Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. California Adaptation Forum: Last call for discounted rates for September’s 2^nd California Adaptation Forum! Register for the Forum by Wednesday, August 12 and receive $50 OFF One-Day and Full Forum rates! The Forum is an incredible opportunity to connect with hundreds of climate leaders from across the state. See more opportunities, a full Forum program, Forum events, plenary speakers and partners, and more.

2. Statewide Codes & Standards Team Conference Call: The Statewide Codes & Standards team works to develop resources to help local governments consider, adopt, and measure energy-saving successes from reach codes. If you are a local government interested in learning more, and/or hearing troubleshooting and success stories from other local governments across the state, please contact the Coordinator at jdecker@lgc.org to RSVP to this call.

3. New CEC Funding for EE Tech Demonstrations: On August 1^st, the California Energy Commission (CEC) announced a grant funding opportunity for Emerging Energy Efficient Technology Demonstrations (GFO-16-304), and will be holding a pre-bid conference workshop August 11^th.

4. CEC LinkedIn Networking Group for Open GFOs: Looking to find partners for the above grant funding opportunity? The California Energy Commission Networking Hub on LinkedIn has set up networking groups for the Technology Demonstration GFO, and three others.

5. Federal Gov. Energy Webinars this August: A list of August 2016 webinars is now available from federal agencies providing support on the EPA benchmarking tool Portfolio Manager, data center energy efficiency, EE financing, community resiliency through EE, resilient solar retrofits, waste management, and more.

6. What’s New with AB 802? In case you missed the July 22nd workshop held by the California Energy Commission on AB 802 implementation (Project Title, “Building Energy Use Disclosure and Public Benchmarking Program Mandated under Assembly Bill 802”), a transcript is now available from the CEC.

7. More on AB 802: Also in case you missed it: additional guidance linked to energy savings measurement was released in the CPUC’s recent decision providing guidance on Program Administrator EE business plans. (Need a refresher on AB 802?)

8. SB 350 Low-Income Barriers Workshop 8/12: The California Energy Commission conducting a workshop August 12th to gather input on barriers faced by low-income and disadvantaged communities to investing in energy efficiency and weatherization, installing solar photovoltaic and other renewable generating resources, and contracting opportunities for small businesses. This input will be included in the “Senate Bill 350 Barriers Study,” required by the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015.

9. AB 32 EJAC Meeting 8/11-12: The AB 32 Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (Committee) will be meeting on August 11, 2016 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (PDT) and August 12, 2016 from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm (PDT) in Huron, CA.

10. Financing Tools for Local Gov Webinar 8/25: This webinar will discuss the various tools and products that the State of California is making available to local governments to promote clean energy projects for residents and business owners, and will showcase a new financing marketplace for finding energy project-related financing solutions. (Go Green Financing is a program under Energy Upgrade California, administered by the Center for Sustainable Energy.)

11. PACE’s Value to the Real Estate Market: Event/Webinar 8/18: This CEFAC event and webinar will explore the recent amendments to the residential PACE program, along with updates on consumer protection, regulatory changes, and market growth in California. Join the Center for Sustainable Energy for a panel discussion that will cover these topics and validate why PACE is vital to the residential energy efficiency financing market.

12. EV’s Role in ZNE: Webinar 8/17: The Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE) invites city and county staff, contractors, architects, and developers to a free webinar August 17^th on how electric vehicles (EVs) can help support zero net energy (ZNE) goals.

13. Energy Code Ace Webinar 8/23: We heard great feedback from local governments on energy code expert Gina Rodda’s presentation on energy code compliance tools at this year’s SEEC Forum. Now, Rodda will be teaching a “not-your-average webinar” on what’s new in the 2016 code in two sessions August 23rd.  Get the word out to your buildings departments!

14. CivicSpark Project Lessons Learned Webinars 8/23-8/24: CivicSpark is a Governor’s Initiative AmeriCorps program that provides capacity-building support to local governments to accelerate California’s response and resiliency to climate change. These webinars aim to provide a snapshot of some of the accomplishments of the 2015-16 service year, with an emphasis on sharing lessons learned and best practices.

15. New Integrative Business Model for ZNE: In the Rocky Mountain Institute’s new Insight Brief, An Integrative Business Model for Net Zero Energy Districts, RMI presents an innovative business model for developing net zero energy or ultra-low energy districts and details how pursuing net zero energy is not a cost, but rather a significant value driver.

16. EE Shows Its $ Value in SF Real Estate: As covered by BizJournal’s July 28th article, funding green upgrades is made easier as the market shows the value of and desire for energy efficient real estate.

17. California Releases Sustainable Freight Action Plan: In response to an Executive Order issued by the Governor last year, the state has released the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan, a comprehensive document that serves as a blueprint for transforming the state’s multi-billion dollar freight transport system into one that is environmentally cleaner, more efficient, and more economically competitive than it is today.

18. Energy Transition Podcast on EE: In a recent episode of the Energy Transition Show, Chris Nelder speaks to energy efficiency expert Matt Golden about raising the profile of energy efficiency, sharing that energy efficiency (looking nationally) has been disproportionately neglected considering its extreme value, and also stating that efforts to raise the profile to date have failed. Matt Golden shares some interesting food for thought.

19. Job announcement: The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization (SJVCEO) is hiring for a Project Analyst! Learn more here.

20. RFP announcement: The City of San Jose’s RFP for Environmental Sustainability Plan Consultant Services closes August 12^th.

As always, you can keep track of relevant events by connecting to the EE Events Calendar, and find more resources being added daily on the EECoordinator website – including past WEEkly Updates.

That’s is all for this week!