Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. Future offshore wind development in California will create a risk to seabirds for collision or displacement. Existing seabird models, which describe the density and species composition in the California Current, can be used to identify hot spots for seabird activity, but these models do not delineate the presence of seabirds at different heights above the sea surface. Without incorporating flight height and how flight behavior changes with wind speed, it is difficult to accurately estimate the potential impact to seabirds from offshore wind farms. As different size turbines are being designed for use in an offshore environment, the existing two-dimensional spatial models of seabird populations will be unable to estimate the difference in potential impacts
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. The size of wind turbine towers is constrained by transportation size and weight making conventional towers prohibitively expensive for larger next-generation turbines in California. Overhead traffic signals, road width and weight regulations limit conventional steel tubular towers to sub-optimal diameters of 4.3 meters (14 feet.). As a result, the tallest wind turbine towers installed in California are 100-meter (m) tall with turbine capacity of 3.3-megawatts (MW).
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. To achieve robust zero emissions targets, cities and load-serving entities require advanced energy solutions that enable the cost-effective deployment and integration of distributed and renewable energy resources, and the cost-efficient rehabilitation of homes to a near Zero Net Carbon standard.3 Achieving these outcomes in disadvantaged communities requires a combination of innovative technology, scaled finance, and the inclusive engagement of cities, NGOs, and community residents.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. Climate change poses an urgent and significant threat to California and the nation. California has taken a leadership position in supporting cutting edge science to understand the nature of the threat and possible actions to mitigate that impact. However, California cannot solve this threat alone and does not have all of the solutions.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. California’s forest health crisis is an emergency of unprecedented scope and scale, with disastrous implications for the state’s environment, economy, energy systems, and human life. Unlike essentially all other technologies and solutions proposed to respond to the crisis, gasification has the potential to process forest waste in a way that extracts value and sequesters a large portion of its carbon. Before the recipient’s development of the pre- commercial Powertainer technology, no one had developed gasification technology that could economically respond to the problem. As a result, there have not yet been any large-scale deployments of distributed, commercial-scale gasification technology. The acceleration of tree mortality and persistent drought conditions make finding solutions to this problem more critical with each passing day.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. Mechanical steam traps are one of the leading causes for steam loss within a steam system. While methods exist to monitor the performance of the steam traps, this is labor intensive and requires knowledge on how to accurately assess performance. Often steam traps will fail and cause a substantial amount of steam loss, which increases natural gas use and GHG emissions, and causes process and production issues. With natural gas prices being at an all-time low, there is a cost barrier to implementing new energy efficient technologies to reduce natural gas use and GHG emissions.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. Onsite industrial emissions represent about one-quarter of California’s overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Significant reductions in GHG emissions can be achieved by transitioning from refrigeration systems that use high-GWP refrigerants to those that use low-GWP and ultra-low- GWP refrigerants. Inefficient industrial equipment leads to higher energy consumption and higher consequent GHG emissions. Businesses cannot justify the large upfront costs of more efficient equipment without demonstration and verification of benefits.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. California processes over one million tons of grapes per year and produces nearly 100 percent of raisins in the U.S.2 Processing and packaging raisins is an energy intensive process which involves substantial electricity use. Further, an unreliable electric grid and threats from wildfire induced public safety power shutoffs have caused undue strains on food producers.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. In California, process heating accounts for approximately 85 percent of industrial energy use, which is primarily provided by fossil fuel combustion and contributes to roughly one-fourth of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). As the prices of renewable electricity such as solar photovoltaics (PV), wind and electric equipment continue to drop, industrial electrification to meet the demand for heat offers cost-saving and GHG-emission-reduction opportunities. Electrification of industrial processes does not require a fundamental change in the industrial process setup, but rather a replacement of a piece of conventionally fueled equipment, such as a boiler, with a piece of electric heating equipment (electrotechnology). Further, electric heaters that can generate industrial heat up to approximately 350°C are widely available. Nevertheless, the primary challenge with adoption of renewables for electrotechnology is intermittent and fluctuating generation that reduces capacity factor, decreases its ability to supply stable, inexpensive, and on-demand heat (required for high-quality manufacturing), and increases levelized cost of energy (LCOE). These challenges can be addressed through the development of low-cost and dispatchable thermal energy storage (TES). The most common type of hot TES uses high-cost (to $1100-$1300/ton) solar salts in expensive two-tank configurations. Solar salts have high freezing points (~221 °C) that require significant parasitic loss related to the extensive electrical trace heating of pipes needed to avoid solidification blockages. Therefore, a two-tank solar salt storage system in the temperature range of interest would be unduly expensive.
Problem/ Solution Statement Problem. Processing of milk into dairy products is an energy-intensive process requiring large amounts of heat, typically provided by burning natural gas. Supplementing heat required for thermal processes with solar thermal energy could significantly reduce natural gas consumption and GHG emissions in dairy processing industries. However, due to high upfront costs, there is a lack of successful, high-temperature demonstrations of solar thermal energy systems in dairy processing facilities.
