Proposal For Center To Coordinate Energy, Climate Change Research

Proposal For Center To Coordinate Energy, Climate Change Research
More embarrassing riches - life sciences and energy research - FYI Mike
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The University of California may soon become home to an ambitious, $600 million institute that would coordinate energy and climate change research at schools and labs throughout the state, supported by money from your monthly electric bills.

The proposed California Institute for Climate Solutions would bring together universities - such as UC Berkeley and Stanford - better known as rivals than partners.

Each school and national laboratory involved already has scientists and engineers hunting for sources of energy, more efficient ways to use power and other means to fight global warming. Now their efforts would be coordinated by a central administration hosted by UC.

The project's substantial price tag would be paid through Californians' utility bills. A typical homeowner could pay an extra 30 cents per month as a result.

The idea is the brainchild of Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. The commission will hold a public workshop today in San Francisco to hammer out some of the issues, although a final commission vote on the project is probably months away.

Peevey sees the proposed institute as a way to cement California's position as the world's premier location for energy and climate change research.

"It's to marshal the best minds to address the biggest calamity mankind has ever faced," said Peevey, who under the current proposal could become one of the institute's co-chairmen. "You put all this together. There's so much going on here, and it builds on itself."

Although they have haggled over some of the details, the idea has drawn broad support from other schools after the University of California formally proposed it in September.

Several consumer groups, however, have questioned the wisdom of asking utility customers to pay for it.

The universities and labs, they note, already have funding for their own research. And utility customers already pay for other renewable energy projects, such as California's rebates for homeowners who install solar panels.

"The commission seems to have lost sight of the fact that even if you're spending money on the world's best cause - and I can't think of a better cause than climate change - it's possible to spend the money foolishly," said Bob Finkelstein, executive director of The Utility Reform Network.

He said the proposed institute should draw its funding from state taxes, if the state decides the project is worth pursuing. Peevey's five-member commission sets bill rates for California's three large, investor-owned utilities - such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. - but has no authority over taxes.

"It's probably faster to get the three votes on the utilities commission to raise rates than it is to raise taxes," Finkelstein said.

Peevey, however, considers the institute's proposed mission and its source of funding to be an appropriate fit.

"Why should (utility) ratepayers pay for it?" he said. "Because there's nothing more important to the environment of ratepayers."

As currently proposed, the institute would serve as an organizational hub for research. It would coordinate, rather than supplant, the efforts of member universities and labs.

Although it would most likely be housed at a UC campus, all the organizations taking part would have a say in running it. No one school or university system would have a majority of votes on its governing board.

That board also would include representatives from several government agencies, as well as utilities, consumer groups and environmental organizations. It would be co-chaired by the presidents of UC and the utilities commission.

The institute would draft a "road map" that would identify energy and climate change research already under way and look for gaps.

Those gaps would then get top priority for funding under the institute's budget, projected at $60 million per year for 10 years.

Research teams at individual schools or labs would have to bid for the institute's funding and win it through a competitive process.

"We'll be complementing existing research, not duplicating it," said Ellen Auriti, executive director for research policy in the UC system.

Stanford University worried at first that the project would be too dominated by UC, said James Sweeney, a Stanford energy economist working on the effort. But the proposed governing structure resolved those concerns.

He now looks forward to coordinating with other researchers throughout the state on such an important, daunting topic.

"There will be a planning process to make sure the whole thing has coherence, and I think that is valuable," Sweeney said. "Right now, the coherence comes about only because we all talk to each other."

Want to comment or learn more?

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a workshop on UC's proposed California Institute for Climate Solutions starting at 9 a.m. today at the commission's San Francisco headquarters, 505 Van Ness Ave. The meeting will also be Webcast at www.cpuc.ca.gov. To comment on the proposal, call the commission's public adviser office at (415) 703-2074 or (866) 849-8390.

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.

Vacaville Considers Deal For Power Plant

Vacaville Considers Deal For Power Plant
By Ian Thompson | DAILY REPUBLIC | December 06, 2007 14:14

VACAVILLE - Vacaville may get a power plant in four years that is designed to provide electricity during periods of high demand.

The city is considering giving Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures a three-year option to lease 25 acres next to the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant, Vacaville Public Works Director Dale Pfeiffer said.

