Clearpath

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. Events today: the CEC is holding a workshop in Sacramento and by WebEx for public input on the proposed scope and schedule of the Energy Commission’s Senate Bill 350 (SB350) Barriers Study. The study focuses on barriers to access for low-income customers and disadvantaged communities to energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

2. Event reminder: if you haven’t registered for this year’s SEEC Forum, do so before registration fills up! The 7th Annual SEEC Forum will be held in Riverside June 15th-16th with two full days of sessions led by cities, counties, state, utility, and energy representatives, held at no-cost to local governments.

3. ACEEE’s Summer StudyRegistration is open for ACEEE's 19th biennial Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Pacific Grove, California, August 21-26.

4. Conference: the Next Generation Energy System: Greentech Media will host their Grid Edge World Forum in San Jose, California, June 21-23. Click here to register.

5. Demand response webinar 6/9: Learn from EnergyHub about how to create a best-in-class “Bring Your Own Thermostat” (BYOT) demand response program with high participation rates in their upcoming webinar.

6. Microgrids webinar 6/16: Learn more the why, when, and how for optimal microgrid deployment in this upcoming webinar.

7. Online office hours 6/14 and 6/28: Looking for support on SEEC’s ClearPath greenhouse gas inventory and climate action planning tool? Online office hours are scheduled for Tuesday 6/14 and 6/28 at 11am.

8. Energy data access survey reminder: local governments have a special opportunity to provide input on their experiences accessing energy data for climate action planning to the state’s Energy Data Access Committee. This survey will be closing soon – please provide your experiences to help guide data access policies.

9. Local government action on Climate Action Plans: Congratulations to San Bernardino’s Victorville for passing its climate action plan, and to Sebastapol for adopting 13 goals from the region’s “Climate Action 2020” plan. (For more on climate action plans, click here.)

10. New funding for climate change resilience: PG&E has just announced plans to award $1 million to support local climate change resilience planning. Two grants of $100,000 will be awarded per year for five years beginning in 2017.

11. Funding reminder: deadlines are coming up for applications to federal funds for local pollution source reduction ($2.2M due 6/6), disaster and flood mitigation ($289M due 6/15),  community resilience ($4.5M due 6/20),  HUD choice neighborhoods ($120M due 6/28), and more.

12. EE and Solar Save California $192 Million? Hear from Greentech Media about how the great work in our cities and counties is reducing the need for new investment.

13. The value of cool roofs: Just in time for summer: a new study has reviewed the potential for cool roofs and green roofs to reduce urban heat island effect and improve air quality in the City of Chicago. For more on cool roofs in California, click here.

14. EE for realtors: A two-day training event for National Association of Realtor (NAR) Green Designation will be held in Yolo County June 14th-15th, connecting realtors with the value proposition of green homes and how to sell to home buyers increasingly interested in high home efficiency and performance. This event has no registration fee thanks to support from PG&E.  Please share with your real estate community! (Looking for more resources on the business case for efficient buildings? Click here.)

15. Green lease resources: I recently put out an ask to the network regarding green lease resources on behalf of several interested local governments – and received a number of great recommendations of resources. I’ve added them to the EECoordinator.info website – search green lease to review. Or, check out a new report prepared for the Port of San Diego on sustainable incentives best practices.

16. More on green leases and green tenants: Or, check out Portland’s Green Tenant Improvement Guide, a publication by the DOE looking at the feasibility of energy efficiency in separate tenant spaces, or this 2015 EPA publication sharing case studies of how landlords and tenants have overcome split incentive and other challenges to achieve energy efficient, high-performing buildings.

17. EE through building user feedback: check out how UC Davis is reducing building energy waste and improving student comfort through a new app.

18. ZNE in a Sunnyvale Racquetball Facility: Learn in this new video about how architects, developers and builders took a windowless, concrete “tilt-up” racquetball facility and retrofitted it to a desirable, zero net energy (ZNE) commercial property cost-effectively, repurposing nearly 95% of materials and creating a comfortable work environment.

19. New developments in Zero Net Energy: from Hayward’s new commitments to ZNE in municipal buildings, to Palo Alto’s work toward a new reach code, to Lancaster’s award of $1.47M for conversion to ZNE, local governments are acting on ZNE across the state. Learn more here.

