thank you
so
all right we'll give it another minute
just I think we're almost at a quorum
Brandy but
um I want to give everybody till just a
minute after 10 to join
yeah I believe we have a quorum um Ryan
did you want to test your audio
I can hear you now I hope you can hear
me yes we can hear you now thanks I uh
had myself
not muted
and Brandi I don't Ryan I don't see
anybody from the
um council's office on with us am I
I just want to make sure we're doing the
kickoff of the virtual process correctly
so
I do not see Counsel on either okay nor
do I
going back and uh
looking at
anything we have to read in terms of
bylaws for the virtual meeting
foreign
okay I think we're in good shape I was
looking at those I think those are
mostly applied to when we have remote
participation for our in-person meetings
so for the 100 remote I think we are
okay
um so welcome everybody thank you for
joining
um we will do
um a roll call here in just a second so
we can have that down for the minutes
um but uh thank you for for joining
early in the year I think we have a
really nice agenda here to kick off
things and it's nice to be able to test
out the virtual option outside of uh the
covid um atmosphere but it's great to
see uh the participation here
um I did want to kick things off uh with
a safety message
um
since we're not driving or traveling I
we had one earlier this month in our
company I think is always good always a
good reminder at the beginning of the
year which is basically to kind of
declutter your workspace but also your
work tasks right so
um early in the year we're doing a lot
of wrap up from the previous year and
and preparation for the for the year
ahead I think that also applies to kind
of our our workspaces but also our work
processes so take a minute when you have
a chance
um always you know reducing
um safety risk doesn't necessarily
always apply to to physical impediments
when we're working in an office but it's
good to take some time especially at the
beginning of the year to look at
the area around where you work but then
also the process within
um that you work and just do a refresher
and a reminder of the importance of
safety as we head into the year
any questions on that
okay
um Ryan or Brandy I don't know which one
of you is going to take the lead on this
but do you want to do a roll call of the
authority members so we make sure we
have down who all is is present today
uh I can do that and
I have got them meaning being recorded
to help me in the future as well
uh and I'm Ryan I know it says I'm Aaron
we only have one WebEx account so that's
what's going on there
can we
is there any particular order you'd like
me to do this in or just get away let's
just go down and when if um just
acknowledge when you're here
um can we start with the two people
calling in a one to one number
you say oh one to one number correct
this is Erica gray I'm actually a public
and then I have a 180 number
uh
Andrew Hutton
uh April Wade
here
okay uh
uh Jeffrey Fox
here
um
Ken ball
here
Bill Briscoe
here
on caps here
Dan Stoddard
here
uh Larry Corky
Peter
uh Tom depante yep here uh Rich Diddams
here uh Gene gotchik here
uh Andrew Hutton oh I already called uh
Scott Coppell here Woody Lawman
here
Michael Lemke
here Randy Heflin but I'm here
uh Ben Stiller present
uh Gary Tepper here
and I know that Eric's not here and then
Wyatt uh tolk
I don't believe it's here either
okay and I think we have um David Essa
from the corporation commission correct
and we've got will Payne anybody else
that we missed that's on the line from
the public or otherwise
IC
and Braden yes I'll introduce you in a
second thank you
Mike Hatfield from Wise County
welcome Mike
good morning Chelsea Jenkins with
Commerce and trade
welcome Chelsea
okay
I think that's everybody so
um yeah welcome everyone I want to get
into our guest speaker right away we do
we have Braden Croy here
um from the Dominion Energy Innovation
Center
um so for those of you who may have may
not have met Braden
um he's a specialist in entrepreneurship
and program development
um and I I don't know Braden we met last
year I think at one of our vineca
meetings earlier earlier in the year but
there's a lot of interesting work going
on with the energy Innovation Center and
the spark initiative and so I'd reach
out to Braden earlier this month because
I thought it'd be worthwhile for this
group to be able to hear about some of
the programs they have going on that are
fostering some of the Innovation and
Entrepreneurship in the Commonwealth
especially in the space of energy
and I know Braden has picked up a
particular interest in kind of the
nuclear energy in Advanced Technologies
so he has a deep background in this area
of foster fostering entrepreneurs and
helping bring parties together I think
with our group there's a lot of
relevance in understanding the work
that's going on at the Innovation Center
and then also some opportunities that
are coming up where I think we can
participate so I'm going to turn it over
to Braden and then we'll get into the
rest of our our program after uh his his
presentation so Braden thank you for for
joining us and uh the floor is yours
absolutely
just one thing
um Braden's going to share some slides
um and I know sometimes they can be a
little hard to see but we will send
those out afterwards so everybody can
can review those after but yep over to
you Brandon I appreciate it um hello
everybody nice to be here uh really
great seeing so many faces some familiar
some very new as Tom said my name is
Braden Croy and I'm the program director
at the Dominion Energy Innovation Center
a quick intro background on me I've
spent my entire career in
entrepreneurship support predominantly
at Syracuse University
um and then also in various startup
Endeavors either of my own or what
brought me back to Virginia and Richmond
specifically was taking an account
executive role at a cyber security firm
before coming to the deic so I do have a
few slides I would love to just run
through with you guys
um and uh hopefully you can see that all
right and just give you a quick overview
of the Dominion Energy Innovation Center
um probably a lot of you haven't heard
of us we're a small non-profit based in
Ashland Virginia so right up 95 a couple
minutes but we were founded in 2009 as a
public-private partnership between
activation capital or what you might
know as the Virginia biotech Research
Park Authority down there in downtown
Richmond Dominion Energy Hanover County
in the town of Ashland with the goal of
supporting the high-tech entrepreneurs
is small business owners driving the
Innovations needed to achieve a net zero
carbon economy we primarily do that
through a phased approach taking
entrepreneurs and innovators all the way
from their idea stage in even pre-idea
stage through uh you know workshops and
ideation through acceleration and then
commercialization helping them get off
the ground with their idea and then move
through some of our programs
uh ways that we do this are through
one-on-one mentoring we have a stable of
subject matter expertise both inside of
Dominion Energy as well as across the
country and world we host a lot of
networking events different startup
events workshops and uh and then
technical assistance one-on-one the
primary way we do a lot of our work is
through one-on-one mentorship and
coaching with energy entrepreneurs
um we focus heavily in energy but we
also kind of work across the climate
Tech space so that could be smart
buildings smart infrastructure
um but we hit a lot of different
Industries and as related to the NECA
and the work that we do specifically in
the Commonwealth we look at everything
from power generation to energy storage
resilience and then like I said earlier
smart infrastructure and a lot of the
data analytics uh that's coming off of
our modern systems so very exciting time
to be in industry we're helping a lot of
companies and we get to see something
new every single day
we have about six thousand square feet
of co-working and light Workshop space
up in Ashland we welcome anyone to visit
us at any time this was the old fire
department uh they didn't Community
Theater and now energy co-working space
so it's bright it's vibrant it's always
something new going on in the space so
if you ever need some meeting space in
Hanover County
um feel free to reach out we we have
plenty of conference rooms plenty of
open work area we got some fast Wi-Fi so
we love telling our our entrepreneurs
and Community Partners make this space
your own it's all about whatever you
guys need uh we're here for
and to that we have a lot of different
partners across the broad spectrum so as
I said we were founded by Dominion
Energy uh activation Capital Hanover
County and the town of Ashland and they
still provide us funding
um but more and more we've been uh
pursuing funding uh either through the
Virginia Innovation partnership
Corporation
um or through the SBA and Department of
energy at the federal level and then we
partner up with a lot of local
organizations across the state uh to
really help get our entrepreneurs off
the off the ground whether that's
through incubation and uh Angel
Investing at Lighthouse Labs or Pilot
programs and and uh and opportunities
down in Southwest Virginia with energy
Delta lab and and we love working with
April Wade and so I just want to give
you a highlight on our major program uh
outside of spark which is coming up in a
couple of slides which I'm actually here
to talk about but are are our other
major programs the EIC accelerate so we
run an 18-week accelerator program where
we take up to eight companies each year
pair them up with Dominion internal
Dominion mentors uh and Dominion subject
matter experts to develop the business
case for some sort of utility Scale
Pilot program this could be around
Energy Efficiency this could be around
hydrogen production this could be around
Advanced analytics coming off of their
Cinco phasers and so
um we we looked broadly across the
country we find companies that are
solving problems that have an active
opportunity within the utility company
and then work 18 weeks to build the
business case pitch it up through
Executives and design with that pilot
project may look like we launched this
program in 2020 we've had 20 20 22
companies come through and this is
typically a series a Stage Company
that's coming into deic accelerate so
they've uh they've raised a few million
dollars coming into the program again
they're ready to do a utility Scale
Pilot
um and that's a key thing here as uh as
with spark you'll see we want to push
down the the kind of funnel we want to
push back into some of these more idea
stage some of these earlier stage
entrepreneurs and innovators to get them
up to a point of ready to Pilot things
with Dominion Energy or our Co-op uh
Partners or or really any any utility so
they've raised 132 million dollars to
date and employ about 490 individuals
across the country
um but today what I'm really excited to
talk about is the spark Virginia program
that we are just launching this year and
this was came out of funding that we've
received from the Department of energy
and their uh through their epic prize
Challenge and specifically we're looking
to deploy Capital that we've received
from the federal government to support
the nuclear hydrogen and Advanced Energy
entrepreneurs across the Commonwealth
because we really do believe that if we
want to achieve our Net Zero goals not
only locally but internationally we're
going to need nuclear and we're going to
need hydrogen and most importantly we're
going to need you guys we're going to
we're going to need everyone to make
these uh to get there and heavy industry
needs a lot of the these two systems
so the idea of spark originated as we
wanted to look down the down the capital
stack kind of down the entrepreneurial
journey and figure out how do we Inspire
educate seed and launch an entire new
cohort of energy entrepreneurs energy
has always been very hard energy takes a
long time there's long lead times as
well there should be it's such critical
infrastructure we can't just go
willy-nilly putting all these uh new new
things onto our grid or or new
technologies into our generation
stations however we believe that by
developing a series of programs that
takes individuals from University Labs
from National Labs from corporate labs
and provides them the tools to on-ramp
their their technology up to the point
of being able to do pilots work with
some of the large programs like every
get into the conferences like distribute
Tech that we can really accelerate this
cohort so kicking off in February query
is this first Inspire phase with the
series of innovation challenges these
are short 24-hour maybe only one day
types of innovation challenges where
we're bringing together that community
in each of the nine go Virginia regions
right now we have on the on the books
two of these Innovation challenges as we
pursue further funding we're going to be
hosting the first one at the VCU DaVinci
Center
and then the second one uh were uh
talking with Jefferson National Lab
right now over in the 757 Hampton Roads
area to host the second one there but
the idea being that we're going to host
a series of workshops we're going to do
some lab tours uh we're really going to
bring that Community together and then
also provide some unrestricted grants
not going to be a lot of money 8 500 per
per Innovation Challenge but get these
innovators get these engineers and
inventors thinking about what commercial
opportunity might exist for their lab
stage technology and then we're going to
work with Dominion Energy we're going to
work with our University partners and
National Lab Partners to develop an
energy entrepreneurship certificate
program uh focused on how do we bring
these folks who have raised their hand
as being interested in entrepreneurship
as a possible pathway for them
um or have become so enamored with their
technology that they really want to see
it put into Market uh will work to
develop an online certificate program
and then we'll provide some real seat
precede funding through a Statewide
business plan competition and I should
quickly mention that the goal is to host
each Innovation Challenge in the nine
different go Virginia regions so we'll
hit Coast to mountains uh Nova down to
down to Danville and everything in
between because we know that our
Workforce our energy Workforce is all
across the Commonwealth the
manufacturing opportunities aren't going
to be uh you know clustered in one
location and just the knowledge really
exists everywhere and we really want to
be use this as a as a tool to bring that
Community together have those creative
collisions and see something awesome
happen so we'll Host this uh Statewide
business plan competition uh be able to
give out a couple hundred thousand
dollars in very early pre-seed money uh
and then when these entrepreneurs are
ready to launch we have Partnerships for
them to go into our Virginia accelerator
Network work accelerators so Lighthouse
Labs 757 ramp Riot and there's a bunch
of other ones that are supported across
the state
um like I said this initial set of
funding is coming out of the Department
