Day 1 Green Tech 2021 - May 5, 2021

Amanda: I have the honor of introducing Congressman Jim Pennetta, who represents us here in the 20th District of California. And Congressman Panetta has authored, introduced and co-sponsored multiple pieces of legislation dealing with climate change, blocking drilling in our oceans and public lands, cutting carbon emissions, and really has shown such great commitment to protecting our amazing natural environment that we have here, ensuring clean air and water. and moving our economy toward green tech, all with the goal of fighting climate change and really ensuring a sustainable and healthy planet for generations to come.

Congressman Jimmy Panetta

You bet. Thanks to you and Doug for putting this on. I appreciate it. I enjoyed a beautiful day at home in front of Zoom calls all day. But it's nice to be able to top the day off with this type of discussion and all of the good work that Santa Cruz Works and has been doing. So I truly appreciate the fact that you've organized green tech and for all the amazing speakers that are going to be talking tonight that are going to be highlighting something that is so important and can mean so much to something that is so critical and so many people's lives, and that's what all of us, all of us can do for green technology.

Now, it's going to be great to hear from our speakers about what our community is doing right here on the Central Coast to have a more sustainable future. But I have to say, I'm also proud to tell you that Congress is actually doing a lot when it comes to our green infrastructure and when it comes to clean energy and transportation, but also what we're trying to do to protect our infrastructure by preventing wildfires. Now, first, let me say how proud I am to report to you that we actually have an administration that believes in science, that believes in climate change.

And, yes, most importantly, believes that our nation must be a leader when it comes to taking affirmative steps to address the climate crisis. Now, as the second largest emitter of carbon, this administration, the majority in the Senate and the majority in the US House of Representatives, including your congressman, believes that our nation in twenty, twenty one is also a great source of climate related policy, technology and, yes, leadership. I do believe that what is about to unfold in our nation's capital will set the course for America over the next decade and yes, even beyond.

Now, the ex-president, to be honest, just did us no good. In fact, it took us a lot to push back over the last four years to limit the damage that he could do now. Yes, a lot of people, including a lot of you, yelled and screamed and protested about it. Understandably so. And thank goodness you did. And the good thing is, though, what you have to realize is that Congress led by Speaker Pelosi, we turn those words into deeds.

And we did we acted. We did something about it. Last term, we held over one hundred hearings about the climate crisis led by Kathy Castor, the chair of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

We introduced legislation one hundred and sixty to Congress that laid the solid foundation for what we are about to do in the hundred and seventeenth Congress. Now, clearly, one of the hallmarks of this Congress right now when it comes to our climate legislation will be our upcoming efforts surrounding the nation's infrastructure and what we can do to invest in our future and invest in our climate resiliency. Now, recently, President Biden unveiled a three trillion dollar infrastructure proposal which would fund traditional infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water systems, rural broadband and of course, thank goodness, affordable housing.

Now another significant aspect of the bill is going to be to invest in education and social infrastructure, including free community college, permanent, making permanent the child tax credit and, of course, child care. Now, while the president has laid out a bold what I would call a transformative vision, it's really going to come down to my colleagues and I, especially us, on the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives to formulate and, yes, fund that bill.

Now, part of that just started a few hours ago.

I was on a Zoom call with just a handful of the Ways and Means members with secretary judge, secretary of the transportation. And we were laying the foundation for the bill and what clean energy investments should be in the infrastructure bill. Now, although thanks to President Biden's executive order for a net zero carbon economy by 2050, which is the goal, that entails a heck of a lot of work, I think we know that. That's why this next decade there must be clear and affirmative steps to keep the temperature from rising one point five degrees.

And let me tell you, the first step starts with this bill. It starts with investments to remove the carbon emissions from our electricity and transportation systems. Now, when it comes to our electricity, we can expand the use of renewables. Solar and wind have been booming and the costs have been plummeting over the last decade. That should make the expansion much easier. We also need to invest in the resilience of our transmission systems and our grid with interconnections that can transmit large amounts of power over long distances.

We must invest in research and development and other forms of non carbon producing energy, especially when it comes to reliable and safe nuclear reactors, hydrogen fuel, fuel cells and geothermal capabilities. We must work on capturing and storing carbon if there's going to be LNG and we must decarbonize when it comes to making our cement. Also, as you're going to hear about tonight, there needs to be more research and development when it comes to batteries and storage. Now, as part of those efforts for research and development, I hope to include in the infrastructure package my Clean Energy Production and Parity Act that would provide tax credits for clean burning linear generators.

I also will be pushing to include my microgrid act now. Earlier this week, I was down in the Salinas Valley about two days ago, and I spoke to one company who was down there who was shut down for literally three days because the power company and the Gonzales caused an emergency power shutdown. I then spoke with the mayor of Gonzales about their plans and construction to be to build their own microgrid. Now, my microgrid act would provide tax credits for companies like like the ones like the one I visited and for communities like Kansas to build out their microgrid infrastructure so that they can have a cleaner energy alternative and an electrical grid that stays connected when there are extreme weather events or emergency preparedness shutoffs.

