The Obama administration announced new plans on Thursday to kick-start smart-grid development, including funding details and the start of a standardization process.

During a visit to Jefferson City, Mo., Vice President Joe Biden detailed plans for the U.S. Department of Energy to distribute more than $3.3 billion in stimulus funds for smart-grid technology development grants. Additionally, the Energy Department will hand out $615 million for regional demonstration projects that exhibit storage, monitoring and technology viability.

“We need an upgraded electrical grid to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country–to take the wind from the Midwest and the sun from the Southwest and power areas across the country,” Biden said in his prepared remarks. “By investing in updating the grid now, we will lower utility bills for American families and businesses, lessen our dependence on foreign oil and create good jobs that will drive our economic recovery.”

The $3.375 billion Energy Department grant program will give out grants ranging from $500,000 to $20 million for smart-grid technology deployments. It will also give out grants of $100,000 to $5 million for the deployment of grid monitoring devices.

The $615 million for demonstration projects will specifically fund exhibitions that verify technology viability and examine new business models, give energy storage demonstrations, or exhibitions that demonstrate grid monitoring devices that allow system operators to manipulate electric flows in real time.

Alongside the vice president in Jefferson City, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced his plans to chair, with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a series of meetings in May with private-sector leaders and others involved in smart-grid development to devise industry-wide smart-grid standards. The meeting participants are expected to commit to a timetable for reaching a standards agreement and to abide by the standards devised.

Regulators and private-sector representatives have warned Washington that if common smart-grid standards are not implemented, the government risks wasting taxpayers’ money on soon-obsolete technologies that could be incompatible with one another.

“A smart electricity grid will revolutionize the way we use energy, but we need standards in place to ensure that all this new technology is compatible and operating at the highest cybersecurity standards to protect the smart grid from hackers and natural disasters,” Locke said in his prepared remarks. “The Recovery Act will fund the development of those standards so the exciting technology can finally take off.”

photo: First Solar

Sempra Generation on Wednesday said it has signed a deal for the United States’ largest photovoltaic power plant, a 48-megawatt solar farm to be built by First Solar in Nevada.

The thin-film solar power station will add on to a 10-megawatt solar farm built by First Solar last year adjacent to a Sempra  natural-gas fired power plant in Boulder City, Nev., outside of Las Vegas. Sempra Generation CEO Michael Allman told Green Wombat that Wednesday’s deal is part of a strategy to bring 500 megawatts of solar electricity online.

“The initial focus is on projects that are next to natural gas fired plants in the desert Southwest,” said Allman, whose company is a division of San Diego-based power giant Sempra Energy (SRE).

By building solar farms on the site of existing fossil fuel plants, Sempra can plug them in to the existing power grid, cutting costs for land, permits and electricity transmission. The 10-megawatt solar plant in Boulder City went online six months after ground was broken. Allman said Sempra also owns land next to its Mesquite natural gas power plant outside of Phoenix suitable for solar development.

“Those two power plants provide us with a substantial competitive advantage in both timing and cost,” said Allman. “These two initial projects will be the lowest cost energy delivered out of a solar project anywhere in the world.”

He declined to say what that cost is but an executive with PG&E (PCG), which is buying the electricity from the 10-megawatt Boulder City solar farm, previously told Green Wombat that the California utility was “very happy” with the rate it negotiated.

Allman said Sempra owns more than 4,000 acres in Arizona that could generate 300 megawatts of solar electricity. The company has also filed lease claims on 11,000 acres of desert land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in California’s Imperial Valley. But Allman said Sempra’s preference is to acquire private land to avoid the years-long BLM permitting process. The company will consider a range of solar technologies, including solar thermal, for future solar projects.

The 48-megawatt deal announced Wednesday is contingent upon Sempra signing a power purchase agreement with a utility.

This illustration offers a glimpse of what the planned city Babcock Ranch might look like.
(Credit: Kitson & Partners)

One of the world’s biggest photovoltaic projects is planned for southwest Florida. Florida Power & Light will spend $350 million to build a 75-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant at a planned city, Babcock Ranch, near Fort Myers, the company announced Thursday.

Construction could begin late this year, subject to state regulatory approvals.

Eric Silagy, the ultility’s chief development officer, said at a press conference that the company’s photovoltaic project is larger than any previously announced.

“We are extremely excited to be building one of the world’s largest solar photovoltaic projects, once the state legislative and regulatory authorities have taken the necessary actions for us to move forward,” said Silagy.

A 60MW photovoltaic solar plant in Spain has been in operation since 2008, according to PV Resources. But the Babcock Ranch plant could be the largest if it reaches 75MW output–before somebody else does. Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electricity.

The developers, Kitson & Partners, hope that Babcock Ranch will be the world’s first city to get all its energy from renewable solar energy.

“The FPL solar plant will be inside Babcock Ranch. Along with solar panels on the roofs of buildings citywide, it will be a revolutionary leap forward in clean energy for an urban area,” said Syd Kitson, CEO of Kitson & Partners, in a statement.

The Sierra Club’s national clean-energy representative and the World Wildlife Fund support the project and hope that it will influence other U.S. cities.

Babcock Ranch will be wireless-enabled using an ultrahigh-capacity “digital pipeline” that will support the use of current and emerging technologies, plus clean-tech efforts, according to press materials.

(Credit: Kitson & Partners)

“Electric vehicles, able to plug in for recharge at convenient community-wide recharging stations, will glide along avenues beneath the glow of solar-powered street lamps. Ingenious, revolutionary Smart Grid technologies will monitor and manage energy use while Smart Home technology will allow residents to operate their homes at maximum efficiency, thereby reducing energy costs,” Kitson & Partners writes on the Babcock Ranch home page.

