At the fifth annual Imperial Valley Renewable Energy Summit & Expo on Wednesday, attendees heard from developers about the economic promises of renewable energy.
The first presentation came from Vincent Signorotti from Energy Source LLC.
In less than two years the geothermal plant Hudson Ranch 1 went from construction to operation and created 55 full-time jobs, Signorotti said.
In addition the plant was built by PMC, a local contractor and that created more than 200 jobs, he said.
Full Article: San Diego resident Rick Jarret came to the fifth annual Imperial Valley Renewable Energy Summit & Expo on Wednesday “just to check things out.” Jarret is retired and considering “different opportunities for investing,” he said.
And it’s investors like Jarret and renewable energy developers who surely benefitted from the panel presentations of the summit.How to navigate through government policy and the economic impacts of renewable energy projects were some of the issues discussed by two panels of experts.
The first panel was led by representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Independent Energy Producers Association, the California Public Utilities Commission and the Bureau of Land Management.
“We try to streamline processes as much as possible,” said Lanika Cervantes, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District.
Her organization, which is in charge of protecting water resources, deals with permits when water is on a developer’s site and discharges takes place.
Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers Association followed.
He noted that Imperial Valley is and has been “a great place to develop projects.”
But there are challenges at a local level, he said, mainly because areas that may have some issues “are being squeezed pretty hard,” he said.
Locals have to figure out what to do about farmland issues, he said.
California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine J.K. Sandoval informed the audience about new proceedings.
In the near future utilities are going to be allocated credits for emissions, she said.
Sandoval also pointed out a need to create the technology to store energy.
Finally, Thomas Zale, associate field manager of the Bureau of Land Management, discussed guidelines for developers, such as consulting with Native Americans and have biological and archaeological surveys done early.