Now, in regards to research and develop for new research and development for new green technologies, I've also authored and introduced a new bipartisan, bicameral energy sector innovation tax credit. That's a bill that would provide production tax credits for emerging technologies. Basically, the bill would encourage more innovation and clean energy and help make the newest clean energy technologies more competitive. I'm glad to say I introduced and I'm working on that bill with Senators Whitehouse and Crapo to help get the newest green technology off the ground now when it comes to transportation.

A lot of the discussion in today's session with Secretary Budha, judge, was on how we can decarbonize our transportation sector, investing in electric cars and electric busses and, yes, even in electric bikes, but also talking about investments in reducing our carbon when it comes to our air travel. Now, as we draft this infrastructure bill coming up, I will work with leadership and will continue to fight to have my own proposals in that bill, including the green bus tax credit, to provide local governments and agencies tax credits to purchase zero emission bus busses.

A month ago, I visited Santacruz Metro. And let me tell you, that's something that they want that something they could use to buy and get on the road. More zero emission busses. Now, when my conversation with Secretary Boota judge today, I asked him about what it would take for more biking infrastructure. And after that, I was also part of an international discussion about bikes and what it would take for our towns in America to be more like towns in Europe when it comes to biking and biking infrastructure.

And the kind of the question came around was, do you need infrastructure or the culture? To get more butts on bikes? Well, the answer is both. That's part of the reason why I authored the E Bike Act, a bill that would provide tax credits so more Americans can access a greener mode of transportation and bikes. I also did it because I don't know if you've ever been on a bike, but they are a blast. They are fun.

And yes, they are very, very safe. Let me tell you, though, what was no fun, and that was 20, 20, not just because of the pandemic and the politics, but the wildfires that affected all of us, including my family and I, which had to be evacuated from our home. What you see, I'm in right now. Now, despite the death and the devastation caused by those fires, we saw the amazing response by our fire men and women and our policemen and women to help suppress those fires and keep us as safe as possible.

But clearly, more needs to be done to prevent those fires, especially on federal lands. That's why I authored the Save Our Forest Act to ensure that the US Forest Service is appropriately staffed to enforce the law since 80 percent of the fires on federal lands are started by humans. It's why I introduced the Wildfire and Public Safety Act to clear out dead and dying trees and brush that are that fuel for many of the wildfires that we experienced this day. It's why you also introduced the Replant Act to invest in the reforestation of those federal lands that were burned.

You can do that by planting one point two billion with a B billion trees, an example of what happens when you don't replant on those areas that were scarred by fires.

Take a look what happened in Highway one earlier this year that washed out at Ratt Creek. That was in the burn scar of the Dolen fire when the rain came down and the floods happened and literally just took out that road. Now, thanks to the good work of Caltrans, we were able to replace that road in record time. But you know as well as I do, especially if you live in Santa Cruz and other parts of the Central Coast, there are still plenty of roads, plenty of infrastructure that continue to be damaged by the climate crisis.

Now, I believe that there needs to be a massive a massive investment, along with some regulatory tools and even carbon pricing to curb our nation's carbon emissions. Many people are starting to say, well, that's just two months too much and that's too much of a risk. I firmly believe that it's a risk worth taking. It's a risk worth taking because of the climate crisis, but also risk taking. It's what we do. Risk taking is the quintessential American act.

It's who we are, is what we've done throughout our history. It's how we're able to get through the pandemic. It's how we are going to be able to get through this climate change. It's what America must do as government, as a government that needs to lead when it comes to the climate crisis. But also also we must take this risk as a democracy that needs to govern when it comes to the future and green technology. Thanks. I'll turn it back to you and look forward to hearing what everybody else has to say about green technology.

Matthew: Thank you so much, Congressman, do you have a time for a couple of questions?

Jimmy: Sure, of course.

Matthew: OK, we'll be quick. First question, what are the top initiatives that will create a noticeable change for our community? Look, I think there's a number of things that I just mentioned, obviously, you know, within our community with the reports out that the average cost of a single family home is close to a million dollars, we need to focus on affordable housing. And I'm proud to say that this administration understands how important it is to have affordable housing as a cornerstone of the infrastructure bill.

Jimmy: So I can tell you that there's going to be continued investment, over two hundred billion dollars in affordable housing throughout the country on top of low income housing tax credits that help developers invest in affordable housing. In this district, tax credits like the four percent rehabilitation tax credit and the nine percent redevelopment tax credit that are so important to ensuring that there's affordable housing in our community, but also knowing that basically around here, you know, buying a new home is tough.

That's why I introduced with Earl Blumenauer, my partner from up in Oregon. There in Portland, we introduced the first time homebuyers tax credit. You used to have it where when you buy a house, do you get a significant tax credit back from the federal government? That's no longer thanks to the 2017 tax bill. Well, we hope to change that. We hope to get it into this infrastructure bill that when you're able to purchase a house, you get a fifteen thousand up to a fifteen thousand dollar tax credit, which I think is so important and so necessary for those purchasing homes here on the Central Coast.