Florida Power & Light also hopes that the solar-powered city will generate so much power that it will be able to serve the grid with additional electricity. Kitson & Partners hopes that the Babcock Ranch will become a test bed for clean-tech companies. “Babcock Ranch will be a living laboratory for companies, workers and families ready to reap the rewards of innovation,” said Kitson in a statement.

The city of Babcock Ranch will include 6 million square feet of retail, commercial, office, civic, and light industrial space. The entire project is expected to cost $2 billion. Projected prices for the planned 19,500 homes were not provided, but the homes should be “affordable for workers and families across the economic spectrum,” according to Kitson & Partners.

Following weeks of negotiations in Congress and the Administration, and in the face of continuing job losses nationwide, President Obama signed into law on Tuesday a $787 billion economic recovery plan designed to put millions of Americans back to work. Emphasizing investment in projects that can be deployed quickly and create jobs, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes billions of dollars that may be used for green building, retrofitting, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, including those in federal facilities; states, localities, and tribal areas; schools; and housing.

Energy efficiency in existing buildings can generate $160 billion in savings by 2030, according to a report by McKinsey and Co. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act takes critical steps to this end through significant investment in green building and energy efficiency. Commitment from policymakers, citizens, and practitioners nationwide will be required to ensure that the immense potential of green building to reinvigorate and transform both our economy and our environment is realized.

Select Highlights of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

* Green Schools: The new law includes a $53.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, to be administered by the federal Department of Education that will provide, among other things, funds to governors for use in restoring and providing state funding to school districts. Roughly $9 billion of this fund will be available for use by governors to address public safety and other government services, which may include school modernization, renovation, and repair consistent with a recognized green building rating system.

Additionally, the Act establishes a new kind of tax credit bond that may be issued by states and local governments “for the construction, rehabilitation, or repair of a public school facility or for the acquisition of land on which such a facility is to be constructed.

* Green Federal Facilities: The law provides $5.55 billion to the federal General Services Administration (GSA) for federal buildings, including $4.5 billion for measures to make GSA facilities “high-performance green buildings,” as defined by the 2007 energy law. The law also requires that $4 million of funds provided be directed for GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, which was created by the 2007 energy law.

The Act also provides several billion dollars for facility-related construction, renovation, and repair projects in other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense.

* Home Weatherization: The Act provides $5 billion for the federal Weatherization Assistance Program, which provides assistance to low-income families in weatherizing and improving the energy efficiency of their homes. To broaden the program’s reach, the Act increases the income levels covered by the program (from 150% of the federal poverty level to 200%) and the amount of assistance available for each housing unit (from $2,500 to $6,500). The Act also increases the percentage of funding that may be used for training and technical assistance (from 10% to up to 20%).

* Energy Efficiency in States and Localities: The Act provides $3.2 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, which was established by the 2007 energy law to provide support to states, localities, and tribal governments for energy efficiency and conservation programs and projects. Under the Act, $2.8 billion will be distributed by formula, and $400 million will be administered through competitive grants.

* Public Housing: The Act provides $4 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund, which provides funds to public housing agencies nationwide for the development, funding, and modernization of public housing developments. Under the Act, $3 billion of the funds will be distributed by formula, and $1 billion will be made available as competitive grants “for priority investments, including investments that leverage private sector funding or financing for renovations and energy conservation retrofit investments.”

* Retrofitting Assisted Housing: The Act provides $2.25 billion for federally-assisted housing, of which $2 billion is for payments to owners of certain project-based rental housing, and $250 million is for funding of green and energy retrofitting investments in assisted housing.

* Green Jobs: The Act provides $3.95 billion for training and employment services under the Workforce Investment Act, including $500 million “for research, labor exchange and job training projects to prepare workers for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.”

Additionally, the bill provides $250 million for building, rehabilitating, and acquiring Job Corps Centers, of which up to 15% ($37.5 million) may be directed “to meet the operational needs of such centers, which may include training for careers in the energy efficiency, renewable energy, and environmental protection industries.”

* Tax Incentives for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy:

o Energy-Efficient Existing Homes: Existing federal law provides an individual tax credit of 10% of expenses for certain energy-efficient improvements to existing homes. Previously, the tax credit offered specific, capped amounts for qualified property. Under the bill, the amount of the credit has been raised to 30% for 2009 and 2010, and these technology-specific caps have been lifted and replaced with a $1,500 total cap on installations that may qualify for credit. Referenced efficiency levels have also been updated.

o Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit: The bill extends the production tax credit for wind facilities by three years to 2013, and for solar, biomass, geothermal, landfill gas, trash combustion, hydropower, and marine and hydrokinetic to 2014.

o Temporary Election of Investment Tax Credit: Recognizing the uncertainty of investor tax liability owing to the economic downturn, the new law temporarily permits eligible taxpayers to elect the investment tax credit instead of the tax credit for production of renewable energy for facilities placed in service after December 31, 2008.

Additionally, the bill modifies the existing investment tax credit to eliminate the dollar caps for solar, geothermal, and small wind property.

o Treasury Grants for Energy Investment: Acknowledging the decreased effectiveness of energy tax credits due to the economic downturn, the law permits taxpayers to apply for grants from the Treasury Department in lieu of certain renewable energy investment tax credits.

o Advanced Energy Investment Tax Credit: The law creates a new 30% tax credit-to be awarded through a competitive process–for investment in facilities that manufacture “advanced energy property,” for example, technologies for producing renewable energy, conserving energy, transmitting renewable energy, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, among other purposes determined by the Secretary.

o Among other incentives, the bill provides increased authorizations for clean renewable energy bonds (increased by $1.6 billion) and qualified energy conservation bonds (from 800M to $3.2 billion).

For a complete summary of the law, please visit:
http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary02-13-09.pdf