President Announces $3.4B in Recovery Funds for Smart Grid
Oct 27, 2009
Speaking at a solar energy facility in Florida earlier today, President Obama announced that the federal government had awarded over $3.4 billion in Recovery Act grants for smart grid projects.
The funding, which the President described as the country's "largest-ever investment" in smart grid technologies, will be matched by industry funding for a total private-public investment of over $8 billion. The 100 grant winners include private firms, utilities, city governments and other partners in 49 states -- details are available in this PDF that lists the grant winners by funding category.
At the state level, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed into law a smart grid bill, SB 17, that tasks the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) with determining the requirements for a smart grid deployment plan by July 1, 2010 and also requires some utilities with developing smart grid plans by 2011.
CPUC commissioner Rachelle Chong hosted a roundtable discussion titled "Powering a Smart Grid Revolution" at Tech Policy Summit '09 earlier this year with executives from several smart grid startups. You can listen to a free podcast of the session in our Media Vault.
Tags:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, California, CPUC, DOE, energy efficiency, Rachelle Chong, Recovery Act, smart grid, Tech Policy Summit
