Environmental Sustainability Council

Environmental Sustainability Council Energy Transition Subcommittee Thursday, December 1st, 2016, 7:30 - 9:30 pm Dogwood Room, City Hall Minutes Members Present: Tim Stevens (chair), Thomas Cash, Aziz Shaik, Peter Adriance, City Staff: Kate Walker (City Liaison), Loren Bruce (Planning Department) Member of Public: Susan Monteverde Note Taker: Peter Adriance 1. Call to order – The meeting was called to order by the chair at 7:30 2. Public Comments: Susan Monteverde stated her interest in becoming a member of the ETS and/or the ESC. 3. Approval of Minutes (October 6th & November 3rd, 2016) – The minutes for both meetings were approved 4. Ongoing Business • Formal adoption of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Policy for the City of Falls Church – Tim Stevens presented a draft resolution to be considered by City Council. It was noted that the Greenhouse gas reduction targets referenced in the document have been supported by all metro jurisdictions through their membership with COG. The resolution would focus the effort in Falls Church to meet several aspirational goals, but it would not be binding. Kate suggested a few improvements: improve public health; improved energy efficiency means lower costs for back up generation during power outages; greater equity; and resiliency in the future. Concerns were raised on whether the stated goals are achievable. Having such aspirational goals helps to focus the City’s efforts and should support the mandate of the ETS. It was noted that Kate and Chris McGough will be presenting to the Council operations committee in January. It would be a good time to introduce the resolution.  Tim will circulate the draft with comments for further input over the next week. It will be presented by Tim to the ESC on the 15th. • Energy Lending Library Tool Kit – VPIS will purchase two infra-red cameras and donate them to the MRS library. There is a meeting next Tuesday (Dec. 6) at 3:00pm at the Library to line up specific next steps to make the cameras available to the public. The program is based on the very successful one at the Arlington Public Library, and we will use much of their material to operationalize it. • Solarize Campaign outreach planning – Kate and Tim will be meeting Wed. Dec. 7 at 2:30 at the Northern Virginia Regional Commission to sort out what they can do from an outreach perspective. Others are free to join. The Solarize Campaign is planned for April 18-June 30, 2017. One idea to help with publicity would be to obtain a solar panel to display with other materials at the booth. We will also need articles written for various publications. 5. Information Items • Legislative Program – The Distributed Solar Collaborative (a collection of environmental organizations and solar companies – no public utilities) had a panel presentation on 11/30 to discuss solar legislation in the state. “Community solar” is a way for people to buy shares of a centralized solar array or “solar garden” and get credits for the energy produced. Dominion looks at this arrangement as competition, but given the way things are going across the country it realizes it will need to have some kind of program in place. We can comment on its program in Jan/Feb when it is clarified. PJM (grid operators) are interested in the idea of community solar more than the utility which is rewarded for putting in large equipment. Incentives will ultimately need to be changed to spur appropriate changes. • Volkswagen Virginia Trust Fund for alternative vehicles – Money from the Volkswagen settlement will not be distributed until late next year. The state is slated to get $87 million. There is an informal public meeting on uses of the money on Dec. 7 in Henrico. Tim may attend. He recommended that a letter be drafted stating recommendations for disbursing the funds (e.g. electric school buses with associated charging stations – one of the qualified uses). A major challenge is getting more public charging stations for passenger cars. Charge Point sells the stations. They gave 13 to Tacoma Park as an experiment. They’re trying to decide how to charge for the electricity. Charlottesville also is working on this. It’s important to make sure the money goes to Northern Virginia as well as the rest of the state. Up to 15% can be used for EV charging stations. Tim will talk with councilmember Dan Sze to see if a letter can go out from the Council or from him as a Council member. The letter  would need to be given to City Council in their packet on Dec. 7. It’s basically a wish list letter with no downside risk. Kate will speak with Cindy about it. Tim will draft the letter in collaboration with Tom. o Electric Vehicles – Kate attended a meeting at NVRC about EVs. Audi wants 20% of their vehicles to be electric by 2025. One model will be a SUV. The Canadian company, E-lion, brought an electric bus recently to the Canadian Embassy. Kate saw it. Fiberglass body makes it lighter, corrosion resistant. E-motors are longer lasting than gas powered. Cost is 3.5x what a normal bus costs, so there will have to be subsidies to make it viable. Operator training is key to get the best performance out of the vehicles. • Schools geothermal study – The first study of the potential for geothermal at the new high school site has been done. Three sizes of fields were studied. It showed geothermal is viable. It will cost more up front, but will realize substantial savings over time. The payback looks favorable (5-7 years), but the study was based on hypothetical data as the school specs have yet to be determined. Fauquier county recently installed geothermal at a renovated high school, with positive results. The geothermal option should be brought up with our officials continually until it is broadly accepted as the way to go. • PACE – nothing to report 6. Next Meeting • Thursday, January 5th, 2017