The California Energy Commission is accepting applications for a grant program that supports entrepreneurs working on early-stage clean energy concepts through February 28.

The California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) provides up to $150,000 in grants with an additional $450,000 available in follow-on funding. Recipients also have access to technical, mentoring, and business development support through CalSEED’s network of training organizations, businesses, universities, and clean energy incubators.

CalSEED is funded through the Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program, which supports clean energy research. The California Clean Energy Fund manages CalSEED. Grants totaling $4.2 million were awarded to 28 entrepreneurs last year.

To learn more about the CalSEED program or to apply for a grant, visit www.calseed.fund.

Danny Kennedy of the California Clean Energy Fund talks about recent CalSEED grant recipients:

.@dannyksfun of @Cal_CEF details the current group of @Cal_SEED entrepreneurs that were showcased during today's #caEPIC18 entrepreneur pitch session. ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/gRncD85wSs

— CA Energy Commission (@CalEnergy) February 7, 2018

The California Energy Commission has approved 10 members of a new advisory group that will help ensure benefits of the 21st century grid reach low-income households and hard-to-reach customers such as those in tribal and rural communities.

The Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group will advise the Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on ways to help disadvantaged communities benefit from proposed clean energy and pollution reduction programs, access clean energy technologies, and receive affordable energy services. The members approved at the February 21 business meeting were:

-Stephanie Chen, energy and telecommunications policy director for the Greenlining Institute, Oakland
-Stan Greschner, vice president of governmental relations and market development at GRID Alternatives, Oakland
-Angela Islas, community health worker at the Central California Asthma Collaborative, Fresno
-Roger Lin, attorney with the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, Oakland
-Adriano Martinez, staff attorney at Earthjustice, Los Angeles
-Jodi Pincus, executive director of the Rising Sun Energy Center, Berkeley
-Andres Ramirez, clean energy director at Pacoima Beautiful, San Fernando Valley
-Waudieur Rucker-Hughes, president of the Riverside branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
-Phoebe Seaton, co-director and attorney at the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Sacramento
-Tyrone Williams, director of development for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, and director of the Sacramento Promise Zone

The CPUC is scheduled to consider the members at its March 1 business meeting.

An additional member, Kevin Day, tribal chairman of the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribal Council and vice chair of the Central California Tribal Chairman's Association, was appointed to the group by the Governor’s tribal liaison. He will serve as the group’s Native American representative.

Senate Bill 350, the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, called for the group to be formed. Group members are either from or representing disadvantaged communities. The group’s first meeting is expected to be in early spring.

The California Energy Commission relies on many sources of data to set energy policy and track progress in meeting a number of statewide energy goals.

At the February 21 business meeting, the Energy Commission approved regulations that will provide new and expanded ways to collect and coordinate statistics and energy-related analyses. Improving the Energy Commission’s analytical capabilities will help track energy efficiency savings and identify new opportunities in support of doubling savings by 2030.

Recent legislation directed the Energy Commission to deliver more localized energy forecasts. The adopted regulations address critical data required for this while supporting the need for more detailed analysis and modeling of possible energy futures. More localized and detailed models help policymakers understand and plan for the growing local impacts of small residential or commercial self-generation systems using net-energy metering, also called behind-the-meter resources.

Predicting where load reductions will take place because of efficiency measures and behind-the-meter resources helps utilities and regulators reduce the need for new fossil fuel generation. This could save ratepayers money and help reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The adopted regulations:
• Require California’s largest utilities to provide the Energy Commission with customer-level energy data, including monthly billing information and smart meter data. This will ensure policymakers are aware of trends – such as the rise in electric vehicles and greater use of distributed energy resources (smaller power sources often connected behind-the-meter) — to support the state’s environmental and energy related goals. This information will allow regulators to assist low-income and disadvantaged customers by better understanding current program participation and expected future needs.
• Require the state’s largest utilities to provide data on interconnected behind-the-meter resources. Doing so ensures statewide forecasting and planning activities accurately account for the rapid growth of these small-scale resources distributed across the system.
• Require the state’s largest gas utilities to provide natural gas hydraulic modeling data to support public health and safety so the Energy Commission can conduct independent analyses in response to recent issues at Aliso Canyon and San Bruno.
• Require utilities to submit information on combined heat and power resources to more accurately track conversion efficiencies and associated greenhouse gas benefits.