of Energy's office of Technology
transitions epic prize challenge we're
right now here at this design it phase
so we received fifty thousand dollars to
design these new energy entrepreneurship
programs the core here was the doe
wanted to see new innovation programs
new commercialization Pathways for our
innovators and so we're working to build
that cluster in the nuclear Advanced
nuclear and clean hydrogen space which
fits perfectly with what you guys are
trying to bring to Market fits perfectly
with what the governor is trying to
bring the market and we just want to be
one small piece of everything that's
happening in the Commonwealth I was born
and raised in Blacksburg and loved being
in Virginia love being a Virginian and I
couldn't think of a better place or a
better state to really see the this
energy transition take go to the next
level with our Advanced Energy Systems
and the efficiency and the kind of just
the common sense nature of it
um and so we're progressively moving
through these different phases of the
challenge we're also working with other
partners like vipsy and others to secure
additional funding
so be on the lookout for for more
Innovation challenges and and more
announcements around our energy
entrepreneur certificate program so
specifically coming up on March uh or
February 23rd and 24th is spark RVA at
the VCU DaVinci Center uh where open to
anyone drop in for one event drop in for
the entire thing but this will be a
Thursday evening kickoff to a Friday
evening judges and awards ceremony for
people who want to pitch their idea
um and really our goal is to award some
very early stage unrestricted grants I.E
free money uh to folks that are building
really cool technology in the clean
hydrogen in nuclear space we've
identified these kind of five broad
categories and this matches up with our
requirement from the Department of
energy to focus on hard tech areas and
by hard tech they typically mean
Hardware
um so we've put a focus on energy
production systems cryogenics and heat
transfer that also could mean uh
compression right a lot of a lot of
advanced compression technologies that
are coming to Market to try to make
hydrogen a little bit more efficient
volumetrically and then Alloys and
membranes as we look at how do we do
electrolysis or how do we filter some of
these how do we how do we deal with a
lot of the issues as well as storage and
transportation and then industrial
controls and sensors so if you uh if any
of your colleagues if any of your
mentees if anyone that you know is
working on early stage uh IP in this
area we would love to have them this is
more of an innovation showcase than a
than a challenge or a competition I'll
say because
um the the idea of the program is that
over uh 5 p.m Thursday to 5 PM Friday we
get people networking we get people
collaborating we get some educational
content out there so that these
innovators can answer three questions
about their about their technology so
what who cares and why you right so if
you can answer those three things in a
three-minute pitch you have a great
opportunity to win some money
um and then hopefully build on that with
other partners
um other funding sources
um and other types of uh collaboration
and so
um that's that's where we're at today uh
Tom I really appreciate you giving me
the opportunity to discuss the deic
discuss the spark program and if you
want to get involved you can join us as
a as a partner in a host location on on
our future Innovation challenges if you
want to speak or be on a panel or be a
judge or if you want to participate or
have friends family colleagues who want
to participate again the bar is super
super low come to some of the sessions
come to all of the sessions we just want
to get the community built and do our
small little part to decarbonize some of
the heaviest Industries in our state and
really do some common sense work around
Advanced Energy so I really appreciate
the opportunity and you're welcome to
contact me Braden Dom innovation.com you
can go to our website or we post a lot
of things on LinkedIn and are very
active on LinkedIn so find us there
great thank you Braden it's really it's
really interesting
um
I know um I have a question but I want
to open it up um to the rest of the
group if you want to um just raise raise
your hand and again we'll we'll share
those those slides from from Braden but
um does anybody have have a question
before I jump in here
we'll go Tom okay great Scott great uh
thanks for the presentation I'm I'm just
more curious
how much do you all follow I'll call
sort of what the market is saying or
what the demand signals are in terms of
you know this technology over that
technology considering it's such an
early stage I'm just curious how you
weigh those factors in and maybe maybe
you don't or maybe you do so again I'll
leave it up to you to answer but I
really am curious to yeah how that fits
it yeah I think that's a great I think
that's a great uh
Point Scott I I think as we develop
spark further into the business plan
competition into the accelerator Network
opportunities we'll be looking for more
of those uh kind of Market elements that
drive the actual kind of
commercialization pathway right now at
the very early stage with our Innovation
challenges we're just trying to get
people excited get people inspired to
think about their technology we know
that the runway is very long on on most
of these projects and I also think it
comes down to the pitch judges so our
panel of Judges uh for each of the
Innovation challenges will be made up of
Industry experts uh we have
um right now we have lined up hydrogen
expert from Dominion nuclear Innovation
expert from from dominion and we're
broadening that out as well
so that's where we'll kind of look as
the program Runner
um and kind of the aggregator of all of
that we don't want to specifically tie
ourselves to one technology but we would
rather see the market kind of make those
signals and so we would love to gather
from this group what are those
opportunities what are those challenges
where should those bets be placed
um because right now we're just kind of
throwing it all at the wall and as the
program develops I I suspect that those
kind of more targeted approaches will
will come to fruition
great uh other questions
can I ask a follow-up Tom go go for it
yeah so I'm curious if um as well if you
ever um you have two two separate ideas
two separate entities or organizations
or folks you know interested in in your
in uh your grants do you ever link
people up or go one step even further
and say man you guys should really talk
to these folks whether it's something
they're doing it you
Mason or framito or any of us you know
for that matter or any could be any
someone outside the nuclear space too if
it's like say solar or wind related yeah
absolutely we love playing that
connective tissue we're we're a small
organization uh please keep in mind that
we're totally separate from Dominion
Energy they do provide funding and we
are are named after them
um because they were one of our founding
Partners but our goal is to have those
creative collisions happen so if at VCU
we can get some researchers and some
entrepreneurs I you know having been in
the University environment for so many
years I know that sometimes your your
researcher and your faculty isn't the
best person to actually be the
entrepreneur nor do they necessarily
want to be that entrepreneur but if we
can connect them with those
entrepreneurial minded Hustlers
um if we can build those teams I would
love to see some team building come out
of this and and get those get those
startups off of the ground I think we're
taking a long-term view here and also
recognizing that it's going to take a
lot of different people at the different
tables
um and so part of this uh My Hope in
doing each of these in the different
um go Virginia regions is to start
seeing where there's overlap where's
their where where there's collaborative
opportunity
um and then bring those different
parties to the table to kind of have
that tie raise all boats
other questions
so I I've kind of one for clarification
Braden so you talked about the
um the event of ECU and you're looking
at one
um potentially with with Jefferson lab
and wanting to do one in all the go
Virginia
um regions what's the is there a
timeline on the grant the doe Grant or
um a time frame for for doing all this
to kind of get launched and then
kind of what can you talk a little bit
about what the subsequent phases might
be
um for the program
absolutely yeah so we're actively so the
Epic challenge is uh subsequent
application so we're think of it as
phase one right now
um our phase two application is due
March 28th
um and then there'll be a phase three
six months later where we'll know that
we're actually structuring this program
as at least a three-year program and
that's what we're going out and raising
money around is to be able to do this
full cycle so Regional Innovation
challenges certificate program in state
business competition all within 12
months each year for at least three
years so that we're always trying to
find and seed and build that Community
uh in a in a kind of ongoing manner so
this isn't like a one and done type of
thing we actually see this being an
annual cycle of supporting our energy
entrepreneurs in the state
that's great
I think one thing we may think about and
I would encourage everyone on the
authority you know you'll have Braden's
contact information I think there's one
of the when we had this conversation
before the meeting I immediately jumped
to the person within you know framitome
that would be great to link up with
Braden as you know an ongoing kind of
participant in some of these activities
um I I think I would encourage everyone
else to to kind of think about think
about the same
um but Braden one thing we may want to
consider is as you move through this
this process it probably would be good
to just get a you know maybe it's an
annual update on how you know how things
are going what some of the outcomes are
because I think there's some some real
opportunity here
um and a great uh collaboration I know
you're you're working closely with April
which is which is great
um and then but I think keeping the
authority updated would would be really
really helpful so
um I I love that idea and I think one of
my goals is for each within each of the
challenges to be able to kind of codify
the different innovations that we're
seeing and almost have a landscape kind
of like being Echo puts out in their
annual report or maybe April puts out in
her annual report I'm sorry if I I don't
know exactly what organization puts out
the nuclear inventory
um but almost have something like that
around what are we seeing at the lab
stage what are we seeing in the in the
across the Commonwealth as just a really
interesting way to see where we're going
you know what's going to be coming out
of our public universities out of our
research institutions in the state just
to keep an eye on what that pipeline
looks like because those will ultimately
be the entrepreneurs that we want to
keep in the state that we want to grow
in the state that really make us uh that
that that place that's open for business
and I think that fits with a lot of
goals
um up and down the up and down the
Commonwealth
absolutely
great any any other questions before we
let let Brayden go
okay well well thank you again for for
joining us Braden we'll we'll definitely
stay in touch um and everybody look for
the the materials coming out after the
after the meeting and um please do uh
either get in touch with with Braden
yourself or if there's someone in your
in your organization that would be good
to link up with him I think there's some
some great opportunity there so thanks
again
I really appreciate it thanks Tom and
thanks everyone for for listening would
love to connect with you afterwards
thanks
all right so
um
I think our next uh agenda item we're
gonna have
um will clear what what
um Ryan and I had talked about was
um having kind of a standing um couple
of agenda items following on our our
meeting in in November
um with everything going on around the
the energy plan
um but then also the activity in in
Southwest Virginia we thought it would
be good to give you know kind of Will
and will the opportunity as as needed to
provide any updates
um I don't think um will Payne could
join us today
um but I think we're going to hear from
um April on a lot of the legislation
that's that's starting to move um in the
in the session
um that came out of things Ryan did you
have have something and Larry here is
here to provide an update if you have
any questions or Curiosities yeah and
and I did want to um give Chelsea the
opportunity
um if there's anything you know we've we
had a great briefing um in November on
the energy plan
um and there's been a ton of momentum
out of that which is really exciting for
for the Commonwealth and and nuclear but
um if there's any specific questions
from the authority that that follow that
or any of the
um follow-on
um activity that's happened since then
like I said we'll have more of a
discussion on on legislation
um coming up but um we do have yeah
Larry here from Virginia energy
um that could that could answer any
questions
and and Tom um Payne's on the phone but
clear is not
yes correct I I'm gonna get Will's next
on the on the agenda
okay so unless there um our questions I
do want to um give um will Payne um just
an opportunity if there's some updates
um on the activity in in Southwest
Virginia since since we last
um spoke I think one of the things we
talked about coming out of the meeting
is making sure that that finaca and um
Delta labs and and the the work in
Southwest is is staying closely aligned
so will I appreciate you joining us
um and yeah I'll turn it over to you for
kind of the the update there sure thank
you Mr chairman oops
um appreciate the opportunity to be here
uh I did talk to will clear I know he's
now his acting director of Virginia
energy is running around
um like a crazy man uh in the general
assembly or in the Patrick Henry
buildings or wherever the building is
whatever it's called now these days
um so uh he was going to work with me on
this but I uh prepared a little bit I
just want to give you an update on
on some a couple of recent projects
we've been pursuing and one with um with
April so uh just as a reminder the Delta
lab is a partnership of Virginia energy
invest Southwest Virginia and economic
development
um organization and then the Southwest
Virginia energy r d Authority we and I'm
glad Mike Hatfield from Wise County is
uh is is on this as well Mike uh has
been an incredible partner for us
um and we recently filed a
um
there's a new a new opportunity uh with
the Department of energy Virginia
Department excuse me the U.S department
of energy all the great Innovation
program
and
um you know let me just give you some
background here
uh
you know Wise County
has
potentially the you know the greatest
opportunity to you know deliver on this
the clean energy goals
um and uh you know for for the
Commonwealth and and be a place for
um you know for projects to locate uh
where not only do you have robust uh you
know Power Water land remote locations
but also access to to you know great
educational opportunities from K-12
through Community College and higher ed
as well as your transportation networks
and housing it's it's an ideal location
at the same time a lot of Mike
Hatfield's land is tied up in
um large land holding you know companies
and and probably over
I don't know 200 000 acres is probably
tied up we're working with
um a big swath of land 65 000 acres in
Wise County right now is in China
identify pieces working with Virginia
energy that serve as test bed locations
and currently have one that's a couple
thousand acres and working on one that's
four thousand acres and as you know as
you know as VDP and the Commonwealth are
focused on developing these business
ready sites we're working a
complimentary way to develop you know
we'll consider energy ready sites
um and so this you know the the
opportunity is you know we've got
projects today whether it's hydrogen
storage geothermal cooling with you know
data centers a couple of those wind uh
pretty big wind project and a bunch of
solar it's about 2.36 billion dollars
worth of projects
uh you know all of course some due
diligence phase and I like to be
optimistic I think we're going to score
100 of these and it's a game changer
um you know and this is in a region that
you know where there's 100 000 Acres of
previously mined properties so
um all of these projects you know we've
we've vetted the the locations for these
and the assets that are required for
them to be successful now the challenge
of say and that leads us to this grid
Innovation program
um concept paper we put together and we
hope that we'll be encouraged to follow
up with a a full application there is a
second round if if we don't uh if we are
not encouraged and we get some feedback
that we can use for the second round
the challenge is Southwest Virginia
you're the tail end of of three
utilities you have Kentucky Utilities uh
Old Dominion power you know that's uh
you know in in Wise County and most wise
counties in that territory
um AEP has a large area of course in the
region and then you have Tennessee
Valley Authority
uh TVA now
um the challenge you know AEP of course
has access to pjm the regional
transmission organization very important
for uh Power or energy power generators
and and to if you're for our one project
to put that power on the grid
um now
[Music]
um
Kentucky Utilities is not and
don't think they plan to be
um so we've identified about a gig of of
you know clean energy production uh in
this in this territory and what we need
is about a 20 mile transmission line
extension to to get to pjm so this is a
grant that we've
yeah we think have a price tag of 100
million dollars half of it needs to be
you know matched
and we believe a combination of
um our projects
um putting a private Capital
um some bonds and some other federal
dollars that we can reach 50 million
dollars should we be successful in this
next round
and encouraged to do an application
um and so that's the that's the strategy
here where you see this transmission
line
um you know it it goes right through uh
all of the energy sites that we've
identified for the Delta lab and we'll
be uh you know a game changer and is and
currently uh I would say it's a
roadblock to to projects
um
in general but it may prevent a project
or a couple projects we're still able to
I think with the projects are working
today we can certainly move forward
without this transmission line so I have
like a big glare here uh without the
transmission line but
um uh it'll unlock the incredible
potential here and and Wise County will
be certainly on the map for you know
future projects
so we we hope to find out soon so the
other update is a couple different doe
uh grants now the first one we worked
with well first I don't know if there
are any questions on the the first part
before I I touched on this clean energy
uh Coalition prize
what's will remind what was the timeline
for
the application and and when you hear
back sure we should uh I believe that
we'll hear in a couple months
um
um for the next phase to be you know
encouraged to do an application and and
we've we've talked to our federal
legislators and and asked them to to
advocate for this so this is uh the most
important thing we could do right now
what's the what's the doe office that it
is they're they're running it through is
it uh demos or is it a different office
it's
um uh give me a second here I know I'm
trying to think
um
uh
uh a year old on
that's right I know they have like a
dozen um yeah I don't know I cannot
remember
um which one it is
okay maybe if you if you get a chance
afterwards you could you could send we
could send that around I just know
there's a lot of folks that have regular
interactions with doe it's always easy
to put in a plug if oh yeah
we'll send it right uh I had a call with
uh Department energy last week I was
going to follow up with them
uh
Deputy Katie Huff if you want to talk to
our we kind of briefly talked about this
