The study found that a 35-percent target for wind and solar is technically feasible and does not necessitate extensive additional infrastructure, but does require key changes to current operational practice.

A full copy of the 536 page report is available on NREL’s website.

According to the California Department of Water Resources, California agriculture irrigates 9.6 million acres using roughly 34 million acre-feet of water (1.1 trillion gallons) diverted from surface waters or pumped from groundwater. This water produces amazing results.

California produces over 250 different crops and leads the nation in production of 75 commodities. California is the sole producer of 12 different commodities including almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, raisins, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons, pistachios, prunes and walnuts. Most of this production would not be possible without irrigation.

But agriculture often gets blamed for the West’s water woes. The notion that Central Valley farmers are receiving, and wasting, cheap subsidized water at the expense of urban users and the environment is commonly held. But many in the agricultural community are demonstrating water leadership and moving California toward more equitable and efficient water management and use.

The Oakland, California based Pacific Institute recently released a new report and video entitled California Farm Water Success Stories, which analyzes successful examples of sustainable water policies and practices.  The report highlights the best practices of several different agricultural commodities across the state.

Review the California Farm Water Success Stories video.
Watch extended video interviews with each grower.
Download the full report (pdf).

Thanks go to The Pacific Institute for their important work, and the agricultural leaders who are helping to demonstrate that we can make progress on water use in California.

Led by Intel and supported by several venture capital firms and corporations, the Invest in America Alliance aims to invest in technology innovation and job creation.

Intel Capital and 24 venture capital firms plan to invest $3.5 billion in U.S.-based technology companies over the next 2 years. The $200 million Intel Capital Invest in America Technology Fund will target innovation and growth segments such as clean technology, information technology and biotechnology.

Further investment in clean tech appears to be needed. According to analysis by Ernst & Young, using data from Dow Jones VentureSource, 2009 investment in the clean-tech sector hit $2.6 billion with 193 deals, a 50% plunge in dollar amount and a 16% slide in the number of deals compared to 2008.

The LA Times reports that the San Francisco Bay Area led the charge, with $1.2 billion in investments pouring in throughout the year; $295.6 million coming in during the fourth quarter. Southern California came in next, raising $329.5 million in 2009, with $30.5 million invested in the last quarter. New England brought in $283.7 million for the entire year, $38 million of it during the fourth quarter.

The Invest in America Alliance also includes commitments from 17 technology and other corporate leaders to increase their hiring of college graduates, some by as much as two times. Companies joining Intel included Accenture, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Autodesk, Broadcom Corporation, CDW LLC., Cisco, Dell, eBay, Inc., EMC Corporation, GE, Google, Inc., HP, Liberty Mutual Group, Marvell Semiconductor Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Yahoo!.

The road to job recovery appears to be getting re-paved with dollars.

Recent guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that “changes in the availability or quality of water…can have material effects on companies,” and therefore must be disclosed, points to a future where the electric power industry will be forced to more fully disclose their water risks, which appear significant.

A new report from Ceres, a national coalition of investors, environmental groups, and other public interest organizations, provides a comprehensive assessment and ranking of water disclosure practices of 100 publicly-traded companies. The report examines eight key sectors exposed to water related risks:  beverage, chemicals, electric power, food, homebuilding, mining, oil and gas, and semiconductors.

Murky Waters: Corporate Reporting on Water Risk was issued in February 2010 and is available for download from the Ceres website. For the electric power industry, study authors highlight significant physical, regulatory, and litigation risks related to water.

• Physical Risks: water scarcity, unpredictability of supply, amount/timing of flows for hydropower, and increased demand for carbon capture and storage.

• Regulatory Risks: cooling water discharge temperature controls, denial of construction permits based on water availability, and wastewater discharge standards.

• Litigation Risks: lawsuits over water withdrawals or inter-state water rights.

Ceres, with data support from Bloomberg and analytical support from UBS Limited, considered five key categories of disclosure: water accounting, risk assessment, direct operations, supply chain, and stakeholder engagement. Thirteen U.S.-based electric power companies were chosen on the basis of the size and water intensity of their generation assets. Companies included:

• AES Corporation
• American Electric Power
• Constellation Energy
• Dominion Resources
• Duke Energy
• Entergy
• Exelon
• Florida Power & Light Group
• NRG Energy
• PG&E
• Pinnacle West/APS
• Southern Company
• Xcel Energy

Findings

The electric power sector showed weak water risk disclosure overall, with an average score of 19 out of 100. Pinnacle West/APS, an Arizona-based utility, achieved the highest level of disclosure in the sector with 38 points; Florida Power & Light  provided the most limited disclosure, receiving eight points.

