CleanTech Day in Olympia 2020 Recap

Source: Lindsay McCormick

CleanTech Day in Olympia on February 3rd was a huge success. Over 60 people attended in person with dozens more calling in to hear from panelists.

After the board meeting in the morning, Dr. Lisa Brown, the Director of the Washington State Department of Commerce kicked off the speaker series and talked broadly about the Clean Energy Fund and Commerce’s relationship with the CleanTech Alliance.

Following, Dr. Brown, Lindsay McCormick from the CleanTech Alliance gave an overview of the Clean Energy Fund and the white paper she has been researching and writing (found here).

Carl Seip from Craft3 talked about the Grants to Nonprofit Lenders program within the CEF and the role that Craft3 has played in it.

Curt Kirkeby from Avista talked about their Vanadium flow battery system project in Pullman and addressed some of the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned from the project.

Cam LeHouillier from Tacoma Power spoke about utilities and their CEF successes despite their inherent resistance to change, and Louis Terminello from PNNL spoke about the exciting projects they’re conducting in Richland.

Lastly, Ann Goos and Craig Husa gave a comprehensive assessment of the CleanTech Ecosystem in Washington, including a SWOT analysis and feedback from 24 key players in the industry.

After the panels, participants were broken into groups to meet with legislators and given regional packets (linked below) including information on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and CEF projects specific to each legislator’s region.

Northwest Washington

Southwest Washington

Central Puget Sound Region

Central Washington

Eastern Washington

Peninsula Region

Low Carbon Fuel Standard

The afternoon included productive meetings between legislators or their staff and CleanTech Day attendees and the day concluded with a reception at Swing Wine Bar where members and legislators were invited to mingle over appetizers and drinks.