A wave of Green Technology innovation is sweeping the world – is the United States willing, and ready, to lead?

That was the question that Andrea Larson presented to the audience a couple hours ago at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. I was a bit disappointed in most of her comments – beginning with the fact that she chose dwell on “the ignorance” of those that don’t believe in Global Warming… please!

There is nothing less important about this issue than fighting to convince those that don’t believe in it (Peyton speaks about the argument well – I welcome you to join that ongoing discussion).

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Updating my previous post, VP Biden announced plans to distribute more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring, and technology viability late last week.

The announcement comes with mixed reviews, including warnings that the $20 million cap on grant awards ($40 million with matching funds) is too small to incentivize large and medium IOUs to deploy smart meters.  This post notes that Xcel Energy’s SmartGridCity is a $100 million dollar project on it’s own and involves only a single city.

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With specific dollar allocations published for Conservation Block Grants, $780 million released for energy efficiency and Weatherization (more to come), and grant announcements worth $2.4 billion for next generation electric vehicles issued, the first wave of DOE stimulus has come and gone.

In its wake, state, city, and county energy offices, agencies, commissions and departments are scrambling to make sense of how to funnel additional money into their respective jurisdictions.  This includes readying Strategic Energy Plans for SEP program approval and drafting State Comprehensive Applications for the remaining Weatherization funds, as well as exploring potential partnerships and programs to win highly competitive grants for additional projects.

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$3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation projects for US cities, counties, states, territories, and Native American tribes was released last Thursday.  The announcement comes on the heels of $8 billion for Weatherization programs and $2.4 billion for Next Generation Electric Vehicles released earlier in March, all part of $16.8 billion allocated under ARRA for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs.

The most recently released funds will be administered under the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG), which provides federal grants to reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions through improvements in energy efficiency in the transportation, building, and “other appropriate sectors.”  Unlike the State Energy Program, EECBG emphasizes a bottom-up, community-based energy efficiency strategy through Title V of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

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While visiting Southern California Edison’s Electric Vehicle Center Thursday, President Obama announced the availability of $2.4 billion for the “Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative” and “Transportation Electrification”.

The funds will be awarded through competitive grants.  Specific announcements are available here (for the Manufacturing Initiative) and here (for the Transportation Electrification).  Both grants are “unrestricted” meaning all entities may apply.

The programs are intended…

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The US electrical grid is a century-old “machine” built for a singular purpose: to power the development and industrialization of the nation’s economy.  It is designed to deliver electrons from centralized power producing plants through transmission wires to end consumers.  This archaic, unidirectional architecture is unreliable, inefficient, and unsafe.

Using many of the same technologies and assumptions first implemented in the 19th century, today, the grid must keep up with rising demand which outstrips available generating capacity and technological advancements designed to make the grid “smarter“.

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Yesterday, two days after President Obama signed the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA) into law, DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced a reorganization of how the Department of Energy will disperse loans, loan guarantees and funding contained therein.

Obviously, the idea is that there will be a disbursement of money to begin investments into the economy which will put Americans back to work and create millions of new jobs. What is good for CleanTechies like you and me is that there’s a leader at the helm Department of Energy that is keen on energy efficiency and renewables because it is the DOE that will be in a position to bring relevant projects to the table. More great news is he’s added ex-McKinsey consultant Matt Rogers to the team, a long time analyst of energy issues and climate change. It is great to have such strong representation from the business community within the DOE.

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With less than a year left before the international community reconvenes to tackle climate change in Copenhagen this December, many unanswered questions remain.  Chief among them is whether the US can begin to patch together a flurry of legislation targeting reduced greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions in time to signal a renewed commitment to leading the international community on environmental issues.  Doing so will focus the spotlight on China, which together with the US, accounts for 40% of the world’s GHG emissions.

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