And then, of course, during the pandemic, it was dealing with the renter's relief, making sure that there was the renter and relief fund that was there from the federal government that help people stay in their houses and help landlords get paid as well. Well, on top of that, it's the green technology aspects of the infrastructure infrastructure bill that I talked about. Obviously, we here on the Central Coast, we get how important our environment is. We get how important it is to deal with the climate crisis.

We get how important it is to lead on the climate crisis. It's my job. It's our job in Washington, D.C., to make sure that our federal government does the same. These last four years have been tough. We admit that. And it was a lot of playing defense and a lot of playing catch up. Now it's our time to lead when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to facing the climate crisis, when it actually comes to taking affirmative steps going forward to make sure others get involved and invest in green energy and green technology.

It's an exciting time right now. I'm optimistic. Yes, because we're coming out of the pandemic. We're continuing to put shots and arms and we're seeing our infection rate get lower as our vaccine rate goes up. But at the same time, we're actually doing something in Washington, D.C. And you know what? That doing something, it's exciting, but yeah, kind of boring. Governing is boring, but that's our damn job. And I look forward to continuing to do it for all of you.

Matthew: Great, thank you. One last question, what can we do to support climbin climate legislation? What can we do?

Jimmy: Oh, look, I think what we realized is that when it comes to dealing with the climate, it's obviously continuing to make sure that your representatives are doing the right thing. And obviously, you know, we're fortunate enough around here that we've had a long history of our leaders who value our environment and have put the certain protections in place. We have to make sure that those protections remain in place as we did over the last four years. But we also have to, like I said, make sure that our representatives at all levels of government, not just the federal level, but at all levels of government, the state level, at the local level, are taking the right steps forward.

And I'm not just talking about here on the central coast, but throughout our country. OK, you have to make sure that if you have family members, if you have friends in other parts of the country, try to tell them how important it is to tell their representative how important it is to deal with the climate crisis, how important it is to support this infrastructure package, how important it is to make sure that when it comes to green technology, we provide the proper investment and the proper incentives so that companies, so that organizations of that town and people have that incentive to take those steps forward to deal with the climate crisis.

So making sure that basically you stay in touch. But we all, all of us, all of us play our part to make sure that we can battle the climate crisis. Great. Thank you so much, Congressman. There are many other questions. And sorry we don't have time for all of them, but if you still have a question for Congressman, please put in the Q&A. He'll be available to answer the questions in written form. So thank you so much for that.

PNNL / Matt Paiss

My name is Matt Paaiss and I work for Pacific Northwest National Labs. And while that happens to be in Washington State, I fulfill the Santa Cruz office of one. My role at Pacific Northwest National Labs is I manage their energy storage, safety codes and standards efforts. And L is one of the 17 DOD funded national labs with forty five hundred employees focusing on some of the toughest scientific challenges that our society faces from homeland security to nuclear research to energy and environment, which is the division I am very proud to work in.

We have over a thousand scientists, some of the top scientists in the world working on the next generation material sciences for energy storage. And what I'm going to talk about today is how the grid is being modernized. We heard from Congressman Panetta that this administration is they've open the checkbook to develop our grid, to be resilient, reliable, secure, portable equity affordability is a top priority of this administration. And we're trying to realize that through our reinforcement of the grid, it needs to be flexible.

We've noticed this through a lot of changes in both climate as well as the use of electricity, that the need to be flexible is becoming critical and last to be sustainable. You can generate a lot of electricity in a variety of formats. Our choice is to be a non carbon producing means. So the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium GML C is aiming to do all of these. Here is a list of the 14 national labs that are working on this entire field of challenges from how devices are integrated in the systems, how we sense and measure.

And that is part of the challenges with wildfire starts where we're developing tools to detect when fires actually break prior to the time they actually land on the ground, milliseconds in some cases, how systems are operated and how they're controlled, how energy storage and the grid, various functions are designed and how they're planned out generation stations, how those are function. All of these different areas are being focused on by all of the national labs. And this consortium also includes over two hundred different partners.

That includes forty one utilities system operators, vendors of equipment that are used in manufacturing our grid. There's a variety of different industry organizations, as well as the universities, really trying to engage the universities in these tough challenges and as well as federal, state and local entities. So each of these different components are part of the Grid Modernization Lab Consortium. Intel is just one cog in that wheel, and I am just a very, very small part. My focus is on energy storage, safety, and as we'll hear later on, one of the largest battery in the world is in our backyard.

And I'm playing a very small role in trying to ensure that system is operated safely. So five minutes, I think I met that, Doug. So I'm going to go ahead and pass the mike. Thank you very much.

Dustin Jolley / OurEnergy

Amanda and Doug, thanks so much and thanks to to the congressman and and Matt, you guys set the table perfectly here for me to pick up. And I'm going to take some cues for you from from both of them. And if you could just move on to that first slide there, Amanda, that would be great. And what I'm going to drill down on here after I provide a brief introduction is just a couple of the categories that Matt touched on.

