Environmental Sustainability Council

DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL ENERGY TRANSITION SUBCOMMITTEE Thursday, Dec 7, 2017 Dogwood Room, City Hall MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Members: Tim Stevens (Chair), Thomas Cash, Nisha Thirumurthy, Jon Ward, Aziz Shaik, City Staff Liaison: Kate Walker (Environmental Programs Coordinator) Public Comments: No public comments were received. New Business SolSmart Presentation & Discussion: Julia Philpott, SolSmart advisor explained that the program is part of the USDOE Sunshot initiative. By joining the program, Falls Church has access to Julia’s services, which involve review of our ordinances and processes that guide contractors and the public in the installation of distributed solar energy systems (rooftop and ground mounted). She is working with other jurisdictions in NOVA. The program is grant funded, requiring no payment from Falls Church, and enables participating local governments to achieve bronze, silver or gold level of achievement. Kate will follow up with Julia to determine next steps, with the assumption that Falls Church will join the program. Large Scale Renewable Energy: Tim led the discussion of a concept being promoted by consulting firm Customer First Renewables. Local jurisdictions could jointly fund construction of a large (over 10 MW) solar or wind farm (either in VA or elsewhere). Funding would be implemented through a long term (20+ years) Power Purchase Agreement, in exchange for an ownership share of the Renewable Energy Certificates, which can be used by local jurisdictions to meet their greenhouse gas reduction and sustainability goals. Electricity generated by the project would be fed into the PJM grid, and payments made by PJM for this electricity would be directed to the local jurisdictions based on their ownership share. These payments are determined by prices PJM pays to supply the grid with electricity on an as needed basis. Local jurisdictions would continue to obtain (and pay for) their electricity from Dominion Energy Virginia via VEPGA arrangements, as mandated by Virginia utility statutes. NVRC is overseeing a process to advise NOVA jurisdictions on this concept. ETS will continue to monitor large-scale renewable energy with the goal of advising the City on potential benefits. ETS agreed on sending a short note to City officials advising them of this concept. Ongoing Business GHG Inventory: Nisha advised she needs additional data from City sources to continue work to carve out City emissions from the total estimated by MWCOG environmental programs staff. LED streetlight conversion: Tom summarized his calculations showing 33% reduction on power requirements that could be available to the City from LED versus High Power Sodium (HPS) bulbs. Current Dominion Virginia Energy tariff offerings applicable to DVE-owned streetlights (located in the City) block these potential savings as a result of high charges for HPS to LED conversion. NVRC is coordinating requests by NOVA for better conversion terms. Tesla/EV charging stations: Tom led the discussion on EV charging stations, funded by Tesla, for public and private locations (Level 2 stations, which are the 220 volt type). Equipment is provided by Tesla at no charge, and includes $1000 towards installation costs. The property owner pays for the electricity. Another company – EVGo – may be willing to provide DC FastChargers at no cost. The committee will continue to monitor these, and other, funding opportunities for EV charge stations at key locations throughout the City. Agreement was reached on the value of developing a map displaying the best locations for siting EV charge stations (public and private locations). Tom also researched and found that there are at least 30 plug-in electric vehicles registered in the City, so interest in EV charge stations should grow. Next meeting: Thursday, January 4, 2018.