What Has SJVCEO Been Up To in June

With much of the southwest and California experiencing its first major heat wave of the summer we hope everyone is taking precautions to stay cool as well as save energy. While trying to survive the heat the SJVCEO team has been busy traveling for conferences as well as working to identify new projects that can be completed in 2016.

Some of the SJVCEO staff attended the 7th Annual Statewide Energy Efficiency Forum (or SEEC Conference) in Riverside on June 15th and 16th. This year's program was expanded to include four plenary sessions and sixteen different breakout sessions over a two day period.

This year, the forum focused on “taking a holistic approach toward a sustainable future” and how taking a full system approach to climate action and planning by understanding the interconnected and multifaceted nature of energy efficiency will better serve and create a longer term vision for our communities.

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. SEEC Forum follow up: Thanks to all that attended this year’s 7^th Annual SEEC Forum! Experienced, diverse speakers and record attendees helped to make it a great success. If you attended, we are asking for your feedback through this survey to make next year’s even better. Stand by for recorded sessions from the Forum, coming soon!

2. CAF Registration Now Open: Correction from earlier this month: the California Adaptation Forum registration is NOW open! The Forum will take place September 7^th-8^th in Long Beach.

3. Benchmarking Lunch-and-Learn 6/30: Hear about the current state of benchmarking policy and join in discussion about specific impacts to local governments and other public agencies in this Oxnard lunch-and-learn held by The Energy Network and Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance (VCREA).

4. PG&E Phases Out Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power: citing a number factors, including Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) increases, energy efficiency and renewables goals under SB 350, the growth of distributed energy resources (DERs) and community choice aggregation (CCA), PG&E announced its decision this Tuesday. (Read more here.)

Why We Need Tree Canopies | Part I

The San Joaquin Valley suffers from urban heat island (UHI) affect; pavement and other dark-colored surfaces throughout the Valley absorb sunlight, trapping heat and increasing local temperatures. This adversely affects local air quality as well as energy efficiency capabilities, energy consumption, public health, climate resilience, and quality of life, among other measures. Furthermore, the SJV not only generates its own pollutant emissions, but is also impacted by transport of pollutants around the Valley and from the Bay Area. Although air quality in the region is slowly improving, SJV Counties still have not met federal ambient air quality standards for pollutants such as PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ as well as 8-hour ozone.

This is an ideal canopy, no?

There is no better (and cheaper!) solution to both increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than protecting and expanding our existing tree canopies and developing additional canopies. In addition, trees provide extensive water, economic and crime reduction benefits to urban areas.

Native, drought-tolerant trees will not only thrive in our region, but also contribute to necessary air quality improvement and widespread cooling, especially in summer months. Tree canopies sequester CO₂, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They are natural air conditioners, shading and cooling both buildings and streets and reducing summer temperatures of and, therefore, cooling costs for the entire tree-lined neighborhood or community. Trees also provide windbreak, reducing heating costs, and absorb sounds, greatly reducing noise pollution.

California ISO Preparing You for the Heatwave

June 17, 2016 The ISO is preparing for state heat wave to ensure grid reliability Flex Alert for voluntary electricity conservation likely to be issued next week With record-setting heat expected in Southern California early next week, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) is preparing for potential stress on the electricity system and may issue a Flex Alert asking consumers to conserve energy to help prevent rotating power outages. Electricity demand is expected to rise during the unseasonable heat wave on Monday and Tuesday, June 20 and 21, with forecasted system-wide energy use expected to exceed 46,000 megawatts. That total is slightly lower than the system peak demand last year of 47,358 megawatts. The all-time record peak of 50,270 megawatts was set in July 2006. "We are confident we have a strong plan in place to meet the operational challenges posed by the upcoming hot temperatures," said ISO CEO and President Steve Berberich. "Conservation efforts by consumers are key to reducing stress on the system and to help avoid service disruptions." The ISO is working with Southern California Gas Company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, utilities, and the state's energy agencies to mitigate any potential reliability issues related to the limited operations of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility. The coordination and planning underway is critical to averting or minimizing power outages. Click here to view the ISO's Aliso Canyon Summer Preparedness Plan.

Going Green at a Music Festival?

First off let me start with answering the question in this blogs heading...YES they can!! I am a trusted source since I have seen it first hand at this years Bottlerock.

Just this past Memorial Day weekend I attended the 3rd Annual Bottlerock Music Festival in Napa, CA. This annual festival boasts 30 wineries for wine tasting, 81 gourmet food vendors, 26 local breweries and about 25 performers per day. Some of the headliners of the festival in the past have been Outkast, No Doubt, Florence & the Time Machine as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The festival continues to grow year to year thanks to its evolving music line-up. Over the last four years attendance at Bottlerock has grown from a mere 30,000 to a whopping 120,000.  With growing attendance comes growing environmental issues. When you are talking about quadrupling your attendance you need to look at ways you can minimize your impact on the community and surrounding area.

