is among the first regional agencies in the state to incorporate both GHG emissions reduction tools and electric vehicle strategies in its transportation plan. In addition, EcoTality presented its work to place 1400 PEV chargers in the region in this year alone. SDG&E touched on its multiple initiatives designed to ensure the safe and efficient integration of PEVs into the electricity grid and UCSD provided a glimpse of its leading work to create zero tailpipe emissions strategies. Qualcomm shared its economic development and technology strategies around EV implementation. With over 2,000 PEVs expected to hit the streets of San Diego in 2011, stakeholders throughout the region are working hard to ensure that San Diegans lead the way in the successful adoption of PEVs.
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Greening San Diego
The City of Santee received U.S. DOE approval for reallocation of its EECBG grant funds. This approval will allow Santee to proceed with a second phase of street lighting retrofits in addition to the planned City Hall energy efficiency upgrades. CleanTECH San Diego joined ICLEI and The San Diego Foundation in acknowledging the city's collaborative accomplishment in being the nation's first major county in which every city has completed its GHG Baseline. This analysis will serve as the basis for prioritizing future climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Additionally at this meeting of the Regional Climate Protection Network, USD's Energy Policy Initiative Center presented its new model that will be available to public agencies. This will serve as dynamic support inestimating the impact of proposed mitigation projects while the Port of SanDiego shared details of its Green Business Challenge that be used by other cities to engage their commercial business sector in sustainability.
Street Lighting Work Group - SLWG
The City of San Diego is in the final stages of evaluating the proposals that were submitted for their Design/Build Street Lighting Retrofit project. Final announcement of the award and notice to proceed on this contract to retrofit 38,700 of the city's HPS roadway, cobra-style street lights with induction is anticipated in early May. There are now sufficient tools and RFP templates in the Street Lighting Working Group's "Dropbox" that any city may proceed with the retrofit of their cobra-style roadway streetlights. The San Diego SLWG is now finalizing a Regional Specification Guideline for the remaining acorn-style post-top streetlights. A joint SDG&E/CleanTECH San Diego "Best Practices in Street Lighting Retrofits" workshop was conducted in San Juan Capistrano for SDG&E's Orange County cities, and San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente expressed interest in moving forward in the near term.
CREBS Status
The California Solar Initiative (CSI) incentives remain indefinitely suspended in Step 8. Over the last month, the backlog has increased to 84 projects totaling 8.26 MW representing $6.2 million in total incentives on the Non-Residential Waiting List. California Center for Sustainable Energy advises that they've received a number of cancellations and are in the process of determining how much, and when these cancelled reservations may be reassigned to Wait Listed projects. CleanTECH San Diego and CCSE encourage any non-residential entities that are proceeding with solar PV installations to submit their applications to secure a spot on the waiting list.
City of San Diego Innovative Energy Efficiency Financing Program
CleanTECH San Diego joined forces with the US Green Building Council, SDG&E, CCSE and the Environmental Health Coalition to support Mayor Sanders initiative to design a financing program for home energy retrofits. Despite the state's long history of support for energy efficiency strategies, effective financing mechanisms for homeowners has long been a critical missing piece in widespread adoption of home energy efficiency retrofits. The Mayor's office is reaching out to a broad coalition including the financial community to seek input on designing financing tools for retrofits. A formal request for proposal for a financial partner is expected soon.
INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH
Belgorod and San Diego Swap Smarts
On April 11, CleanTECH San Diego, the City of San Diego and SDG&E received a Russian delegation sponsored by the US State Department and the Department of Energy. These two federal departments are working towards a potential memorandum of understanding relationship with San Diego and Belgorod with the potential for joint funded Smart Grid activities and information sharing. The City, CleanTECH San Diego and SDG&E are pursuing this opportunity and featured three leading smart grid member companies to introduce potential business opportunities with Viridity Energy, PCN Technology and Grid2Home. Mayor Sanders requested CleanTECH San Diego Chair, Jim Waring to participate in the US delegation visit to Russia this summer.
MEDIA AND OUTREACH
NY Times Motavelli Uncovers CleanTECH
As part of the San Diego Regional EDC's national media relations campaign to highlight the region's innovation economy, Jim Motavalli recently visited San Diego to learn more about its cleantech economy. Motavelli blogs weekly for The New York Times, Nature Network, BNET and The Daily Green. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times' "Automobiles" section, and has a weekly syndicated "Wheels" column. While in San Diego, Jim was exposed to the region's biofuels sector, UC San Diego's living laboratory and green campus, and the Smart City San Diego initiative generating the following coverage: http://www.plugincars.com/ready-and-waiting-electric-vehicles-san-diego-107034.html. Special thanks to the EDC for giving our cleantech sector this opportunity to be highlighted in the national media.
Former PUC Commissioner Dian Grueneich's Joins Morrison & Foerster
Dian Gruenich joins the Energy and Environment practice of MoFo after serving on the California Public Utilities Commission for the past six years providing leadership for the groundbreaking development of the 2008 California Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan, establishing the California Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative and the Western Interconnection's regional transmission planning process, and overseeing the successful permitting of three major new transmission lines. MoFo hosted an introductory dinner with Dian Gruenich and select cleatech members companies like PCN Technology, Kyocera Solar, Siliken Renewable Energy, Bank of America and was also joined by FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff. Gruenich will be an invaluable resource on regulatory and policy matters for our region's industry as she was on the Commission.
CleanTECH San Diego Board Member Testifies at CA Budget Hearing on the Role of the University's in our Innovation Economy
On April 14, CleanTECH San Diego Board of Director Julia R. Brown testified in her role as the UC San Diego Foundation Chair, before the CA Senate Budget Committee. Julia's comments focused on the work our region is doing to build a new clean technology cluster. She emphasized that this work is not only good for the planet, but it also offers compelling business opportunities and an opportunity to diversify our industrial base.
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EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
MAY EVENTS
CleanTECH San Diego Advocacy Meeting
MAY 02 2011
01:30 - 03:00PM
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CleanTECH San Diego Leadership Series: Meet & Greet with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher
MAY 03 2011
09:30 - 11:00AM
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Troutman Sanders: Stationary Fuel Cell Power Project
MAY 3 2011 - MAY 5 2011
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Hong Kong - Jiangsu Joint Technology Investment Mission to the United States
MAY 4 2011
12:00 - 05:30PM
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5th Annual CACI Clean Innovation: Driving Technology, Business, and Policy Innovation
MAY 5 2011
8:00AM - 05:00PM
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CleanTECH San Diego Board Meeting
MAY 17 2011
7:30AM - 09:00AM
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New Members Orientation
MAY 17 2011
4:30 - 06:00PM
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Morrison and Foerster Solar Event
MAY 19 2011
11:30AM - 01:30PM
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CREBS Coalition Meeting
MAY 20 2011
10:00AM - 01:00PM
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San Diego Premiere of Carbon Nation
MAY 22 2011
04:00 - 06:00PM
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CleanTECH San Diego SCRUB
MAY 23 2011
08:00 - 11:30AM
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Infocast's Algae World Summit
MAY 23 2011 - MAY 25 2011
Learn More
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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
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