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| Technical Assistance, Incentives, and Funding Opportunities: Upcoming Events and Activities:
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| U.S. DOE Awards $9 Million to Clean Energy Small Businesses
On May 6, Chattanooga-based Coulometrics was one of 61 small businesses awarded funding by U.S. DOE to develop clean energy technologies with a strong potential for commercialization and job creation. Specifically, Coulometrics will receive $150,000 to develop high quality natural graphite for lithium ion vehicle batteries. Funded through U.S. DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, the 61 Phase I selections explore the feasibility of innovative concepts that could be developed into prototype technologies. To view the full list of awardees, click here. For information on subsequent phases of research and development to be funded under these programs, click here.
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| U.S. DOE Invests $8.4 Million to Increase Energy Efficiency of Nation's Homes and Buildings
On May 9, U.S. DOE’s Commercial Buildings Integration Program announced that it has selected 6 projects to receive $8.4 million in funding to support the increased efficiency of U.S. homes and buildings. In particular, these projects will develop nationally scale-up replicable, energy-efficient solutions for small and medium office buildings, apartments, stores, restaurants, and businesses. Of note to Tennessee, New Jersey-based Lime Energy will complete more than 1,000 retrofit projects in low-income communities in the Buffalo, Houston, Orlando, and Memphis areas. Overall, the projects selected for funding will improve the efficiency of at least 2,600 buildings nationwide and leverage almost $17 million in partner resources.
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| 2nd Annual TDEC Sustainable Transportation Awards and Forum
The 2nd Annual TDEC Sustainable Transportation Awards and Forum took place on May 12-13 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This year’s forum touched on a wide spectrum of subject areas and sectors, and included panel presentations on topics such as local government planning, off-road transportation, and innovations in fleets and fuels. The forum also featured a showcase of over 20 alternative fueled vehicles, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s 3D-printed natural gas and electric-powered utility vehicle, as well as a variety of electric, solar, natural gas and propane powered vehicles. An awards luncheon was held on the second day of the forum, and included remarks from TDEC Commissioner Bob Martineau and TDOT Deputy Commissioner Toks Omishakin. The awards recognize outstanding initiatives within the State of Tennessee to reduce transportation-related energy and emissions, in line with an overarching effort to save natural resources, improve the health and well-being of Tennesseans, and create efficiencies in the delivery of goods and services. To view the full list of award winners and their project summaries, click here. The forum also featured the launch of the Tennessee Green Fleets Certification Program, which was developed jointly by the Middle-West and East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalitions. The program is designed to utilize performance-based metrics to analyze any fleet’s vehicle and fuel-use data. A points-based, 3-star system allows for certification at the 1-, 2-, or 3- star level, depending on the efforts taken toward reducing petroleum consumption, improving air quality, and increasing the use of alternative fuels or advanced vehicle technologies. At the 2nd Annual Sustainable Transportation Forum, the first 8 fleets to be certified under this program were announced. To view the full list of certified fleets and to read about the efforts they took to achieve certification, click here. For more information related to the Sustainable Transportation Awards and Forum, click here.
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| EPRI Receives Funding to Support Solar Training and Education for Professionals (STEP)
On May 17, U.S. DOE announced that it would award $10 million to 10 new projects through its Solar Training and Education for Professionals (STEP) program, which was created to help meet the solar industry's growing demand for well-qualified, highly skilled installers and other industry-related professionals. Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Knoxville Office will receive $1 million to establish a Distributed Technology Training Consortium (DTTC) in the western United States. This new consortium, GridEd-West (The Center for Grid Engineering Education in the West), leverages the existing structure, knowledge, and successes from the EPRI-led GridEd-East team – a consortium which over the past two years has trained more than 4,500 students and professionals in power systems engineering. The GridEd-West project will identify areas of improvement for existing educational curricula in power systems engineering and associated materials, and will then develop new and revised courses related to distributed energy resource generation and integration for undergraduate and graduate students. Short courses and workshops will be developed and delivered to industry professionals seeking to advance their careers and maintain professional development credits. EPRI will also stimulate student interest in electric power engineering and facilitate student internships, rotations, and fellowships in power systems engineering fields while promoting full-time employment opportunities. For more information, and to see the full list of awardees, click here.
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| Workshop on Energy Efficiency Opportunities for Local Jurisdictions and K-12 School Districts
On May 19, TDEC OEP and Clean Energy Solutions, Inc. (CESI) hosted a workshop for 52 attendees in Franklin. The first portion of the workshop was dedicated to exploring and financing energy conservation measures for local governments, school district facilities, and wastewater treatment plants, and featured guest speakers from the City of Knoxville’s Office of Sustainability, the Energy Efficient Schools Initiative, the TDEC Office of Energy Programs, and the Pathway Lending Energy Efficient Loan Program. The second portion of the workshop focused on LED streetlight conversions for local jurisdictions, and featured presentations from the McMinnville Electric System as well as the City of Knoxville’s Office of Sustainability. This portion of the workshop built off of an April 11 webinar hosted by OEP and CESI, entitled, "LED Street Lighting for Local Jurisdictions: Working with Local Utilities to Facilitate Best Case Scenarios." A recording of this webinar is available here. The workshop and webinar were funded under an award OEP received from U.S. DOE to provide education, outreach, and no-cost technical assistance to local governments, K-12 school districts, and public housing authorities in Tennessee, with the goal of supporting implementation of energy efficiency, energy management and renewable energy projects.
The scope of work under this award includes, but is not limited to, engaging local officials in the benefits of energy efficiency and providing technical assistance on cost-effective energy efficiency measures, such as building audits, requests for qualifications to scope work, collaborating with energy service companies, benchmarking, measurement and verification of energy savings, and procurements. The project period for this award will end on January 31, 2017. If you are a local jurisdiction, K-12 school district or public housing authority in Tennessee that is interested in discussing potential energy savings measures in your facilities, please reach out to Alexa Voytek at alexa.voytek@tn.gov or 615-532-0238.
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| ORNL to Open Chattanooga Office
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) recently announced that they will soon open an office in downtown Chattanooga. ORNL staff based out of this office will collaborate with city-owned utility EPB on a pioneering smart grid and fiber optic system. The office will also serve as outreach hub, to help ORNL spread and commercialize its innovations to industry and the marketplace. For more information, click here.
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| TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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| U.S. DOE Announces $25 Million to Accelerate Integration of Solar Energy into Nation's Electrical Grid
On May 2, U.S. DOE announced a funding program to develop distribution planning and operation solutions to enable dynamic, automated and cost-effective management of distributed and variable generation sources. The funding opportunity will make $25 million available to software developers, solar companies, and utilities to accelerate the development of next-generation hardware and software solutions. The funding opportunity has two topic areas: - Area 1: Near-term projects that develop commercially-ready, scalable distribution system planning and grid operation solutions to enable the addition of solar at 50% of the peak distribution load by 2020.
- Area 2: Projects that take a long-term view of developing transformative and scalable technologies to enable solar at 100% of the peak distribution load by 2030. For this area of interest, large scale simulation is required to demonstrate performance.
U.S. DOE expects to make between 10-15 awards ranging between $500,000 and $4,000,000 for Area 1 projects and between $500,000 and $2,000,000 for Area 2 projects. Concept papers are due on June 17 and full applications are due on August 26. For more information, and to view the funding opportunity, click here.
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| "Reducing Diesel Emissions for a Healthier Tennessee" Rebate Program
As of May 2, through the “Reducing Diesel Emissions for a Healthier Tennessee” rebate program, the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition is making grant funding available to fleets in Tennessee to replace older, diesel vehicles with new alternative fuel replacement vehicles that can run on propane, compressed natural gas (CNG), electricity, or that are hybrids. A total of $200,400 is available, and a maximum of $16,700 is being offered per vehicle to cover all or part of the incremental cost of the vehicle over the cost of a new, same year diesel vehicle of the same type. No greater than 100% of the incremental cost can be provided, and any one entity may apply for funding to be applied to a maximum of 15 vehicles. This funding is available in all counties within the State of Tennessee. Applications are due by Monday, June 20 at 5 pm CDT. To view the RFP and application, click here.
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| RFI on Renewable Energy for Contracted Power Supply to TVA
TVA released a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting expressions of interest related to supply of delivered energy and/or capacity to TVA. More specifically, TVA is interested in understanding the current availabilities, flexibilities, and preferences of market participants with regards to providing delivered energy and/or capacity from renewable energy generation sources. This is not a Request for Proposals (RFP) or solicitation for formal proposals, but rather the information developed through this RFI may be used in evaluating candidates to receive potential future RFPs. For purposes of this RFI, “renewable energy” means electrical power generated by solar, wind, biomass, or other commercially viable renewable energy technologies. All expressions of interest should assume a potential future sell-all PPA arrangement with TVA, rather than a sale of the generating facility to TVA. Interested parties should respond to this RFI no later than June 30. The RFI is available online here.
