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Campus Secures $15 Million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds

Financing part of $154 million allocated throughout San Diego region

Rex Graham | November 2, 2009

Job Fair Photo
From L to R, UCSD associate engineering professor Jan Kleissl, and engineering doctoral students Karl Olney and Michael Gollner, who were instrumental in helping UCSD and the San Diego region secure $154 million in bonds for solar panel installations.
Watch a Video of professor Jan Kleissl, and doctoal. students Karl Olney and Michael Gollner.

UC San Diego will receive $15 million for 15 renewable energy projects under the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds program. The federally-backed program allocated $154 million for financing renewable energy projects at 192 public facilities throughout the San Diego region.

Four UCSD students were instrumental in securing these grants. While taking an engineering course on solar power from Jan Kleissl, a professor in the Jacobs School of Engineering, they came up with an analytical tool that provided key help in the preparation of the proposals from the San Diego region. This tool allowed the San Diego partners to perform engineering and economic analyses of cost, energy output, and payback time of solar PV arrays—information considered crucial to the success of the proposals during the federal review process.

Photovoltaic Solar Trees on top of the
Gilman parking garage

“I am incredibly excited about the success that UC San Diego and the other San Diego entities had in this cycle of CREBs applications,” said Karl Olney, a mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student. “I am glad to have been part of this great achievement that will hopefully push San Diego to be the leader in photovoltaics.”

The San Diego region has been allocated financing opportunities for 192 solar installation projects for public facilities, which will promote hundreds of new green jobs and increase by more than 40 percent the capacity of locally produced solar energy with an estimated 20 megawatts of additional solar power.  A coalition of San Diego stakeholders, led by CleanTECH San Diego, captured $154 million in allocations for financing renewable energy projects for public facilities under the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) program.  The total allocations to the San Diego region make up 19 percent of the total allocations going to public agencies nationwide.

The Internal Revenue Service received 997 applications requested total allocations of more than $3 billion from state, regional, and local public agencies throughout the nation.  The IRS allocated $800 million to 739 projects for public agencies throughout the nation. 

“The $154 million for renewable energy projects marks a major milestone for our region and will make a significant economic, environmental, and social impact.  This clearly demonstrates the successful collaboration within the various business sectors of our region,” said Lisa Bicker, CEO of CleanTECH San Diego.

Photovoltaic Solar Trees on top of the
Gilman parking garage

The $154 million in CREBs allocations for the San Diego region went to a total of 192 projects submitted by San Diego municipalities, school districts, universities, and a water district.  The CREBs program is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA”) and provides public agencies with an opportunity to issue tax-credit bonds to finance renewable energy projects for public facilities.  The public agencies do not have to pay the interest on the bonds because the bond holders receive a tax credit in lieu of an interest payment.

The San Diego Unified School District received allocations totaling $74 million for 111 projects, which is the largest number of projects to receive allocations for a single public agency in the nation.

“Clean renewable energy is a win-win proposition for our schools; it not only saves dollars we desperately need for educational programs but these projects are also wonderful learning opportunities for our students,” said Bill Kowba, Interim Superintendent.

CleanTECH San Diego formed a coalition of public and private groups to assist public agencies from the San Diego region in applying for CREBs allocations.  The coalition held working sessions to inform public agencies of the financing opportunity and provided direct assistance with completing CREBs applications.  Public agencies had access to pro bono legal, engineering, and financial resources to help them with each step of the application process.  Coalition partners include Latham & Watkins LLP; University of California, San Diego; Stone & Youngberg LLC; PE Consulting; the San Diego Foundation; the California Center for Sustainable Energy; Southern Contracting; and MuniBond Solar.

 

UCSD Engineering Students Played key Role in San Diego Solar Bond Coup

By Andrea Siedsma

From L to R, engineering Ph.D. students Karl Olney and Michael Gollner, and UCSD associate engineering professor Jan Kleissl.

Engineering students at UC San Diego played a critical role in helping the university and the San Diego region secure a total of $154 million in federal bonds for solar installation projects.