But before that, I'll provide a quick introduction. So again, I'm Dustin Jolley with Our Energy. I've had the pleasure of spending my 20 year career in the infrastructure space, primarily power and water. And I've really had the pleasure of working on projects large and small all around the world. And five years ago, I started this company, Our Energy, to really focus specifically on new, resilient, modern energy systems primarily. But I'm a civil engineer, a little bit of a generalist and also do all kinds of work in the green building and low impact development space.

But as we'll talk about here in a second, the majority of that work is in larger complex hybrid energy systems and micro grids. And if you could move on, Amanda, that's exactly what I'd like to get into here. So as Matt just touched on, obviously there is a really multifaceted approach to modernizing our electric grid. And all the cogs around that wheel that Matt touched on are essential in that in that whole process of modernizing our grid. And something that's getting a lot of attention these days is local, resilient energy systems and, of course, largely based on renewables.

And so that's what I'm going to talk about here over the next couple of minutes. And so I'll just kick it off.

At the most basic level, what is a microgrid? We've been hearing this term a lot lately and I think it's a little bit ambiguous. But according to the Department of Energy, a microgrid is a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within a clearly defined boundary that can act as a single controllable entity with respect to the macro grid. And that microgrid can connect and disconnect from the grid and enable it to operate in both a grid connected and islanded mode or is separate from the larger macro grid.

And this is kind of a cool diagram here that I found again from lifted it from one of the MAX partners at the National Labs. And it shows kind of an interesting aspect here, because in Microgrid actually can can be defined in a number of different ways and you can actually have micro grids nested within each other and operating at several different layers and levels. So starting at the very top level, at the at the top of the diagram, there is this nested micro grids diagram connection to the bulk power supply system, as it says there, or the macro grid.

So this is the large transmission and distribution grid as most of us think about it at the next level down, it's possible to have a microgrid operating at the substation level and substations on our grid can serve regional areas and even entire towns or groups of towns. So typically it's operating at that level. And then, of course, if you drill down a little bit further, you can have individual feeders on those microgrid served. If you have priority or critical infrastructure on certain feeder's of substations, that's one reason why you might do something like that.

And then, of course, you can drill down even further into partial feeder's or individual single customers, which could be a residential customer or a commercial customer. Partial feeder microgrids might be like a campus or a business park or something like that. And and so when someone talks about a micro grid, it might be a little bit difficult to pin down exactly what they mean. It's because this this term can be interpreted in a number of different ways. So with that, why don't we move on to the to the next slide here.

Thanks, Amanda. OK, so why and when might you want to implement a microgrid project? Well, a lot of us, I think there's probably more awareness today than perhaps there ever has been because of the public safety, power shutoffs and other grid resiliency issues that have have really been front and center in the new.

Over the last couple of years in particular, and and especially over the last year, I think that we all observed with a lot of interest what happened in Texas when they got that ice storm down there in the grid, collapsed in record territory. And, of course, it impacts all of us when the utilities here and PG&E have to implement their public safety power shutoffs for for fire danger and and other reasons. So just to get right into it here, when and why might we apply a microgrid project?

Well, scale matters. And as we saw in the last diagram, there are a number of different use cases. So what's the optimum? What's the optimal? Well, it depends on the use case, of course. So some loads are remote and need to be scaled appropriately. Other times there can be economies of scale derived by implementing a larger project. And again, this this figure from the Dowi here, I think illustrates nicely how there's different levels of complexity as well.

So as you drill in towards the center, I think there's more capability essentially is what we're looking at. Right. So a basic microgrid might be a single home or residence or business that has onsite power generation and can disconnect from the grid when there's a power outage and then drilling down into the center and in Advanced Micro Grid might have multiple loads, multiple sources of generation and and be able to interact in a sophisticated way with the macro grid. So, of course, the primary driver for microgrid projects these days is energy resilience, but it also facilitates participation in access and and can be a money saving measure as well.

They also can facilitate a higher penetration of renewable energy, which is really important to all of us. So I think the moral of the story here is that while micro grids are a new tool for us, the macro grid is still relevant. However, the use case for the macro grid and the utilities that own and operate it in those business models are changing. Thank you, Dustin. I think there are some questions that will put them in the chat for you, but really appreciate you being here and and presenting. Thank you so much.

Alex Gershenson / SupplyShift

And how's it going? Welcome, everyone, and my name is Alex, and hopefully you can see my screen and I'm part of the team that supply shift and supply shift is a sustainable, responsible sourcing technology platform to help some of the largest companies in the world engage with their suppliers and understand what's going on in their supply chains and drive improvement. And climate is a near and dear part of all of our lives here and SupplyShift. There are over 60 incredible folks that work here on in five countries, three continents.

And while we were founded here in Santa Cruz, we're now truly global company and climate unites all of us because, of course, climate change is one of the ways that most of us got here to be a supply shift. And today, I'm going to talk to you about the biggest source of carbon footprint, so as you've probably all heard, lots of companies are now committing to cut carbon emissions, not only because it's good for the world, but also because there are pretty substantial market pressures from investors, from consumers, from employees, and, of course, from NGOs to drive improvements in environmental sustainability generally and in climate specifically because not only, as it turns out, is good for the planet, it's also pretty good for the bottom line.