Napa Valley and surrounding cities are very environmentally conscious when it comes to waste, trash and emissions. If you were to walk from restaurant to tasting room, depending on rathers, you would see how items are farm to table whether that be your wine or chicken sandwich. So why wouldn't a music festival follow suit?

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. Events Galore: To start off strong: registration is now open for the California Adaptation Forum, September 7-8th in Long Beach.

2. ZNE Webinar 6/15: Learn about a recent zero net energy (ZNE) study and how industry leaders are not waiting to take advantage of this $1.3 trillion market in this webinar from Build It Green.

3. Multifamily ZNE Workshop 6/24: Hear zero net energy (ZNE) expertise speak to SF’s Chinatown Community Development Center, and available technical assistance and incentives at this 6/24 workshop on ZNE in multifamily in San Francisco. For more on ZNE click here.

4. CEC Resiliency Workshop 6/21: last week’s announcement of resiliency grants from PG&E was a popular item: to get engaged on resiliency, adaptation, and energy, join this CEC Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR) workshop focused on resiliency and adaptation June 21st. For more on resiliency, click here.

Free Event: Creative Financing Solution For Residential Energy Projects

Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council: Creative Financing Solutions For Residential Energy Projects Free Webinar and Live Event Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Room 127, The Amphitheatre 525 S Hewitt St. Los Angeles, 90013 Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Webinar: 9.00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. (PST) Live Event: 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (PST) Complimentary hot breakfast starting at 8:00 a.m. Register Now to Attend in Person Register Now to Attend Online The Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council (CEFAC) is focused on enhancing awareness of innovative energy project financing to help stimulate the California clean energy marketplace. This CEFAC webinar will explore unsecured and secured alternative financing products and marketing tools for increasing the volume of residential energy improvement projects. The speakers will introduce new resources available to energy stakeholders that include The Energy Atlas: An interactive marketing research tool that harnesses the largest set of disaggregated energy data in the nation The CHEEF Residential Energy Efficiency Loan (REEL) Program: : A new State of California Program offering flexible, unsecured financing for energy efficiency projects at attractive rates for consumers with a broad range of FICO scores. Fannie Mae Green Financing: Fixed rate term financing products for properties undergoing energy and water savings improvements or for properties with existing recognized green certifications. These events are for energy improvement contractors, local government officials, lending institution reps, financial experts, real estate professionals and others interested in cross-sector collaborations. Current panelists include Zoe Elizabeth, Associate Director for Special Projects, California Center for Sustainable Communities – Los Angeles Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability Miriam Joffe-Block, Program Manager, California Hub for Energy Efficiency Financing (CHEEF) Katie Plett, Vice President & Relationship Manager, HomeStreet Bank Commercial Real Estate Contractors will have the opportunity to become a Qualified Contractor in the CHEEF Residential Energy Efficiency Loan (REEL) program by attending a REEL compliance training from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at LACI. Light lunch provided. Please email Kirshain.Ward@treasurer.ca.gov if interested, or visit www.theCHEEF.com Register Now to Attend in Person Register Now to Attend Online For more information, email ryan.carney@energycenter.org or call (858) 429-5136. CEFAC is facilitated by the Center for Sustainable Energy through a partnership with Energy Upgrade California® and the Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. Copyright © 2016 Center for Sustainable Energy All rights reserved. (858) 244-1177 www.energycenter.org

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. Events today: the CEC is holding a workshop in Sacramento and by WebEx for public input on the proposed scope and schedule of the Energy Commission’s Senate Bill 350 (SB350) Barriers Study. The study focuses on barriers to access for low-income customers and disadvantaged communities to energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

2. Event reminder: if you haven’t registered for this year’s SEEC Forum, do so before registration fills up! The 7^th Annual SEEC Forum will be held in Riverside June 15^th-16^th with two full days of sessions led by cities, counties, state, utility, and energy representatives, held at no-cost to local governments.

3. ACEEE’s Summer Study: Registration is open for ACEEE's 19th biennial Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Pacific Grove, California, August 21-26.

Energy Audits of Small Government Buildings

A walk through audit is just that--walking through a building, looking for quick and easy ways to save energy.  You're not looking to see if the occupancy sensor in a room needs to be relocated, but rather finding obvious energy-saving measures.  And when performed after benchmarking your building(s), you can save time and money by only auditing buildings that have a really high energy foot print for the type of building it is.  Here at SJVCEO we benchmark A LOT of small government buildings, so we have a pretty good sense of how much energy a City Hall of a certain size consumes here in the San Joaquin Valley.  Or a fire station, or even a police station.  And the more similar facilities we benchmark, the stronger our case is when we say “This building needs an audit. Here’s where it falls on the spectrum of similar facilities in the San Joaquin Valley.”  Wouldn't you like to know if you should be keeping up with the Joneses?  Or, what if you are the Joneses?