20. Electric vehicles as a Distributed Energy Resource (DER): two new online videos on electric vehicles came out in the last week: learn from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and SDG&E about best practices in deploying electric vehicles as a distributed energy resource.

21. SCE’s Charge Ready Program: for those in Edison territory, a new video provides an overview of new electric vehicle offerings.

22. Job announcements: the Local Government Commission is hiring for a Energy Program Manager! Learn more here. LGC is also hiring for an IT Assistant – more here.

As always, you can keep track of relevant events by connecting to the EE Events Calendar, and find more resources being added daily on the EECoordinator website – including past WEEkly Updates



That’s all for this week!



Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly Updates:
1. The Energy Efficiency Coordinating Committee has confirmed that March 16th, 2016 is the date for public sector business plan review. Meeting location is in Northern California, TBD, and can also be attended by WebEx. The meeting will be an unprecedented opportunity for interested parties to review the plans that Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) and other Program Administrators are developing for their public sector energy efficiency programming. For more background information, search “coordinating committee” on the http://eecoordinator.info website. If you would like to receive email updates on this directly, contact Lara Ettenson at lettenson@nrdc.org.
2. This year’s California Adaptation Forum will be held in Long Beach, CA Sept. 7th-8th, and the Call for Session Proposals is now open! The CAF is a place to connect with 1,000+ local government, business and community leaders and explore the diverse adaptation needs and solutions found across California. To submit a proposal or for more information, visit www.californiaadaptationforum.org.
3. Save the Date! A BayREN Forum, “Bridging the Gap: From Efficient Policies to Successful, On-the-Ground Implementation” will take place in Oakland, and by WebEx, on March 29th. For more information, click here.
4. Office hours for support in your use of the ClearPath suite of online tools are available twice monthly: this month’s will be March 10th and March 24th at 11am PST. New to ClearPath? Learn more here.
5. The Air Resources Board will be holding a public workshop on April 4th on the FY 2016-17 Funding Plan for Low Carbon Transportation and Fuels Investments and the Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP). For more information, click here. The workshop will also be web-broadcast at http://www.calepa.ca.gov/broadcast/.
6. For those of you watching the cutting edge of new technologies, an article in Greentech Media covers the U.S. Department of Energy’s research program ARPA-E,’s public investment and the private investment, in technologies on the ARPA-E list. A direct list of the technologies reveals investments to integrate renewables in demand management, ferment methane into natural gas, develop miniature building heat pumps, and look at new energy storage solutions – including iron flow, all-electron, lithium sulfur, and alkaline batteries, high-power zinc-air and compressed air storage.
7. More news on innovations: of the nine teams vying for the U.S. Department of Energy’s $2.25 million Wave Energy Prize, three are from California! Follow the link to learn more about the innovative work in Sacramento, Berkeley, and Redwood City to capture energy from waves.
8. The CEC’s Blueprint Newsletter for March and April is out! The Newsletter covers everything from demand responsive controls and commissioning to small duct high-velocity HVAC systems, to upcoming free trainings. This is a great resource for building department leads and energy efficiency government leads, as well as contractors and other building professionals.  Have a question? Contact the CEC’s Energy Standards Hotline.
9. Using data for building retrofits: an article from Energy Manager covers the value of data analytics in targeting the most cost-effective and beneficial energy-saving improvements.
10. Employee engagement and workplace strategies for EE success: an article in Environmental Leader interviews sustainability leadership at General Motors, and uncovers some great tips for generating support for sustainability initiatives in the workplace – support that has allowed GM to make 130 of their sites waste-free, and generate $1 billion from recycling. I have seen all of the major points made work for energy efficiency programming – definitely worth a read for those working on generating support throughout their government, or working with business or other community programs.
11. Continuing with stakeholder engagement: a reminder that a webinar covering best practices in community engagement via social media for environmental and energy program outreach is on 3/9. More information here.
12. Job announcement: The City of Pleasanton is looking for a Permit Center Manager! Visit the City’s jobs webpage and search “permit” for more information.
As always, you can keep track of relevant events by connecting to the EE Events Calendar, and find more resources on the EECoordinator website

That’s all for today!