Source: Lindsay McCormick, CleanTech Alliance, Feb 28, 2020
“Your presentations helped us realize that there’s been a good return on these investments in a number of ways, both in energy conservation and in developing technologies,” said Representative Steve Tharinger, the Chair of the House Capital Budget Committee.
On Thursday, February 27th the CleanTech Alliance facilitated a work session in Olympia in front of the House Capital Budget Committee to talk about the Clean Energy Fund and the positive impact it has had on our members.
After a brief introduction from Tom Ranken, the President and CEO of the CleanTech Alliance, Michael Furze from the Department of Commerce (pictured below) kicked things off with a presentation about our electric grid and the changes that need to happen to it in the coming years.
Angela Becker-Dippmann (pictured below) gave a presentation next about what PNNL has done with the funding they’ve received from the CEF and boasted a leverage ratio of $6 raised for every $1 the state invested.
Curt Kirkeby from Avista followed and talked about how the CEF enabled them to build the largest Vanadium flow battery system in North America and how even though it’s no longer in operation, they learned a lot about energy storage from that project as well as the capacity of microgrids.
Jan Allen from Impact BioEnergy came next and spoke about the Vashon Island digester project that they completed thanks to CEF funding and how that money enabled them to grow and start projects at businesses and universities across the US and expand into other countries.
Lastly, Carl Seip from Craft3 talked about the Grants to Nonprofit Lenders program and how Craft3 was able to use CEF money to help businesses and homeowners alike with energy efficiency projects and boasted a leverage ratio of 7 to 1.
“It makes us feel better about the money we’ve put into [the Clean Energy Fund],” Representative Tharinger said at the conclusion of the presentations.
Overall, the work session was a huge success and will hopefully lead to continued funding for the Clean Energy Fund in the upcoming 2021 legislative session.