California Climate & Energy Collaborative

Locals Only: Breaking Through Regional Barriers for Energy Action

Just before the start of the pandemic, SoCalREN began partnering with regional organizations to equitably expand program reach. By mid 2020, we had onboarded five regional partners—a mix of non-profit organizations and councils of governments—with a tremendous breadth of insights into how we could craft more regionally-relevant resources. Fast forward two years, and we’ve got…

Why do Local Governments Care About Energy Efficiency?

Local government leaders across California are motivated to further energy efficiency (EE) goals for a number of different reasons: Cost Savings: One of the top motivating factors that speaks to everyone is cost savings. Using less energy means spending less money on energy. Spending less on energy reduces overhead, frees up funds for other projects,…

Ways to get Funded

How to Guide: Ways to Get Funded Internal Funding Best PracticesWhile rarely easy, there are many ways to identify internal sources of funding for locally-led focused on reducing energy and greenhouse gas emissions in municipal or privately owned facilities. Did we miss an internal best practice? Let us know at eecoordinator@lgc.org. Annual Budget AppropriationsRe-invest Municipal…

American Rescue Plan Act Build Back Better Regional Challenge

Through this American Rescue Plan Act Build Back Better Regional Challenge Notice of Funding Opportunity (ARPA BBBRC NOFO), EDA aims to assist communities and regions impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has caused, and continues to cause, economic injury to U.S. communities and regions in devastating and unprecedented ways. This ARPA BBBRC NOFO is…

TA Provider: Silent Running LLC

An organization offering free technical assistance to local government professionals, who has the willingness, capacity, and expertise to be contacted by local government energy and climate peers/professionals to share knowledge in the following types of programs, projects, or policies: Energy Efficiency, Microgrids and Microgrid Use Cases, Resiliency, Electricity Rate Tariffs, Renewable Energy Sizing and Configuration,…

Technical Resilience Navigator

The Technical Resilience Navigator (TRN) provides a systematic approach to identifying energy and water resiliency gaps and developing and prioritizing solutions that reduce disruptions in energy and water services.

Microgrid Demonstration Project at City of Fremont

Three City of Fremont Fire Stations are benefitting from a microgrid energy demonstration project that pairs solar photovoltaic (PV) carports with large battery systems to allow the facilities to generate and store their own energy, acting like mini power plants. The project is a public-private partnership between the City of Fremont, the Fremont-based clean technology…

Pecan Street Project, Austin TX

The Pecan Street Project (PSP) in Austin utilized smart metering for energy and water systems in 1,000 residences and 75 businesses. A 2015 review confirmed that PSP provided significant energy and water savings, and increased grid resiliency.

Green District Program

Program using battery, EVSE, thermostats and water heaters for residential, commercial & municipal customers. Provides wholesale market revenue & procurement cost savings to CCA, cost savings & resiliency benefits to customers

City of West Hollywood Smart City

The City of West Hollywood is embarking on an ambitious initiative to holistically weave technology into the fabric of the city and turn bold, progressive ideas into lasting innovations. The West Hollywood Smart City Strategic Plan provides the City a multi-phased roadmap to efficiently incorporate smart technologies into our urban infrastructure and leverage that technology…

DC Water Finances Clean River’s Project with Green Bond

In 2014, DC Water issued the first certified green bond to finance the administrative and implementation costs of the city’s Clean River’s project. Projects funded by municipal green bonds provide numerous environmental and social benefits including improved water quality, climate resiliency through flood mitigation, and increased biodiversity.

Distributed Resource Adequacy Program

Program using solar PV + battery energy storage for residential & commercial customers with the added emphasis on low-income and medical baseline. The program provides resource adequacy for CCA’s and resiliency for customers.

California SGIP Program Provides incentives for batteries

TerraVerde is providing regular updates on the status and funding availability for commercial-scale battery projects. The California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), depending on location of the project and type of facility, can cover between 30-100% of the costs of a battery energy storage project. However, given the rich incentive levels, and the increased demand for…

City of Carlsbad Emergency Services Advanced Microgrid

Benefits of project include energy savings and reduced environmental & economic impacts, improved energy resiliency and reliability, improved cybersecurity, support clean energy market transformation, shows city’s commitment to the CEC and 2030 climate and energy goals.The project has struggled due to major changes in city leadership, a lack of funding, and the time lag since…

Recovery and Resilience Takes a Village Part 2

Recovery and Resilience Takes a Village Part 2 – Exploring Collaboration in Electrification Planning How Local Governments are Collaborating Across Boundaries, Agencies, and Sectors to Act on Climate Change With thanks to Angie Hacker and John Vandervort for researching and writing this piece for CURRENTS. IntroductionIn January, we released the first article in a 3-part…