1115.E AMS KEIS SIMS 263

EHB 1115 - S AMD TO WM COMMITTEE AMENDMENT (S-3013.1/15) 420

By Senators Keiser, Conway

NOT ADOPTED 04/14/2015

    On page 16, after line 4, insert the following:

 "NEW SECTION. Sec. 1037 FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Clean Energy and Energy Freedom Program (30000726)

The appropriations in this section are subject to the following conditions and limitations:

(1) The appropriations are provided solely for projects that provide a benefit to the public through development, demonstration, and deployment of clean energy technologies that save energy and reduce energy costs, reduce harmful air emissions or otherwise increase energy independence for the state. All expenditures must be used for projects that develop and acquire assets that have a useful life of at least thirteen years. These requirements must be specified in funding agreements issued by the department.

(2)(a) $10,000,000 of the state taxable building construction account is provided solely to create a revolving loan fund to support the widespread use of proven energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies now inhibited by lack of access to capital.

(b) The department shall provide grant funds to one or more competitively selected nonprofit lenders that will provide matching private capital and will administer the loan fund. The department must select the loan fund administrator or administrators through a competitive process, with scoring conducted by a group of qualified experts, applying criteria specified by the department.

(c) The department must establish guidelines that specify applicant eligibility, the screening process, and evaluation and selection criteria. The guidelines must be used by the nonprofit lenders.

(d) Loan applications must disclose all sources of public funds invested in the project. The nonprofit lender must make loans available to the following types of projects that include, but are not limited to: Residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural energy retrofits, residential and community-scale solar installations, anaerobic digesters to treat dairy and organic waste, and combined heat and power projects using woody biomass as a fuel source.

(e) State funds may not exceed fifty percent of the estimated cost of a project, and funding preference must be provided to projects that offer a higher percentage of nonstate match funds.

(f) The department must conduct due diligence activities associated with the use of public funds, including oversight of the project selection process and project monitoring.

 (3)(a) $15,000,000 of the state building construction account is provided solely for grants to advance clean and renewable energy technologies and advance transmission and distribution control system improvements for increased reliability, resiliency, and enabling integration of distributed and renewable resources and technology by public and private electrical utilities that serve retail customers in the state. Eligible utilities may partner with other public and private sector research organizations and businesses in applying for funding.

(b) The department shall develop a grant application process to competitively select projects for grant awards, to include scoring conducted by a group of qualified experts with application of criteria specified by the department. In development of the application criteria, the department shall, to the extent possible, allow smaller utilities or consortia of small utilities to apply for funding.

(c) The department shall convene an advisory panel of electric utility representatives to identify program objectives, near term priorities and long term goals.

(d) Applications for grants must disclose all sources of public funds invested in a project.

(e) Grant funds must be used for research, development, or demonstration projects that integrate intermittent renewables through energy storage, information technology or other smart grid technologies, dispatch energy storage resources from utility control rooms, use demand response, transactive control, or the thermal properties and electric load of commercial buildings and district energy systems to store energy, reduce transmission congestion or otherwise improve system reliability and resiliency and enable integration of distributed and renewable energy sources.

(4)(a) $15,000,000 of the state building construction account is provided solely for grants to match federal funds or other nonstate funding sources used to research, develop, and demonstrate clean energy technologies.

(b) The department shall consult with the University of Washington, Washington State University, the Pacific Northwest national laboratory and other clean energy organizations to design the program. The program shall offer matching funds for clean energy projects including, but not limited to: Advancing energy storage and solar technologies, advancing bioenergy, developing new lightweight materials, and advancing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

(5) The department must report on number and results of projects that receive grants or loans through the clean energy fund, including the number of job hours created and the number of jobs maintained and created, to the governor and the legislature, by November 1, 2016.

Appropriation:

State Taxable Building Construction Account—State. $10,000,000

State Building Construction Account—State......... $30,000,000

Subtotal Appropriation....................... $40,000,000

Prior Biennia (Expenditures)............................... $0

Future Biennia (Projected Costs)........................... $0

           TOTAL     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $40,000,000"

     Renumber the remaining sections consecutively and correct any internal references accordingly.

EFFECT:   Provides $40 million in bonds for the Clean Energy and Energy Freedom Program

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