Competitive Power Ventures wants to build a natural gas-powered electrical plant similar to but larger than four power plants that are located in Fairfield and Suisun City. These plants are called peaker plants because they operate only during periods of high electrical demand.

The Vacaville City Council is expected to vote on whether to give Competitive Power Ventures that option at its meeting Tuesday night.

Competitive Power Ventures needs the option in order to be ready with a proposal when PG&E issues a request for proposals early in 2008 to a build a plant in this area.

If the plant is built, Vacaville could get as much as $1.7 million in revenue in lease payments, property taxes and selling treated wastewater to the plant that will be used to cool its generators, Vacaville finance head Ken Campo said.

The income will offset the costs of running the Easterly wastewater treatment plant.

'It will help the city government, and it will help the ratepayer,' Pfeiffer said.

If Competitive Power Venture gets the nod from PG&E and approvals from state agencies, construction could begin in 2010 with the plant coming on line in 2012.

Vacaville will be the third community in Solano County to build peaker power plants if this happens.

Fairfield has one natural gas-powered, 48-megawatt power plant on Cordelia Road, not far from the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District's water treatment plant. Suisun City has the Lambie, Creed and Goose Haven power plants, all capable of generating as much as 47 megawatts.

All these plants were built in 2003 by Calpine Corp. under contract with the state to prevent rolling blackouts that occurred in 2000 and 2001.

In August, DG Power International of Walnut Creek approached the Fairfield City Council to build a larger gas-powered plant capable of generating between 200 and 500 megawatts. DG Power is presently working with Fairfield city staff and applying to PG&E for approvals.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.

Solar System Pays Off for ALZA Plant in Vacaville

Solar System Pays Off for ALZA Plant in Vacaville
By Barry Eberling DAILY REPUBLIC December 05, 2007 16:39



People walk through a 6.5 acre, 1 megawatt solar panel field built by ALZA Corporation in Vacaville Wednesday afternoon. Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Pacific Power Management presented ALZA with a $2,999,313 rebate incentive Wednesday. Photo by Brad ZweerinkVACAVILLE

Sunlight means electricity for the ALZA Corp., enough to meet one third of the peak summer needs at its Vacaville plant, an equivalent to the power demands from 200 homes.

The pharmaceutical company's new solar array has rows and rows of black photovoltaic panels spread across 6.5 acres, some 5,740 panels in all. This is one of the largest privately owned commercial arrays in California.

'It's very impressive to look out and see a one-megawatt solar field,' said Dan Pellissier, who represented the Schwarzenegger administration on Wednesday at a celebration for ALZA's achievement.

The celebration took place inside a fancy tent near the solar array. Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling provided light. Flower arrangements abounded. A buffet included such items as anticucho de filete and wild mushroom phyllo pursettes.

PG&E officials came to the site to present the company with a $2.9 million rebate for the $9 million project. ALZA expects to save $300,000 annually in energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.4 million pounds annually.

'We realize these initiatives are not only good for the environment and the community as a whole, but also make good business sense,' said Henry Esparza of the ALZA Corp.

Vacaville Mayor Len Augustine said the city is not really known as an environmental area. But, he said, the city not only has the ALZA solar array, but such things as the solar-powered homes at the Ventana subdivision, park-and-ride lots and a city program promoting compressed natural gas cars for residents.

'We're very proud of our environmental record,' Augustine said.

Novato-based SPG Solar Inc. built the solar array project.

ALZA has other alternative energy ventures. Its Mountain View plant is largely powered by methane gas from a closed city dump. The company has its headquarters in Mountain View and is owned by Johnson & Johnson.

This is just the latest solar energy effort in Solano County. In March, PG&E gave the Meyer Corp. in Fairfield a $1.4 million rebate for the cookware company's $4 million rooftop solar panel system.

PG&E has given $12.5 million self-generation rebates to Solano County ventures since 2002 and plans to award another $12.5 million for future ventures, said Clay Schmidt of PG&E.

Local governments are also trying solar energy. Examples include the Solano County health and social services buildings in Fairfield, the Solano County Government Center in Fairfield and the city hall, police station and city-owned pump station in Vallejo.

Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646, Ext. 232, or at http://mailto:beberling@dailyrepublic.net.