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| Southeast Alternative Fuel Vehicle Demonstration Initiative in Tennessee
The Southeast AFV Demonstration Initiative (SADI) is a U.S. DOE-funded project focused on the increased adoption of alternative fuels in the Southeast region of the United States. As part of the initiative, DOE Clean Cities Coalitions throughout South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee will arrange for fleets to borrow and test out alternative fuel vehicles at no cost. Vehicles available in Tennessee will include: - Bi-fuel propane vehicles: 2014 Ford Police SUV Interceptor, 2015 Dodge Charger Pursuit, 2015 Ford F150, Ford Explorer and Ford Transit
- Dedicated CNG vehicles: 2014 class-8 Freightliner Cascadia, 2015 Chevrolet Trax
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| U.S. DOE to Issue Funding Opportunity on Building Efficiency Packages
U.S. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), on behalf of the Building Technologies Office (BTO), announced that it intends to issue a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for real building demonstrations of high impact energy efficient multi-system technology packages. For the purposes of this Notice of Intent (NOI), multi-system packages are defined as groups of technologies that improve efficiency across two or more building systems: envelope, lighting/electrical, plug, process, heating, ventilation, cooling, refrigeration, energy management and information, sensors and controls. Preference will be given to those packages that build off of the current High Impact Technology Priority List, outcomes of previous demonstration projects, simulation analyses and/or existing BTO research and development (R&D) investments in envelope retrofits and multi-system, interoperable controls. The anticipated FOA will also seek applications that foster collaboration of dynamic teams, to include deployment entities (states, local governments or Regional Energy Efficiency Organizations), efficient building hubs (such as Innovation or Incubator hubs), utilities, technology providers and/or building energy analysis professionals. To read the full Notice of Intent, click here. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange on or about October 2016.
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| U.S. DOE Announces New Funding for Technologist in Residence Program
On May 4, U.S. DOE announced an additional $2.3 million in funding for its Technologist in Residence Program, which will support the national laboratories in teaming up with manufacturing companies to tackle technical challenges of interest to the participating company or consortium. The program aims to strengthen and bolster such lab-industry relationships, in order to support industry needs and to leverage the national lab network for strategic, long-term, and commercially viable research and development. The program teams up senior lab technologists with industry professionals in "technologist pairs” for a period of up to two years. In the first iteration of the program, Tennessee-based Alcoa was partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to research additive and other advanced manufacturing of lightweight structures and functional energy systems. Read about some of the other first round projects here. The current solicitation, which will support at least six new pairs, will be open and evaluated on a rolling basis. Interested national labs and companies should determine areas of mutual interest, identify technologist pairs, and apply to the program by May 3, 2017 here.
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| TVA Electric Forklift Incentive
Electric forklifts have lower operating costs, less emissions, less maintenance, and quieter operation. As part of its EnergyRight Solutions for Business and Industry program, TVA is offering limited-time only cash incentives for the purchase or lease of all-electric forklifts. All TVA directly served customers, Local Power Company (LPC) customers, and LPC-served customers who have an existing qualifying forklift are eligible. This incentive will increase to $5,000 for the replacement of internal combustion Class 4 (cushion tire) and Class 5 (pneumatic tire) forklifts with electric-powered Class 1 (counter-balance) or Class 2 (narrow aisle) forklifts for applications received March 8, 2016, through August 31, 2016. This incentive is designed to increase participation and further reduce the gap between the cost of internal combustion and electric forklifts. During the same period, a $3,000 incentive will be extended for the purchase of new Class 1 and Class 2 electric forklifts. For more information about the electric forklift program, please click here.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
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| From May 30-June 10, the American Public Gas Association and NGV America will present the CNG USA Rally. The Rally will start in Long Beach, California and will end in Washington, D.C., with 13 media stops incorporated along the way. Within the State of Tennessee, the Rally will stop in Memphis (June 6), Trenton (June 6), Dickson (June 7), and Sevierville (June 7). The intent of the rally will be to raise public awareness as to the benefits of compressed natural gas (CNG) as a fuel, as well as to the abundance of natural gas refueling stations. Tennesseans who drive natural gas vehicles are encouraged to come to any or all of the Tennessee stops to help promote the cause and event. For more information, contact Pat Riley at pat@gcud.net.
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| SPARK! Tech Showcase in Knoxville
On June 21 from 3-6 pm, the SPARK! Tech Showcase at the Knoxville Chamber will feature cutting edge technologies such as new materials for 3D printing, innovations in cyber security, sustainable composites, wireless charging for EVs, and real-time medical diagnostics. The event will conclude with a networking reception and updates from regional entrepreneurs. For more information and to register, click here.
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