Energy Commission Workshop Touts Community-Scale Renewable Energy Opportunities and Successes

Community-scale renewable energy may not be a common household phase at the moment, but it is gaining attention and will be highlighted July 29 during a public workshop at the California Energy Commission.

Community-scale energy projects use renewable energy to power relatively small areas such as college campuses, military installations, business parks or neighborhoods. They generate less than 20 megawatts, filling a growing energy niche between individual projects like rooftop solar and large projects like utility-scale power plants.

The workshop’s focus is on funding opportunities through the Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program. EPIC invests about $120 million annually in technologies that bring clean energy ideas to market to benefit the ratepayers of California’s three largest electric investor-owned utilities.

The workshop also spotlights successes and lessons learned from the more than 20 community-scale projects funded through the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, which ended in 2013 but serves as a model for EPIC-funded opportunities.

Participants include Energy Commission Chairman Robert B. Weisenmiller, Commissioners David Hochschild and Karen Douglas, the U.S. Department of Energy, state and local governments, academia and private industry.

The workshop is from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Art Rosenfeld Hearing Room in the Warren-Alquist State Energy Building, 1516 Ninth Street, Sacramento. The agenda is posted on the Energy Commission’s web page, and additional information and directions for participating remotely through WebEx are in the public notice.

The Energy Commission encourages disadvantaged and underrepresented businesses and communities – including disabled veteran-, women-, LGBT- and minority-owned businesses – to participate in this and other workshops and meetings, and to engage in and benefit from the state agency’s many programs.