1. Disclosure of Water Accounting Fewer than half (six out of 13) of the electric power companies reviewed provide data on water withdrawals.

2. Disclosure of Risk Assessment With the exception of NRG Energy, all the electric power companies surveyed disclose some level of physical risk related to water scarcity. All the companies report their exposure to water-related regulatory risks.

3. Disclosure of Direct Operations The electric power companies provide limited disclosure on water-related management systems and policies. Seven of the 13 companies report actions taken to reduce water withdrawals, with PG&E and Southern Company providing the most detailed disclosure. None of the companies disclose quantified targets to reduce contaminants in wastewater discharged from power plants.

4. Disclosure of Supply Chain Only one company – Entergy – provides information on collaboration with its non-fuel suppliers on water management. None of the companies disclose efforts to engage or assess fuel suppliers on water impacts or risks.

5. Disclosure of Stakeholder Engagement Eight out of the 13 electric power companies reviewed report engaging with stakeholders on water management.

The report concludes with several recommendations to the electric power sector:

• Better inclusion of water risks in financial filings
• More detailed risk assessments
• Water accounting data that puts performance in context
• Disclosure of management strategies and systems
• Setting and disclosing reduction targets
• Addressing water risks in the supply chain
• Engaging critical stakeholders
• Seizing opportunities to develop water-related product strategies

While carbon emissions have dominated the environmental disclosures in the recent past, water use, availability, and associated risks are likely to quickly gain center stage.

According to the Associated Press, the Administration now estimates that the TARP will cost about $200 billion less than the $341 billion the White House estimated in August. The lower estimate reflects faster repayments by big banks and less spending on some of the rescue programs as the financial sector recovered from its free fall more quickly than anticipated.

In the world of make-believe money, that means $200 billion available to spend on other programs. The President announced three focus areas: assistance to small businesses through tax cuts and other financial incentives to hire workers; additional infrastructure (e.g., highway, transit, rail, aviation, and water) investments; and energy efficiency and clean energy investments.

For the third focus area, here’s a White House summary:

New incentives for consumers who invest in energy efficient retrofits in their homes. Smart, targeted investments in energy efficiency can help create jobs while improving our energy security and saving consumers money. The President today called on Congress to consider a new program to provide rebates for consumers who make energy efficiency retrofits. Such a program will harness the power of the private sector to help drive consumers to make cost-saving investments in their homes.

Expansion of successful oversubscribed Recovery Act programs to leverage private investment in energy efficiency and create clean energy manufacturing jobs. The Recovery Act included historic investments that have helped to build the foundation for a clean energy economy. The Administration supports expanding programs for which additional federal dollars will leverage private investment and create jobs quickly, such as industrial energy efficiency investments and tax incentives for investing in renewable manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

Consumer incentives for energy efficiency improvements are similar to the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. To date, the DOE has awarded more than 1,700 grants, totaling over $1.9 billion. A running list of U.S. states, territories, local governments, and Indian tribes that have received monies is available on the program website. The redirected TARP money would be expected to fund additional programs.

Some DOE stimulus programs have been oversubscribed resulting in the cancellation of anticipated funding rounds,  such as with Phases II and III of the Smart Grid Investment Grants. Additional TARP monies will be used to fund certain programs, with the President calling out industrial energy efficiency and renewable manufacturing facilities.

The industrial funding appears to be in addition to the $155 million directed to industrial energy efficiency projects at 41 locations across the country announced in November. The renewable manufacturing component seems to be in addition to ARRA’s previous $2 billion worth of energy related manufacturing investment tax credits. Those credits are aimed at projects creating or retooling manufacturing facilities to make components used to generate renewable energy, storage systems for use in electric or hybrid-electric cars, power grid components supporting addition of renewable sources, and equipment for carbon capture and storage.

Faster repayment by big banks of TARP monies is welcome. Strategically allocating repaid TARP monies to fund energy infrastructure programs with long-term benefits is worthwhile.

• large-scale energy storage
• smart meters
• distribution and transmission system monitoring devices
• range of other smart technologies

A complete project list (pdf) is available on the DOE website.