CleanTECH San Diego tasked the students with streamlining the application process for the national Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBS) program. The bond allocations for the San Diego region went to a total of 192 projects submitted by San Diego municipalities, school districts, universities, and a water district. 

The analytical tool was created by four mechanical engineering students at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering – Karl Olney,  Michael Gollner, Kevin Peng and  Ihab Khayal.

Michael Gollner

“What we did was put in addresses at Google Earth and used satellite images to calculate the areas of the rooftops and parking lots where the school district wanted to install solar panels. We then used an online utility called PVWatts Solar Calculator to help calculate the solar panel size and cost, the expected annual output, as well as the 10-to-15-year payback plan of each installation project,” explained  Karl Olney, a second-year Ph.D. mechanical engineering student. “The thing that was nice for our projects was we could do each individual site in about 10 minutes.

The UCSD students also trained four high school interns from the San Diego Unified School District on the calculation tool so they could file applications for the district easily and quickly.

“By taking a scientific approach to what you’re doing, you can have a solution that is both good for the environment and good for you economically,” said Michael Gollner, also a second-year Ph.D. mechanical engineering student. “It’s a great feeling to know that our work has helped the San Diego region, and not just the environment but also with boosting jobs and the solar industry here. I know a lot of engineering graduates from UCSD will be excited to work in this growing field. Hopefully this will boost their opportunities.”

Karl Olney

The UCSD students worked under the guidance of Jan Kleissl, an assistant environmental engineering professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

“Our students were the key to the success of this project,” Kleissl said. “They did the critical legwork, which meant combining engineering and solar research and then generating easy applications that could be filed to the IRS. It was very rewarding to see our students take such a leadership role in this project. I teach many environmental courses, but I always have the challenge of showing students how to use this knowledge in practice. This CREBs project was a good example. Solar energy is a new field and many companies don’t know who to hire for these jobs. This project showed that mechanical engineering and environmental engineering students are the key resources for these jobs. These jobs require a breadth of knowledge from different disciplines and these student have that knowledge.”

CREBs Facts

$3 billion in allocations requested nationwide and $800 million in allocations awarded nationwide.

Public agencies located in the State of California won allocations totaling $640 million, which is 80 percent of the total allocations awarded nationwide.

Public agencies in the San Diego region won allocations for 192 projects totaling $154 million, which is 19 percent of the total allocations awarded nationwide.  In the previous application cycle for CREBs allocations in 2007, the San Diego region had an allocation of $1.25 million for a single project.

The San Diego Unified School District won allocations for 111 projects totaling $74 million, which is 9 percent of the total allocations awarded nationwide and which is also the largest total allocation amount for a single public agency nationwide.  For each of these projects, the San Diego Unified School District used a template created by students from the University of California, San Diego to calculate the project site’s solar output, generate the financial forecasts, and complete the CREBs application.

The San Diego Unified School District’s total allocation amount is nearly twice that of the State of New Jersey, which is the second-largest state winner for total allocations going to public agencies in one state.

Allocations in California for Public Agencies

The San Diego region received 24 percent of the total allocations going to public agencies in the State of California.

Only three higher education institutions nationwide won allocations: University of California, San Diego ($15 million); University of California, Berkeley ($4.8 million); and  San Diego State University ($2.4 million)

Allocations in the San Diego Region for Public Agencies

Public Agency

Number of Projects
Receiving Allocations

Total Allocation
for All Projects

City of Chula Vista

34 projects

$29,648,926

City of Lemon Grove

2 projects

$1,004,494

Fallbrook Public Utility District

1 project

$292,091

San Diego State University

1 project

$2,442,005

San Diego Unified School District

111 projects

$74,290,010

San Dieguito Union High School District

6 projects

$8,269,000

City of Santee

7 projects

$3,081,420

Santee School District

15 projects

$20,660,000

University of California, San Diego

15 projects

$14,961,540

Total for San Diego Region

192 projects

$154,649,486

 

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