California and Jalisco Sign Agreement for Promise of a Brighter Future
California and the Mexican state of Jalisco have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate and reaffirm a commitment to share knowledge on clean energy efforts to combat climate change.
The MOU, which was signed March 9, builds on years of collaboration between California and Jalisco State and the Mexican federal government on energy efficiency. The partnership has led to the recent opening of a lighting efficiency center in Jalisco. The center is modeled on the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California, Davis.
Jalisco, like California, is at the forefront in researching and deploying clean energy technology. The 15,000-square-foot lighting center was created to accelerate the development and adoption of energy-efficient lighting and daylighting technologies. Such efforts can help Mexico meet its long-term energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.
Commissioner J. Andrew McAllister of the California Energy Commission (CEC) attended the opening ceremony for the Centro de TecnologÃa en Iluminación (CTI) at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.
“The CTI is an example of how we will find solutions that apply here, there and far beyond—through collaboration. These actions are going to change Mexico and the world,” McAllister said at the December ceremony.
The center, which highlights the university’s futuristic lighting technology, has 11 laboratories that can simulate a range of environments such as retail, classroom, and health care. With space for research, demonstrations, and benchmark testing, the facility will help support technological innovations. The plan is to build talent and human capital for Mexico’s lighting industry by offering on-site training and certification.
The center’s roots can be traced to a 2016 MOU signed by CEC Chair Robert B. Weisenmiller and Jalisco Governor Aristóteles Sandoval at the Climate Summit of the Americas in Guadalajara, Mexico. The MOU supported cooperation on clean energy policies and programs involving energy efficiency, renewable energy development and grid integration, and low- and zero-emission vehicles.
In 2017, the Mexican Ministry of Energy and the Mexican Council for Science and Technology awarded funds to the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara to partner with UC Davis to establish the center. The facility provides the vehicle to translate energy-efficient research into action and train professionals with the information to implement it.
CEC’s Public Advisor’s Office Expanding Its Role
The office advises the public, tribes, stakeholders, and the CEC to ensure the full and effective participation by all interested groups and the public at large in the planning, procedures, proceedings, business meetings, workshops, and other activities of the CEC.
Under the expansion, which was announced at the November 15 business meeting, the office, which is now the Office of the Public Advisor, Energy Equity, and Tribal Affairs, includes a deputy public advisor who is also the tribal liaison and will support the CEC’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Initiative led by Public Advisor Noemà Otilia Osuna Gallardo and Equal Employment Opportunity Officer Carousel Gore.
The office’s name change amplifies the CEC’s commitment to advancing a clean energy future for all and makes the importance of energy equity and tribal relationships more apparent to the public, Gallardo said.
“It makes a lot of sense for the Public Advisor’s Office to officially take on a title that reflects the year of hard work and the many contributions that the office has been making in order to help ensure that the Energy Commission’s work around equity, diversity, and inclusion (has impact),” said Commissioner Karen Douglas, who is the lead commissioner on tribal affairs.
The CEC’s Tribal Program, which was housed under the Siting, Transmission, and Environmental Protection Division, was shifted in order to help expand outreach and engagement with tribes about potential opportunities and funding beyond cultural resources. The program assists California Native American tribes with planning and development efforts for energy policy and technologies. Efforts include climate change assessments, energy research, project funding, and regulation drafting.
In May 2021, the CEC hosted a Tribal Energy Resilience Conference where state agencies and federal and tribal nations discussed pathways for increased clean energy funding, renewable energy incentives, and greater energy and climate change resiliency on tribal lands and resources. Part of the conference outcomes included a report summarizing the discussions and recommendations from the event.
There was a consensus at the business meeting that efforts should be made to ensure that indigenous voices are heard and incorporated into infrastructure policies, acknowledging the role of the government to listen to and honor the history of California tribes.
Looking Back on the New Solar Homes Partnership Program
The New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP) program, which was launched in 2007, contributed to a self-sustaining solar homes market.
“When the program began, solar hardware was still relatively expensive, so incentives were a critical boost needed to expand solar energy capacity in the state,” said Geoffrey Dodson, who manages the NSHP program for the CEC. “Today, there are approximately 1.3 million homes in California with solar energy systems installed. We’ve also been able to work closely with the building industry over the years as it learns and adapts to solar as a standard feature in new construction.”
The NSHP is credited with helping boost the new home solar penetration rate in California from less than 1 percent when the program began. The program also laid the critical groundwork that led to the building industry supporting the solar mandate for new homes required under the 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. Nationally, the median price of solar plummeted from about $9.80 per watt in 2007 to about $3.80 per watt in 2020.
“Rooftop solar is an excellent gateway for getting customers to do the next thing, which is investing in energy storage and in electric vehicles,” said CEC Chair David Hochschild. “There is strong anecdotal evidence that when people get rooftop solar, they pay a lot more attention to their energy savings and want to do the next thing.”
NSHP is also credited with helping to expand solar access for affordable housing communities such as the Spring Lake Affordable Housing Community in Woodland, and the Heritage Commons Affordable Housing Community in Dixon.
The $400 million program was made available to customers of four investor-owned utilities in California – Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Bear Valley Electric Service.
To date, more than $240 million in incentives have been paid out through the NSHP. The last incentive payments are scheduled to go out by Dec. 31 when the program ends.
To learn more, go to the NSHP presentation at the October 2021 business meeting beginning at 11:55.