And so about five hundred and seventeen companies to date have made corporate level commitments for science based targets for greenhouse gas reduction. And what that means is that these are commitments that are tied to how much we actually need to reduce greenhouse gases in order to stay below sane and sustainable levels, while none of it is really insane but less dangerous levels of greenhouse gases. So I want to start a little bit with a throwback to my old teaching days and talk a little bit about, well, where do these greenhouse gases come from?

And so there are three main parts of a company's greenhouse gas footprint, their scope, one, which is fuels that are purchased by the company. So gasoline, diesel, et cetera, coal that are purchased by the company and burned by the company directly. There's scope to which is purchased electricity. So if you're buying electricity from a national grid. Right, if you have your own microgrid, as Dustin described, it's probably depends on where that microgrid is getting energy.

But generally, a business is going to buy electricity from a grid operator that has a particular amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing that electricity. And then there is this. Those are kind of direct. Those are those are straightforward. And then there's indirect, which is scope three, which is. The amount of greenhouse gases that your suppliers emit in order to provide you. With. The things that you buy from them in order to produce and sell, the things that you sell to the customer, you being a large company, for instance, for a small company.

So interestingly enough, the FBI released a report where the second and third most consequential lever for reducing emissions is supplier engagement and procurement policy and choices. Well, that seems interesting because you would think that operations are where it's at? Well, it turns out that in the vast majority of cases, over 80 percent and in many cases over 90 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the supply chain. So that picture that we started with with Tim Cook and the iPhone, of course, Apple doesn't make a single iPhone.

It is made by the suppliers. So what you need is to engage with your suppliers to reduce the biggest risk and the biggest amount of greenhouse gas emissions. So what we've done is we've built a software network that allows companies to engage with their suppliers, understand who the suppliers are and where they are and how much they're emitting. And we provide some tools so that suppliers don't have to actually calculate their carbon themselves because that's challenging. And so what we've done over the last year, of course, it really helps that supply chains are everywhere and discussion of supply chains is everywhere, especially as Doug says, in light of the things that we should not mention.

But we've created a suite of tools for companies to engage with their suppliers at different levels, either with their direct suppliers or multitiered, going all the way down to the source and either the company level and not typically has to do with overall emissions or on a facility level because lots of companies have facilities in different geographies that emit different amounts of carbon. And so what we've done is we've created fully enabled products for companies to engage with their suppliers and get realistic numbers and figure out how much it is that they need to reduce using the tools that we're hearing about today. Thank you so much.

Ronnie Lipschultz / Sustainable Systems Research

Good evening and thanks to everyone for watching and thank you for the opportunity to present. I'm Lipshutz and I am the co-director of the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation, which is a small, relatively new nonprofit green think tank and project incubator in Santa Cruz.

We're working on next slide. I'm supposed to say next slide. Right? OK, we're working on two project proposals for solar PV and battery storage community micro grids, one in Santa Cruz and the other in Watsonville.

Next slide. Dustin has kindly explained what a microgrid is, so I don't have to say any more about it, but what is the problem when we know from experience local power reliability is not a given Santacruz much as Santacruz County is at the end of a fairly weak transmission lines.

Next slide. We're obviously well, we know we're at risk for wildfires and even higher risk for emergency safety blackouts, and not everyone can afford to wait out or shut off, especially when their emergency facilities and food industries and the next slide. So our recent experience indicates that local power, resilience during shutoffs is more and more important. And we need to address issues of energy, justice and access to emergency power as well. Next slide.

So we have two systems that we are imagining and designing. One is one based in Santa Cruz, which is has three compact sites. The first one is a planned housing development next to Antonelli Pond. The second one is a West Side microgrid covering the light industry in that particular area. And the third involves the boardwalk and beach flats. And these three systems would be linked by an electrical conduit running along the rail trail and into town. So in each in normal times, each of these could provide electricity locally. In an emergency blackout, the conduit could send power to essential facilities downtown and along the way. Next slide.

The Watsonville project is a pilot for our end poverty in California with solar initiative designed to provide basic income through sale of solar electricity. So this project would be built on a block of food companies to the northwest of Riverside Drive in Watsonville. It would provide low cost power to those operations and keep their coolers working even during blackouts. Now, here's the key thing, the surplus revenues generated from sale of electricity would fund a basic income project for farm workers in the Watsonville and Pajaro areas. Next slide.

So we've done some this is difficult to read and I apologize, but we've done some preliminary financial estimates for both projects because its projects are subject to severe regulatory obstacles. We have to start with what is possible today. And we're thinking of creating individual systems which would supply each operation, individual operation through power purchase and lease agreements with connections among those systems that could be made hot if and when it becomes possible to build and operate micro grids connected into the state's grid.

