Environmental Sustainability Council

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL ENERGY TRANSITION SUBCOMMITTEE (ETS) Thursday, Apr 5, 2018, Library, George Mason HS MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Members: Tim Stevens (Chair), Thomas Cash, Jon Ward, Nisha Thirmurthy, Chris McCloud, Aziz Shaik (student rep) City Staff Liaison: Kate Walker (Environmental Programs Coordinator), City Council Liaison: Dan Sze Public Comments: No public comments were received. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of January 4, 2018 ETS meeting were accepted unanimously without changes. Staff Report (Kate Walker): Kate will be the City staff lead in updating Chapter 5 of the City Comprehensive Plan, previously titled “Natural Resources and the Environment.” Completion by Feb 2019 is planned. Community outreach meetings are expected to start by July 2018. ETS members suggested resiliency, sustainability, and long-range vision as chapter themes. New Business Solar Tax Ordinance (Kate Walker): Kate discussed City Code Chapter 40, Article XII, which allows a 10-year property tax exemption for solar energy infrastructure. She presented a table indicating that if all photovoltaic installations in the City through 2016 had received the exemption, the aggregate tax reduction would be about $5000/yr. City staff is working to update the Article language to assign the appropriate administrative roles in the process. Proposed scheduling for City Council approval by July 2018. Ongoing Business Large Scale Renewable Energy: The NVRC, with Customer First Renewables acting as advisor, continues pursuing a Virtual PPA proposal for local jurisdictions to consider. Kate Walker reported that concerns about the financial risks and lack of examples of other local governments who have entered into a Virtual PPA continues. Tim reflected that reaching GHG reduction goals will likely require an initiative such as this. Action Item #1: Kate will ask the Urban Sustainability Directors Network if there are other examples of multi-jurisdictional cooperative virtual PPAs. LED streetlight conversion: Kate reported that Dominion Virginia Energy is publishing to local jurisdictions the specifications for LED equipment. Prices are cheaper than what jurisdictions could negotiate independently, but with a relatively rapid 5-yr completion period assumed. Until LEDs are selected, all Dominion’s replacements will be high-pressure sodium. Dan Sze asked ETS whether the Virginia Municipal League’s July 2018 legislative agenda could support codifying jurisdictions’ options. Tim mentioned that ETS would like to follow up with Dan on this and other legislative proposals designed to advance our goals. EV charging stations: Tim Stevens reports that VA DEQ has still not released plans for allocating the $94M Volkswagen Virginia settlement/award. Dan Sze noted that the City’s Economic Development Authority could fund or borrow to fund EV charging stations. This would allow ETS to investigate options other than no-money-up-front approaches. Greenhouse Gas Inventory: Kate said Dominion will provide updated statistics for government / school facilities. Nisha will use that data to update her inventory for the City sector; MWCOG includes municipal consumption under “commercial / industrial” categories. ETS will look for the right opportunities to present and discuss the inventory results with city council, and discuss approaches for reducing the City’s footprint. Action Item #3: Tim will set-up a meeting with Maya at MWCOG to discuss the ClearPath modeling procedures and MWCOG’s inventory. Solarize: A resolution supporting the 2018 Solarize campaign is planned for the next City Council meeting. No home-efficiency studies will be offered. Kate will be promoting Solarize at the Farmers Market through the end of May. C-PACE: Kate and Tim have met with some City staff regarding the C- PACE concept. Meetings with Finance, Procurement and Legal staff are next. Kate is targeting the July – September 2018 time frame to present a proposed ordinance to City Council. Tim reported that no applications have been submitted yet to the Arlington C-PACE program, launched in February 2018. Next ETS Meeting: May 3, 2018. GMHS Library Other meetings of interest: Monday, April 16, 7:30 pm: The CFC Planning Commission will hear from Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. Abbreviations / Terminology:  C-PACE: Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (https://arlington-pace.us/)  PPA: Power Purchase Agreement  NVRC: Northern Virginia Regional Commission  VA DEQ: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality  MWCOG: Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments