you're on renewable energy and energy
efficiency and it's very exciting times
for both in Virginia the energy team
within the Virginia Department of Mines
minerals and energy is growing to meet
the increased demand from Virginia's
solar it's exploded exponentially and
Wind Energy Industries this is a very
very exciting time and we're really
hoping that it's gonna bring a whole new
set of opportunities for the
Commonwealth 2020 legislation created
the division of offshore wind the
current focus workforce we're looking at
bringing a completely new supply chain
to Virginia but what's amazing about it
is that the skill sets that are gonna be
required for offshore wind are almost
identical to the skill sets that we've
been doing for 300 years
skills that's needed to construct
turbines are similar to those needed to
build ships and the industry needs a
good port
this gives the Commonwealth an advantage
offshore wind turbines will be much
larger than those you see here in fact
it takes about six thousand pieces to
assemble one the hope is those pieces
will be made at facilities across
Virginia giving the entire state an
economic boost falling prices and
growing demand has led to a dramatic
increase in the number of solar energy
installations there is record deployment
last year and they're looking at that to
continue into the future and I think
it's time for Virginia to start moving
in that direction the energy team serves
as the state solar experts currently
they are working to ensure energy from
renewables can be stored work is also
underway with other state agencies to
write the rules on permitting and
regulating a growing industry
expect more residential solar
opportunity soon the goal is to create
the structure and fund for funding low
to moderate income solar projects for
residents across Virginia that is the
task of the Clean Energy Advisory Board
staffed by the Energy team there's a
huge solar presence in the economic
development work of the agency as our
energy mineral mining and mine land
reclamation teams work to incorporate
renewable energy as a post mining
land-use try and increase our energy
presence in Southwest Virginia and use
that spread some of this activity some
of this work out there and take
advantage of that untapped market
potential meanwhile solar projects are
going up across the Commonwealth on
state facilities including those at
house DM and me those projects play into
the work of the Virginia energy
management program known as ven we
assist state agencies and localities
with energy savings projects to help
them reduce the energy consumption and
also reduce their energy billing state
agencies and localities can take part in
an energy savings performance contract
this helps with upgrades to facilities
for energy efficiency improvements such
as lighting or heating and cooling
systems the energy savings performance
contracting since 2002 we've done over
250 projects that's saved the
Commonwealth of Virginia over 900
million dollars a newly launched data
tool capturing energy usage at state
owned facilities is helping the team see
which facilities could use improvements
and it also helps them learn from those
who are doing a good job initially it
will for us but also the Energy Manager
of the agencies to go in and see how
their buildings are performing our
energy team is also prepared to prevent
blackouts through the demand response
program they work with state agencies
that can go off the grid during peak
times by using generators
the energy team is also helping private
businesses through a clean energy
financing program called commercial
property assessed clean energy or C pace
allows the locality to put a lien on the
property to essentially guarantee the
loan for the for the capital provider
and then the the property owner takes
out the loan and pays that back on their
property tax bill vehicles are another
focus the energy team is key in helping
to install proper infrastructure such as
alternative fueling stations or electric
vehicle charging stations and they even
have a role in helping farmers be more
energy efficient through energy audits
and demonstrations if we could show
people what a good idea is to do some of
these things then maybe they are more
likely to build those into their
operations 2020 is the year for change
at the division of energy which will
carry out very important work to help
the Commonwealth meet unprecedented
clean energy goals
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