Dustin didn't get to talk about the Gonzales cold connection to the grid. Next slide.

So there are a significant number of tasks between now and throwing the switch on these projects, and this is just a partial list, but we do think these projects are doable, their pilots, but they offer visions for our energy futures and they can be realized if our communities provide political and financial support for them.

We're looking to the Gonzales microgrid in particular to lead us into this future. And we're seeking partners and collaborators. And we invite you to join us to push forward on community and energy, creating models for action across Santa Cruz. And if you want more information, you can go to the website listed at the bottom of the slide. Thank you. Thank you,

Derek Hansen / Mynt Systems

Hey, guys, thanks so much for having us tonight and thank you all listening in for your time and attention. You know, it dawns on me that with such excellent, excellent presenters that and even the great work that Congressman Panetta has been out there doing, that, you know, ultimately we don't have a whole lot to share from a new kind of concept perspective, maybe a little bit. I'll take you through a little bit of why we started the company, what we focus on and how it's a little bit different.

But ultimately, I just wanted to highlight a few local projects. So I'll start out. Let's go to the next slide. So systems, namely the company building the new energy future for us. We started the company primarily because we saw a lot of need in the market and a lot of kind of screaming from the rooftops and what it is that we should all be doing for sustainability. A lot of it we're all talking about here tonight, but we weren't seeing as much traction in certain segments of the market.

One of them being the mid-market commercial industrial real estate space. We saw a lot of large scale projects being done from municipalities, a lot of large scale projects being done at class campuses like Apple and Google and Facebook. But nobody had quite figured out how to address that mid-market smaller kind of BNC property. And so that really became our focus. And what we decided to do is say, hey, you know, if if we can translate to what these commercial real estate owners are used to seeing, which is an investment, if we can translate sustainability into an investment strategy, we're likely to get a lot of traction.

And so we felt like that was our that was the reason we started the company. We felt like that was going to give us a lot of movement in the market. That was a segment of the market that was wholly underserved and under address. Right. So moving on to the next slide. What is the new energy future? Well, we say a new energy future is a network of kind of disparate or distributed energy assets across the midmarket commercial industrial real estate space.

The new energy energy future is decentralized. It's local, it's dynamic, it's synergistic and it's equitable. So we believe the combination of site generated and stored renewable power presents the greatest opportunity for sustainable energy moving forward. And so what that means is, again, the biggest segment of commercial and industrial real estate is that midmarket, that kind of BNC property that you see in your average kind of building. And so that's where we think the biggest opportunity is for us to have the biggest impact for fixing our next slide, please.

So what's interesting is if you own commercial or industrial real estate, you're in the energy game and you just don't know it yet.

And so mid-market real estate is currently kind of operating with its own set of metrics, its traditional practices. And we're transforming that space by providing and approving a new investment strategy for the owners of these properties that creates new cash flow, increased property value, and ultimately with tenant and community benefit. So for property owners, the reinvestment of capital back into their own existing buildings can garner better than market returns with lower risk. And so really, what these commercial real estate owners are saying, hey, you know what?

My tenant pays for the power in a triple net lease. Why would I triple at least? Why would I go spend a million bucks to put a solar system on the roof of my own building? Well, that's what we do. We actually design and engineer the systems that are energy efficient. First, we first look to reduce the energy consumption of the building of the facility, and then we look to offset the rest with not only solar, but also typically a battery for resiliency and some lojka.

What happens that's interesting is we found a way to create a way for the tenant to reduce their energy costs or operational costs by buying power directly from their owner, who's now invested in the infrastructure of that building. Next slide, please. So here's some examples. We're going to kind of I wanted to keep this brief. I wanted to just have a kind of a little bit of an overview, again, highlighting some local projects. Our company works all over the West Coast.

But I wanted to just focus on some stuff here locally since I know that we're all local for the most part, I'm assuming we're all local on this. So granite rock headquarters. This was an interesting project, if you onto the next slide. Granite Rock headquarters, this project is all about making a statement for Granite Rock. They have been a mining and construction company for one of the oldest companies in the state, and they really wanted to start moving in the direction of sustainability across our entire portfolio.

We had we sat down with them at the end of the top leaders of Granite Rock and we said, hey, let's start out by making a statement with your headquarters. Let's take your headquarters to as far of an offset as we possibly can, focusing on zero net electric. We went through and did a series of energy efficiency measures throughout the building, everything from advanced retrofit, lazy technologies to lighting, HVAC optimization, automation control systems. That all got us about 40 percent less energy consumption. So that's roughly about 40 percent.

Then we came in and of course, designed, engineered and built a a solar rooftop solar system that offset almost all the rest. We actually intentionally kept them a couple points off of a full offset. So we're at 90 percent, 90 percent offset of energy consumption at granite rock headquarters. So that was a super fun one, which led us to the next project that you want to take us to the next slide, please. The granite rock quarry now Granite Rock has for his all over the place, we focused on the one in the Hollister area and this for you, I forget the name of the quarry.