The new data will also be used with existing data sources to track energy efficiency savings according to demographics, climate zones, local jurisdictions, rate or customer class, building type, and program participation.

The statewide target for doubling energy efficiency has been established and using this new data, the Energy Commission is poised to track progress in meeting it. The Energy Commission will also use the information to identify opportunities for program improvements to ensure the target is met.

Visit the Energy Commission’s website for more information on doubling energy efficiency savings.

It was standing room only as attendees of the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Symposium listened as researchers, clean energy experts, and others discussed issues such as the catastrophic impacts of climate change and ways to involve low-income and disadvantaged communities in the 21st century grid.

The annual event is hosted by the California Energy Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, and San Diego Gas & Electric Company. The February 7 event, which drew a crowd of more than 600, is a forum for industry leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and others to discuss EPIC-funded research transforming California’s electricity system.

Each year, the EPIC program invests about $160 million for clean energy innovations, strategies, and applications that help the state meet its energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

“Climate is the reason we’re so focused on energy innovation in California,” said Laurie ten Hope, deputy director of the Energy Commission’s Research and Development Division, during opening remarks for the symposium.

The all-day event featured panels focused on issues such as increasing building efficiency, developing energy solutions for low-income families, reducing energy use in the food processing industry, and making the grid more resilient to the effects of climate change.

California State Senator Nancy Skinner, who was a keynote speaker, said energy innovation may also help the state overcome a future of droughts, floods and fires.

“I’m a big fan of EPIC because we need the research dollars and project piloting dollars to assist us,” Skinner said.

There were sessions highlighting the California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur (CalSEED) program which supports early-stage clean entrepreneurs and EPIC-funded resources to help energy technology developers and customers navigate the clean energy landscape.

Symposium participants included experts from the Energy Commission, utility companies, the building industry, academia, the clean tech industry, and business. State Assemblymember Autumn Burke was also a keynote speaker. California Public Utilities Commissioner Martha Guzman-Aceves and California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross moderated panels.

Greenhouse gas emissions continue to drop in California even as the state grows its economy and population. Further declines in greenhouse gas emissions are expected to come from the state’s transportation sector, according to the California Energy Commission.

Its latest tracking progress report on greenhouse gases the Energy Commission shows that the transportation sector directly accounts for 38 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in California. The below graphic shows California’s 2016 greenhouse gas emissions by end use:


Once refineries are included then transportation accounts for 50 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The report suggests that transforming California’s transportation system away from gasoline to zero-emission and near-zero-emission vehicles will be fundamental to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensified recently with Gov. Jerry Brown’s recent signing of an executive order to boost the supply of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and charging and refueling stations in California. That executive order sets a new target of 5 million ZEVs in California by 2030.

The recently signed executive order will be crucial to California meeting its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, which stems from Senate Bill 32 in 2016. Although transportation accounts for the largest chunk of the state’s greenhouse emissions, data from the California Air Resources Board (ARB) shows emissions already dropping in that sector. The below graph identifies greenhouse gas emissions, per capita, by sector:


Since 2001, greenhouse gas emissions, per person, have dropped 19 percent in California, according to data from the ARB. In 2015, emissions from routine emitting activities statewide were 1.5 million metric tons of CO2.

California generates only about 1 percent of global emissions.

In addressing its greenhouse gas emissions, California is proving that curbing emissions can co-exist with a growing economy.

While the state’s carbon pollution per million dollars of California gross domestic product (GDP) has declined 33 percent since 2001, its GDP has grown 37 percent between 2001 and 2015.

