Oregon public power utilities Springfield Utility Board and Emerald People’s Utility District, along with Tennessee public power utility Nashville Electric Service, are included among the communities that will receive funding and technical assistance to research, model, validate, and deploy local clean energy strategies as detailed by the U.S. Department of Energy on Oct. 9.
The DOE announced three new communities will receive a combined $10 million in funding and technical assistance.
Teams of local governments, electric utilities, and community-based groups will work closely with experts from DOE's national laboratories over two to three years through an in-depth partnership with the DOE's Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program.
The selected communities are:
Lane County, Oregon
Lane County, Oregon, has experienced wildfires, ice storms, heat waves, flooding, and more, just in the past few years, damaging the electric grid and causing extended customer power outages.
Lane County, the Springfield Utility Board, Emerald People's Utility District, and The Center for Rural Livelihoods will work with DOE lab experts to develop distributed renewable energy resources and grid modernization technologies to improve the reliability and resilience of electricity services.
Nashville, Tennessee
“Nashville is among the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation, putting strain on its aging energy infrastructure,” DOE said.
Nashville Electric Service, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Middle-West Tennessee Clean Fuels, and Urban League of Middle Tennessee will receive support to develop an integrated roadmap to achieve the metro-wide goal to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050 while increasing resiliency and reliability for residents, and make progress on Tennessee Valley Authority's net-zero carbon reduction targets.
Duluth, Minnesota
Minnesota is the nation's largest producer of the iron ore used for steel production. Ecolibrium3, Minnesota Power, Itasca Economic Development Corporation, and the City of Duluth plan to develop renewable energy, hydrogen power, and a workforce to support a green iron plant in the region.
The team will work with DOE lab experts to de-risk their plans to procure renewable energy and hydrogen and support industrial decarbonization in Northeastern Minnesota.