Forgive me, but let's go on to the next slide. So this project was pretty sizable, it was actually being developed while we were delivering the headquarters project and is actually being built right now, so we don't actually have photos to show you of a completed project, but it's essentially a 60 percent offset of the power consumption of the quarry, which is massive, and it covers 30 acres. It's five and a half megawatts of power. And it's the best part about this I love it, is that we actually built this the solar system on the old disturbed land of the quarry.

So as you can see, these piles of granite, that mining here, well, there's these fines that they kind of build these finds fields and it's basically just kind of leftover powder and dust off of the rock that they're mining. Well, these fields get compacted, they get watered, and we're building over 30 acres of land. That's basically useless for anything else. So we love that. Onto the next project. Next slide, please. Beckman's Bakary.

This was a real fun one. We love Beckman's. If you live in Santa Cruz, it's more likely you've had some Beckman's sourdough bread. Let's go to the next slide. This project was a lot of fun because it was a full gut renovation build to suit for Beckman's bakery. We took the old cold cold storage facility in the lead year. The old legends building gutted it and transformed it into Beckman's new sustainable home. It was a lot of fun.

We did the end of the end end where we worked with the local developer who owned the land, the architect. We did all of the general construction so that we could manage the energy infrastructure effectively throughout. Our goal was to get Beckman's to zero net electric. They use too many of those to go to electric heat. But so we still have some gas there. But it was essentially a 90 percent electric offset. We have a four hundred and fourteen KW rooftop solar system.

We've got levy lighting, advanced age, HVAC controls. And what's really, really cool is we lost Beckman's into a reduced energy cost that allows them to scale their business, which is why they moved into this more than three times larger facility than the one they were in over off. Seabright And so that we can scale their business and they don't have the law of diminishing returns working against them, where energy costs continue to get higher and higher, exponentially, the more business they do.

So this worked out great for the landlord as a reinvestment, again, in some kind of essentially dirty jacked up old real estate. And we transformed it into a beautiful brand new industrial bakery that essentially has most of its power being offset with renewable energy. Wowza. Yeah, tons of that. Pretty impressive. All right, there. We'll let you wrap up. You have one more slide. Thank you. Next slide, please.

Samaniego Health Foundation, Health Care Foundation. The reason I wanted to cover this was because this was actually Microgrid and it was the first that we know of health care facility. There was an actual microgrid. These guys have Sub-Zero vaccine, believe it or not.

Before we did this, before covid the plan, power shutdowns were affecting them and the refrigeration of vaccines. And so we went after a full microgrid in the fire season. They can run almost indefinitely off of zero carbon energy. That's all site generated and stored. So a pretty sophisticated microgrid there. And in fact, Congressman Panetta came on out to our ribbon cutting ceremony for that project. So, again, tons of fun. Thank you all. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity.

Max Ernst / PG&E Moss Landing Energy Storage

Fighting climate change is really important to me personally as a volunteer firefighter, and to be able to work on it in my daily career is really cool and special to me to be here. Next slide, please. Actually, you can skip to up to the next one. I don't think it needs an introduction in this case, but it had been around since 1995, one of the largest combined natural gas electric companies in the US. Next slide, please.

So let's talk about moss landing, energy storage and how we got here today, I added these assembly bill and CPK resolution numbers for all you policy folks to check out and do some light bedtime reading. But really how we got here was this local generation capacity requirement. So there is going to be a forecasted deficiency in electricity generation in the South Bay Moss Landing area. And then what that was going to create worse reliability needs. So power quality issues on the transmission and then feeder system down into all the local areas.

At the same time, there is a state mandate that the California utilities procure a bunch of energy storage for PG&E was going to be five hundred eighty megawatts. And the same mandate got pushed to Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric. But ultimately that created this opportunity for energy storage. And and so PG&E did a request for offers for energy storage and it was approved by the CPC. Was this PG&E and Tesla collaboration project, which I'm working on right now.

That's one hundred eighty two and a half megawatts. The Vistra Moss Landing Project, which is, I think, the biggest project in the world right now, which is right next door to us and then Hummingbird and not the two smaller ones, but in total that RFA got approved and put on five hundred and seventy megawatts onto the grid. Next slide, please. So taking a look at Elkhorn battery energy storage system, which is the PG&E Tesla collaboration named after the Elkhorn Slew that runs just next to the PG&E substation.

So the big stacks and the building next door or the Vistara plant, it's right next door. And then all the little white containers are the Tesla mega packs that we have. So we've got one hundred eighty two and a half megawatts of capacity. That's the instantaneous power that the plant can do. It can run for four hours. Yeah, like I said, two hundred fifty six of these little white containers, which when you see them in person are pretty big. And then we're expecting the plant to the last 20 years at least. Next slide, please.

So one of the great things about energy storage and especially these facilities that are located in Moss landing is that they can charge during the day when solar production is high, which down here in the supply graph is this green bar that jumps up between eight a.m. and about seven p.m. or so. And so they'll charge during the day. And then when demand increases in the early evening, which is this graph here, then those batteries will discharge.