California has a goal to have all new residential construction be zero-net energy (ZNE) by 2020, new commercial construction to follow by 2030, and for the energy efficiency savings of existing facilities to double by 2030. What will it take to turn those goals into reality?

Find out when a panel of experts from the building industry and city government discuss their research and strategies for achieving highly-efficient buildings during the fourth Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Symposium on February 7 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

ZNE buildings are an important tool in the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such buildings use innovative tools, strategies and technologies to minimize energy use and generate electricity.

Panelists include a city of San Diego planner who is using cutting-edge technology to retrofit existing libraries to ZNE; a developer who designs and operates highly-efficient, all-electric, low-income multifamily buildings; a researcher analyzing the benefits of all-electric versus mixed fuel housing, a building expert familiar with the challenges of marketing ZNE single family homes; and a tech industry CEO whose company has developed an innovative app that shows customers how to save energy in their homes.

The symposium is a forum for industry leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and others to discuss clean energy research and to learn more about cutting-edge strategies helping to transform California’s electricity system.

The event is free and open to the public. To register, visit the EPIC Eventbee web page. To participate remotely, view the event notice.

The California Energy Commission is sponsoring a tour of an award-winning former warehouse space as a prelude to next week’s fourth Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Symposium.

The tour happens February 6 at the Architectural Nexus SAC Building, 930 R Street, Sacramento. The symposium is February 7 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The Arch Nexus SAC building was a warehouse built in 1975. In 2017, it was transformed into an energy efficient office space earning LEED platinum 4 certification and other honors. A few weeks ago, the building was named the Engineering News-Record’s Best of the Best Green Project winner for 2017.

The facility is currently vying to become the first Living Building-certified facility in California. The certification program, administered by the International Living Future Institute, is the world’s most rigorous proven performance standard for buildings.

The extensively remodeled 8,200-square foot, single story facility features energy and water saving innovations including rooftop solar panels, an internal gray water recycling system and an on-site rainfall capture system with two 5,000-gallon storage tanks that hold enough rainwater to support all its water needs. It also has an onsite composting toilet system.

To register for the tour, which starts at 5:30 p.m. on February 6, or for the EPIC symposium, visit the EPIC Eventbee web page. To participate in the symposium remotely, view the event notice.

Photo courtesy of Architectural Nexus

California State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Autumn Burke will be key speakers during the California Energy Commission’s fourth Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Symposium on February 7.

The symposium, which is being held at the Sacramento Convention Center, is a forum for industry leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and others to discuss clean energy research. It enables attendees to learn more about cutting-edge strategies that will help transform California’s electricity system.

Skinner represents California’s 9th Senate District which covers portions of the East Bay. She is an environmental and climate protection champion who carried measures that doubled rooftop solar and renewable energy. Before beginning public service, she served as the executive director of the United States’ office of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and as the international director of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection program, which engaged cities worldwide to stop climate change.

Burke represents the 62nd Assembly District which encompasses portions of the west side and south bay regions of Los Angeles County. She serves as assistant speaker pro tempore and is the vice-chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus. She authored Assembly Bill 151 to strengthen California’s cap-and-trade program and introduced legislation supporting the installation of new car charging locations at public schools, state parks and beaches.

The symposium will also feature guest moderators for two of the nine symposium panels.

California Public Utilities Commissioner Martha Guzman-Aceves will moderate a panel examining energy solutions for low-income customers. Before joining the California Public Utilities Commission, she served as deputy legislative affairs secretary in the Office of the Governor, directed the sustainable communities program for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and worked as a legislative coordinator for United Farm Workers.

California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross will moderate a panel on energy solutions in food production. She has leadership experience in agricultural issues and has initiated programs to provide greater opportunities for farmers and ranchers to engage in sustainable environmental stewardship practices.

The symposium is free and open to the public. To register, visit the EPIC Eventbee web page. To participate remotely, view the event notice.