Sen. Franken Proposes New Measures to Invest in Energy Storage Systems, Help Minnesotans Tap Into Local Energy Sources

Senator Introduces Two Bills: Advance Grid Storage Act & Local Energy Supply and Resiliency Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 11, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a member of the Senate Energy Committee, introduced two job-creating legislative measures to help bring the way our country uses energy into the 21st century.

The Advancing Grid Storage Act would accelerate investments in the deployment of energy storage systems, which are key to a more resilient, efficient, clean, and cost-effective electrical grid. Investing in energy storage will, in turn, help promote economic security and create high-skill, sustainable jobs.

The second bill, called the Local Energy Supply and Resiliency Act, will help communities and businesses in Minnesota and all across the country tap into the renewable energy resources in their backyards—things like thermal energy, biomass, solar power, and wind power. Using local energy sources will help reduce fossil fuel consumption, enhance our energy supply, cut back pollution, and save money.

“We need to bring our country’s energy systems into the 21st century—and that means we need to make investments in things like energy storage and local, renewable resources,” said Sen. Franken. “My legislative proposals will scale-up the deployment of key energy technologies and will bring more jobs to Minnesota, save money, and make energy delivery more efficient and reliable.”

You can read more about Sen. Franken’s bills below.

Advancing Grid Storage Act of 2015. Energy storage is the key to a resilient, efficient, clean, and cost‐effective grid. Sen. Franken believes we must seize the opportunity to fully integrate storage to reduce outages, increase resilience, and avoid overspending to modernize the grid. Investing in energy storage will ensure economic security, foster innovation, and create sustainable jobs. The goal of the Advancing Grid Storage Act is to help accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of energy storage systems by:
Advancing Energy Storage Research and Development (R&D): Continued research and development will be critical to driving down the cost of energy storage technologies and making them accessible to our homes, businesses, industries, and cities. That is why the bill authorizes $50 million of dedicated funding for energy storage systems within the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E).

Providing Loans for the Demonstration and Deployment of Energy Storage Systems: One of the major barriers to the deployment of energy storage systems is the high upfront capital costs. That is why Sen. Franken’s bill establishes a loan program to help states, tribes, utilities, and universities deploy projects that improve the security of emergency response infrastructure, integrate renewable energy resources onto the grid, provide ancillary services for grid management, and help meet electricity demanding during peak and nonpeak hours, in order to make better use of existing grid assets. These investments will strengthen the reliability and resiliency of energy infrastructure, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize job creation.

Establishing a Technical Assistance and Grant Program for Energy Storage Systems: Another barrier to the deployment of energy storage systems is a lack of information about which opportunities for energy storage will result in the most financial, environmental, and grid-reliability and resiliency benefits. The bill establishes a grant program to provide technical assistance for identifying, evaluating, planning and designing energy storage systems. This program helps for-profit and nonprofit entities identify opportunities, assess feasibility, overcome barriers to project implementation, conduct financial assessments, and perform the required engineering. Authorized appropriations: $250 million over 5 years.

The Local Energy Supply and Resiliency Act (LESRA) of 2015. Thermal energy and combined heat and power are essential, but often overlooked, components of our nation’s near- and long-term energy policy. Thirty-six percent of the total energy consumed in the U.S. is lost from power plants, industrial facilities, and other buildings in the form of waste heat, the majority of it from power plants. This represents an enormous opportunity to reduce wasted energy and lost dollars through renewable thermal energy sources, combined heat and power (CHP), or other energy-efficient technologies. Sen. Franken’s bill will help states, tribes, communities, industry, and universities tap the energy resources in their backyards – renewable energy sources as well as waste heat. By tapping local energy sources we can: reduce fossil fuel consumption; enhance energy supply resiliency, reliability and security; reduce air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases; and retain more energy dollars in local economies. LESRA would establish a direct loan program for financing these investments, and provide cost-shared funding for technical assistance for feasibility studies and engineering.

Technical Assistance Program. The bill establishes a grant program to provide technical assistance for identifying, evaluating, planning and designing distributed energy systems. This program helps for-profit and nonprofit entities identify opportunities, assess feasibility, overcome barriers to project implementation, conduct financial assessments, and perform the required engineering. Authorized appropriations: $250 million over 5 years.

Loan Program. The bill establishes a loan program, which will help states, tribes, utilities, and universities deploy projects that recover or produce useful thermal energy from waste heat or renewable thermal energy sources, generate electricity locally, distribute electricity in microgrids, distribute thermal energy, or transfer thermal energy to building heating and cooling systems. These investments will strengthen the reliability of the local energy supplies and boost resiliency of energy infrastructure, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize job creation.