Big winners appear to be Battelle Memorial Institute ($88 million), AEP Ohio ($75 million), LADWP ($60 million), and ConEd ($45 million), among others. The goal of the funding is to demonstrate technologies in regions across the U.S. that “embody essential and salient characteristics of each region and present a suite of use cases for national implementation and replication.”

Last month, the Department announced $3.4 billion in funding as part of its smart grid investment program.

Secretary Chu also released a video to YouTube discussing the benefits of Smart Grid.

As part of the order, the California Energy Commission and the California Department of Fish and Game agreed to expedite the development of RPS-eligible renewable energy resources in the state. The two agencies formed the Renewable Energy Action Team (REAT), which created a “one-stop” process for permitting renewable energy generation power plants. The federal Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the two state agencies to support the REAT.

In March 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed Order 3285 establishing the development of renewable energy as a priority for the Department of the Interior. The Act encourages the production, development, and delivery of renewable energy as one of the Department’s highest priorities.

Then in October 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a memorandum of understanding with Secretary Salazar to expedite the siting of renewable energy projects in California on federal land. California was the first state to sign an MOU with the Department of the Interior to cooperatively develop long-term renewable energy plans and to sheppard eligible projects through state and federal permitting processes. These eligible projects can receive 30 percent federal tax credits under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Schwarzenegger’s Executive Orders also initiated the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) process. The DRECP aims to protect and conserve the natural resources within the Mojave and Colorado Desert regions. It also allows solar and other qualified RPS energy development in a manner that avoids or minimizes environmental impacts.

Under the DRECP, California Department of Fish and Game and US Fish and Wildlife Service will help identify the “best” areas to site renewable energy, while avoiding conflicts with endangered species and sensitive areas. That report is due out by December 2010.

To achieve the common goal of siting more renewable energy facilities, various state and federal agencies must work together to balance energy and environmental needs.

In early January 2009, San Jose was the first of the three cities to actively support electric vehicles. Electric vehicle charging station startup Coulomb Technologies installed three charging stations in the downtown San Jose area.

Not to be outdone, San Francisco followed in February by installing three charging stations (also from Coulomb) in front of City Hall in an area dubbed the Green Vehicle Showcase. The stations are now used by plug-in electric vehicles already in San Francisco’s municipal fleet, along with plug-in electric hybrids owned by car-sharing organizations City CarShare and Zipcar.

Colulomb has gone on to install charging stations across the region (searchable map) including Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Elk Grove, West Sacramento, Walnut Creek, and Cambell (Colulomb’s headquarters). The charging stations are either stand-alone installations or attached to light posts. EV owners subscribe to Colubomb’s charging service and access the station via a smart card.

The other charging station company with plans for the region is called Better Place. At the mayoral media event last November, the company announced a $1 billion charging and battery-swapping network in the Bay Area. The company has since announced partnerships with Renault and Nissan. Given Better Place’s infrastructure-heavy approach, it may be some time before we see a station up and running here in the Bay Area.

At the state level, the California Energy Commission is focused on develop policy, clearing regulatory hurdles, and providing seed funding. The State’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program is helping a broad range of alternative transportation technologies. In April 2009, the state adopted its first investment plan with recommendations for expending $176 million over two years. The Commission is currently updating the plan for the 2010-1011 fiscal year with anticipated funding of $100 million per year.

While the Bay Area EV Corridor program is being helped by the state alternative vehicle program, it received significant planning support from efforts tied to a Regional Clean Cities ARRA grant, which proposed 109 charging stations across the region. Although the grant was not received, it laid the ground work for better coordination across the region. Now more than 100 cities, 9 counties, and 3 regional agencies are all working together to develop the EV program. A workshop summarizing activities to date was held in October.

Finally, the region’s elected representatives are also helping out in Washington. As part of the recently passed 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, $1 million is allocated to the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Initiative, which will be used towards planning and building the required EV infrastructure.

Looking back over the last 12 months, I’d say much has been accomplished. What do you think?

An important theme of the announcement was the incremental generation potential of the projects. No new dams were being built. Rather, older turbines would be replaced with newer more efficient models.

Barker Dam Construction in Boulder Canyon (1909)

If generated using traditional means, the additional 187,000 MWh/year would cause 110,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide. The equipment change-out was expected to produce only marginal carbon emissions, mainly from equipment production.

As the stimulus funding is designed to create jobs, the announcement highlighted the retention of 40 jobs at Voith Hydro, a turbine manufacturer.

The seven grant projects included:

• Alcoa Inc.’s Tapoca Cheoah Hydro Plant (Robbinsville, NC): Replace four 90-year old turbines to increase generation by 95,000 MWh, a 23% increase ($13 million)
• Alabama Power Coosa River Plants (Mitchell, AL): Upgrade four units at three hydroelectric plants to increase generation by 36,087 MWh annually, a 7.3% increase ($6 million)
• City of Tacoma Public Utilities (Potlatch, WA): Install two additional turbines to generate 23,500 MWh annually, a 14% increase, plus an upstream native fish habitat project ($4.67 million)
• City of Boulder, Colorado: Upgrade 100-year-old Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Project by replacing two older turbines with a single, high-efficiency unit to increase generation by 11,000 MWh annually, a 30% increase ($1.18 million)
• Los Alamos, New Mexico: Add a low flow turbine to increase plant capacity and generate an additional 6,462 MWh annually, a 22% increase ($4.56 million)
• Energy Northwest (Packwood, WA): Install a new Pelton Wheel turbine at the Packwood Lake Hydroelectric facility to increase generation by 5,868 MWh annually, a 6% increase ($800,000)
• North Little Rock Electric Department (Little Rock, AR): Install a new automated intake maintenance device to clear debris obstructing the intake and allow operation at peak efficiency ($450,000).

While these grants are small, they demonstrate the incremental improvements that we can make to our aging infrastructure.

In April, President Obama announced $400 million in initial funding for the agency as part of the total Recovery Act funding. Several types of projects were slated to receive funding under ARPA-E’s first Funding Opportunity Announcement, released on April 27, 2009. These included:

• Energy Storage
• Biomass Energy
• Carbon Capture
• Renewable Power
• Direct Solar Fuels
• Building Efficiency
• Waste Heat Capture
• Vehicle Technologies
• Water
• Conventional Energy

As part of this week’s announcement, approximately $30 million of the $151 million will be devoted to energy storage.

According to the DOE, developing technology to store electrical energy so it can be available to meet demand whenever needed would represent a major breakthrough in electricity distribution. While much attention is focused on the smart grid, a May 2009 article on earth2tech.com compared an advanced electrical grid without energy storage to a computer without a hard disk – severely limited.

The following energy storage projects received funding from ARPA-E this week:

Liquid Metal Batteries: Scientists at MIT will develop a new all-liquid metal grid-scale battery.

Planar Na-beta Batteries: Eagle Picher in partnership with PNNL will develop a new high energy, low-cost planar liquid sodium beta battery for the grid.

Nanotube-Enhanced Ultracapacitors: FastCAP Systems along with MIT will develop a new nanotube enhanced ultracapacitor with potential for a 6x improvement in energy density and cost over the current industry state-of-the art.

Metal-Air Ionic Liquid (MAIL) Batteries: Arizona State University, in partnership with Fluidic Energy, Inc., will seek to develop a new class of ultra-high energy new metal-air batteries using advanced ionic liquids.

Silicon Coated Nanofiber Paper as a Lithium-Ion Anode: Inorganic Specialists, Inc., will develop ultra high capacity battery anodes for next generation Li-ion batteries (3x the state-of-the art) based on a novel low cost silicon-coated carbon nanofiber paper.

High Energy Density Lithium Batteries: Envia Systems in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory will develop high energy density, low cost next generation Li-ion batteries using novel nano silicon-carbon composite anodes and high capacity manganese rich layered composite cathodes discovered at Argonne National Laboratory.

Whether these energy storage technologies will materialize is anyone’s guess. Time will tell.

The exciting element to ARPA-E is that DOE received over 3,700 submissions, with 300 having sufficient merit that they were asked to submit more detailed proposals. A total of 37 ARPA-E applications received government funding (6 energy storage applications). More than 500 reviewers put in 8,700 hours of work assessing the applications.

It’s comforting to know that so many experts are focused on this important topic.

For additional information about energy storage, check out the latest Congressional briefing on energy storage organized by the National Science Foundation and Discovery Magazine. (Disclosure: KEMA colleague Dr. Ralph Masiello is one of the speakers.)