One thing that's really good to look at here is this orange little line at the bottom graph is actually the natural gas production. And so obviously all of our goal here is to use batteries to push this solar production charge up during the day and then try to limit the amount of natural gas that we're pushing out onto the grid and said these graphs are actually available on the Kaiser website, California ISO. And you can see this top one is actually today's demand trend.

And then this is yesterday's supply trend. So if you're interested, you can check on that. Again, the dispatch ability of energy storage is really useful here. So we can ramp our facility up to full output in three minutes, which is pretty incredible, especially compared to something like natural gas, which has to be running all day and then takes hours to get up all the way. And the facility can power 60 thousand at least homes for about four hours.

Next slide, please. And so, in conclusion, here is a couple of photos that I took when we were on site. We're expecting this product to save our customers one hundred million dollars over the 20 year life we expect to achieve operations in Q3 of this year. And all in all, it's going to be one of the largest utility and energy storage products in the world.

And I think that that title probably won't last long because the space is moving really quick and people are producing some pretty huge energy storage products around the world. Thank you. Thanks, Max, to the good stuff we have a lot of us have been wondering like what's going on down there, flying our drones over.

Gail McNulty / Save Our Shores

Tonight, we're talking about an event, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and say Rushworth invite you to join us from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on June 10th or truth. Plus, justice equals hope. A California ocean and climate justice summit that will amplify the stories of emerging BIPAC, black, indigenous and people of color. Environmental justice leaders save our shores, receive some funding to host the summit. However, as a white woman representing a historically white led traditional environmental organization, I recognize that I'm not the best person to be leading this effort.

So I'm incredibly grateful to Sylvia Morella's, executive director of the Resource Center for Nonviolence for sharing her invaluable experience and expertize to ensure we set the stage for an authentic and effective dialog. I've had the opportunity to participate in some of the thought-Provoking impactful anti-racist programs, the Resource Center for Nonviolence is offering, which has helped me to develop a lens for this work. Save Our Shores is honored to be working with the RCMP on this project as an ocean and climate activist, a mountain resident who fled last summer's wildfires, and a mother hoping to raise antiracist children who understand the need to heal our broken world.

I'd also like to invite all of the tech leaders and entrepreneurs in tonight's audience to think about how we might nurture the radical collaboration needed to help California fully recognize its potential to regenerate our ocean lands and launch a just sustainable global future. California's powerful cultural influence from Hollywood to Silicon Valley has played an enormous role in shaping our current reality how people in the US and throughout the world live, work, play and impact the planet for better and worse at this pivotal juncture for humanity when we're running out of time to implement the transformational, systemic changes needed to prevent irreversible impacts from the escalating climate crisis, the plastic pandemic and other global environmental challenges, we must look with humility at the ways the tech sector and all California industry are both helping and harming people in the planet, here in our state and around the world, so that we can reinvent our relationship with planet Earth, carefully, curate a healthy way forward and refocus the startup mindset, putting people and the planet before profit.

To do this, we must face the truth about how profit driven industry has long depended on environmental racism and sacrifice, mostly low income and minority communities whose land, water, air and air have been poisoned by impacts from extraction, manufacturing, pollution, etc. in California, the US and Abroad and Center BIPAC places, especially those from frontline communities BIPAC, individuals and communities carry untapped historical wisdom from having suffered under the weight of the same oppressive systems that are destroying the planet.

Throughout history, most humanitarian, democratic, social, political and economic progress has been driven by oppressed people and communities demonstrating to bring attention to how they have been harmed by unjust systems. It's time to evolve beyond the white savior philanthropic approach that has failed to untangle the roots of our fundamentally flawed systems and has allowed sacrifice zones to continue harming communities and our climate to protect our children, our shared future. We must finally level the playing field, giving the people who have been most harmed by today's broken systems, positions of power and influence so that they can share their wisdom in time to help humanity make essential course corrections.

The June 10th Oceanian Climate Justice Summit will serve as a catalyst for our ongoing community of practice aimed at cultivating and nurturing the transformation needed in our region and California as part of a global transition to a thriving future. We can and must work together to bring to life. We hope you will join us as we reflect on the importance of elevating BIPAC voices to help protect our shared future. I'd like to leave you with a closing thought from Sheila Battista, one of two youth climate leaders who spoke during the Biden administration's first big climate summit.

So often we talk about moving forward, we talk about the next big technology. We talk about the next big thing that we're going to make. And the truth is that we actually have to go back to our roots, go back to where we come from as humans, where we come from with that connection with Mother Earth. Because if we don't have that foundation right, if we don't have the reciprocity and love for Mother Earth, we can really move forward with solutions.

Thank you for all you're already doing and for all we might one day do together to protect our planet, our blue waters and our children's future. Yale, thank you so much. You know, I remember you and I had a discussion back in March, I think April of the year, which shall not be named. And it you know, we your poised to do some great work on saving our planet, and then the pandemic got right in the way of everything, but it's interesting now how I believe truly it's become a catalyst for solving a lot of our global warming issues, and it's never been a better year.