Clean Energy States Alliance

The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) is a national, nonprofit coalition of public agencies and organizations working together to advance clean energy. CESA members—mostly state agencies— include many of the most innovative, successful, and influential public funders of clean energy initiatives in the country. CESA works with state leaders, federal agencies, industry representatives, and other stakeholders to develop and promote clean energy technologies and markets. It supports effective state and local policies, programs, and innovation in the clean energy generation sector, with an emphasis on renewable energy, financing strategies, and economic development. CESA facilitates information sharing, provides technical assistance, coordinates multi-state collaborative projects, and communicates the views and achievements of its members.

Events by this organizer

april

05apr2:00 pm3:00 pmBuilding Equitable Practices & Programs: A Conversation with Energy Equity Leaders Webinar

23apr1:00 pm2:30 pmPrioritizing Equity in Program Development: How to Build a Resilient Power Technical Assistance Fund

Event Details

Resilient solar+storage systems can enable community-serving organizations to provide essential services during power outages, and these systems can provide year-round cost savings. Affordable housing developments, emergency shelters, community centers, fire stations, and other critical service providers are excellent candidates for resilient solar+storage systems, but figuring out how to acquire these systems involves time, money and expertise. Clean Energy Group’s (CEG) Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) was established in 2014 to fill this resource gap. Over the past 10 years, CEG’s TAF has supported over 175 communities in their quest for resilient power. In this webinar, CEG staff will discuss how to establish an effective and equitable technical assistance program.

This webinar will also feature a presentation by staff at the Washington State Department of Commerce on their Solar Plus Storage for Resilient Communities program. This program awards planning and construction grants, and offers direct technical assistance to eligible communities. In its inaugural year, the program awarded over $35 million to communities for project predevelopment support and implementation funding, including 44 feasibility studies since May 2023. Panelists will outline the framework driving their technical assistance approach, and discuss the lessons learned in their first year.

Panelists:

Marriele Mango, Project Director, Clean Energy Group
Seth Mullendore, President and Executive Director, Clean Energy Group
Anna Adamsson, Project Manager, Clean Energy Group
Jill Eikenhorst, Solar Programs Supervisor, Washington State Department of Commerce
Kate Pedersen, Energy Resilience Specialist, Washington State Department of Commerce

This webinar is part of Clean Energy Group’s “Celebrating 10 Years of Technical Assistance” series. Since 2014, CEG’s Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) has awarded over $1.5 million to 175 community organizations, affordable housing providers, critical service providers, municipalities, and Native Nations in support of their efforts to build local resilient power resources. Over the next year, CEG will be celebrating this milestone through publications that highlight various aspects of resilient power development.

You can register for the webinar here.

Time

(Tuesday) 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Organizer

Clean Energy States Alliance

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30apr2:00 pm3:00 pmBattery Storage for Fossil-Fueled Peaker Plant Replacement: A Maine Case Study

Event Details

Across the country, more than a thousand fossil fuel burning peaker power plants sit idle, waiting to be called upon by electricity grid operators. These plants are designed to fire up quickly in response to regional demand spikes. While this serves a critical need, fossil-fueled peaker plants are highly polluting and expensive, and are disproportionately sited in low-income communities, communities of color, and areas already overburdened by pollution.

A new analysis, conducted by Strategen for the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), demonstrates that batteries can cost effectively replace aging fossil-fueled peakers. The analysis is focused on Maine, where the Governor’s Energy Office is currently engaged in designing a 200-MW energy storage procurement process. But the results, which are largely based on regional energy capacity market revenue opportunities, are applicable throughout New England, and should help to inform peaker replacement initiatives in other regions as well. The report, “Battery Storage for Fossil-Fueled Peaker Plant Replacement: A Maine Case Study,” is available here.

In this CESA webinar, report author Eliasid Animas from Strategen will discuss the methodology and findings of the analysis. He will be joined by contributing editor Todd Olinsky-Paul from CESA. Following the presentation, they will address questions from the audience.

This report and webinar were generously supported with funding from the Barr Foundation and from the Maine Community Foundation—Seal Bay II Fund.

You can register for the webinar here.

Time

(Tuesday) 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET

Location

Online

Online presentation

Organizer

Clean Energy States Alliance

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may

16may2:00 pm3:00 pmMicro-Financing and Locally Led Development: A Scalable Model for Resilient Power in Rural Communities

Event Details

Resilient power systems – solar PV paired with battery storage (solar+storage) – in rural, low-income communities can provide essential backup power to emergency response and public health efforts in the event of a power outage. Despite the unique vulnerabilities rural communities face, there remains limited adoption of solar+storage to provide reliable backup power, in addition to the economic benefits provided through solar+storage that organizations serving these communities would significantly benefit from.

This Clean Energy Group webinar will feature the Solar Village Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing solar+storage to schools, clinics and homes in rural India and Puerto Rico, helping with health, education, and home life as well as climate change. The Solar Village Project team will speak to their experience developing projects in rural communities, including the donation and micro-finance model they’ve developed and how they’re building a workforce development program. They will also speak to lessons learned and opportunities for expansion to more communities in the United States.

Panelists:

• Ruth McElroy Amundsen, Treasurer, Solar Village Project

• Joe Kselman, Board chair, Solar Village Project

• David Ortiz, Puerto Rico Program Director, Solar United Neighbors

• Marriele Mango, Project Director, Clean Energy Group (moderator)

This webinar is part of Clean Energy Group’s “Celebrating 10 Years of Technical Assistance” series. Since 2014, CEG’s Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) has awarded over $1.5 million to 175 community organizations, affordable housing providers, critical service providers, municipalities, and Native Nations in support of their efforts to build local resilient power resources. Over the next year, CEG will be celebrating this milestone through publications that highlight various aspects of resilient power development. Learn more about the TAF here.

You can register for the webinar here.

Time

(Thursday) 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET

Location

Online

Online presentation

Organizer

Clean Energy States Alliance

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21may3:00 pm4:30 pmEnergy Storage Interconnection: Challenges and Solutions

Event Details

Energy storage projects, like other energy projects, can experience long delays and be assessed high costs when seeking to interconnect with the electricity grid. But unlike other energy projects, energy storage has unique operational attributes that are often not well accounted for in current interconnection processes, and this can lead to storage projects facing undue burdens that may ultimately cause them to become uneconomical. This issue is widely recognized as a significant barrier to states meeting their clean energy and decarbonization goals.

In this webinar, policy experts from national laboratories examine the problem and discuss new initiatives designed to address interconnection challenges. Diane Baldwin (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and Michael Ropp (Sandia National Laboratory) will provide insight on the work being done by the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange” (i2X) program, and Will McNamara (Sandia National Laboratory) will discuss interconnection policy recommendations being developed by the newly formed National Consortium for the Advancement of Long Duration Energy Storage. Charlie Vartanian (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) will share technical considerations and possible solutions to the challenges of interconnecting energy storage to the grid.

Speakers:

Dr. Imre Gyuk, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity
Diane Baldwin, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Michael Ropp, Sandia National Laboratory
Will McNamara, Sandia National Laboratory
Charlie Vartanian, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Todd Olinsky-Paul, Clean Energy States Alliance (moderator)

This webinar is a presentation of the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP). ESTAP is a federal-state funding and information sharing project that aims to accelerate the deployment of electrical energy storage technologies in the U.S. ESTAP is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity, managed by Sandia National Laboratories, and administered by the Clean Energy States Alliance.

You can register for the event here.

Time

(Tuesday) 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm ET

Location

Online

Online presentation

Organizer

Clean Energy States Alliance

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