[ausev] politics: bay area announcement ... Us too!

[Derek Bridges]

Austin is gearing up its own effort to become a national leader in the 
energy sector. On December 2 the city will formally announce the Pecan 
Street Project, which at this time is just an unfunded research project 
but intends to eventually assemble a consortium like Sematech to work on 
energy & grid related issues.
A key element of the new Smart Grid will be vehicle-to-grid capabilities.

more at
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/09/25/0925energyproject.html
and
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:681436

This is from the Chronicle story:

The Pecan Street Project has outlined this four-part plan:
*1) Create a consortium:* The city of Austin will help create and fund a 
new local, public/private consortium devoted to the research and 
development of clean energy technologies and distributed generation 
systems. It will thus work to reduce energy consumption, air pollution, 
and greenhouse gas emissions.
*2) City as lab:* Austin Energy will open its grid to entrepreneurs and 
researchers to test a few megawatts of their prototype technologies – 
after ensuring they pose no threat to our energy system's safety and 
reliability.
*3) Create business model:* As the consortium develops a new distributed 
generation system for clean energy, Austin Energy will correspondingly 
develop a new profitable business model for the utility's services.
*4) Show the world how it works:* Austin will become the first city to 
test-drive the new system and business model. As a result, we'll enjoy 
energy savings that will – in theory – prevent the need for an entire 
new power plant.

Coincidentally, Austin Energy will begin public hearings next month on 
plans to build 1,000 MW of new generation capacity over the next 10 
years or so.

Derek Bridges


Cara wrote on 26 Nov :
> Mayors Aim to Make San Francisco Bay Area the Electric Vehicle Capital
> of the U.S.
>
> Better Place to enter the US market via California, beginning in the Bay Area
>
> 11/20/08 - Today, Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and
> Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums announced a nine-step policy plan for
> transforming the Bay Area into the "Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of
> the U.S." In conjunction with the news, Better Place, a global
> electric transportation company, announced that it would enter the
> U.S. market with California as its first state, beginning in the Bay
> Area.
>
> "Our aim is to make the Bay Area ? and eventually California ? the
> electric vehicle capital of the U.S.," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin
> Newsom
>
> ...
> more at: <http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=93399>
>