in our conversation and I need to follow
up with her and her team on a couple
other things regarding uh grants
um I could say right now it's the
the grid deployment office
okay a doe right
um all right so the other one's kind of
exciting and we'll we'll find out on
February
third when is that is that Friday so
April and I in a matter of uh 24 hours
uh put together a uh concept paper or
maybe it was a full-on application for
you know this doe has a bunch of these
uh prizes
um and we're working on this this other
one at the bottom of the of the page
here but this first prize uh is an
opportunity for
um the uh or v-neck and the Delta lab
you know to work together around a
Workforce
um you know Challenge and so this
um
in April you have to you may want to uh
if you have anything to add here but
what we identified
um you know an opportunity to create and
everyone has to create some sort of
Workforce partnership so this is the
really long and weird you know Southwest
Virginia partnership for energy
Workforce Development you know coalition
uh to develop a regional growth cluster
supporting Workforce Development you
know in clean energy
um and and you know the funding is not
huge I think you know sometimes I would
say sometimes it's not worth applying
for anything under a hundred thousand
dollars but in this case I think it's
worth it
um uh and I think that we would you know
work with existing infrastructure that's
in place and we have a really strong
partnership among the K-12 school system
community colleges and some of the four
public and private four years I think so
building on that existing infrastructure
that exists and the cooperation they
have today we would identify
um you know a project lead a director
you know for regional clean energy
Workforce Development
um put together the Coalition that's
what this next phase is uh
um and you know there's three different
levels for this and so I think the first
round is 50 or 75 000 and it gets a
little bit bigger
um and and essentially develop a
strategic plan around coordination in
this industry you know the uh the region
of course had had long had uh you know
annual you know energy week and it was
around you know the fossil fuel industry
and we think that we can
uh you know our our mission here would
be to make sure that we educate young
people on the opportunities around the
projects that we're pursuing today and
that it's not pie in the sky that we're
pursuing these projects today and that
there are
um you know ways that they you can be
educated in the region stay in the
region and have a long-term high-paying
job that's you know usually in this case
two to four times the Region's average
um and I think that'd be great to bring
back that that uh work for sale
development push uh and more of a
awareness campaign for young people
April anything that you would add to
that
uh no I think that's right on
what our plan was and just to know I
mean and go into more when I do my
section but um also working with the
Department of Education on some other uh
Outreach efforts regarding Workforce
um throughout the state and in the
Southwest
excellent well there's another uh prize
that's that's been announced and I think
there's a webinar on Wednesday
um and this allows us through the Delta
lab to kind of you know our model really
is we because of you know the the
territory there access to
uh to you know federal dollars for coal
impacted communities the model is being
able to draw down those dollars and and
use that as a as a you know multiplier
to bring in
um you know private capital and so this
energizing rural communities prize you
know has two different tracks you know a
partner track with a pool of money to
support you know plans to connect you
know Rural and remote communities to
technical assistance and funding things
like that but what we'd like to do is
develop uh or kind of think through and
and and further develop our our the
business model we have for the Delta lab
with the finance track and that has you
know about five million in in um in in
total cash they're available to support
you know I think developing
this you know access to Capital you know
model
um and help us identify more more
Pathways and that includes you know on
the the venture capital and private
Equity path
and I think that uh
completes my update
thanks well that's that's really helpful
are there any any questions for will and
I think it will make sense it'll make
sense to keep you on the uh agenda and
get the updates there's a lot going on
this is great
any questions
okay
um well I will then let's kick it over
to April
um who's got some updates on the lot
going on in the legislature and then
also with the
um with the Hub we I think we got the
materials out um before and some
feedback already but April let me turn
over to you
thanks Tom
uh yeah this is probably the busiest
legislature
um we've ever had
um there's a lot of nuclear bills this
year
um big ones that were following as HB
2386 in Senate bill 1464. that's the
Virginia power Innovation funding
program those bills actually put in the
vehicle for the 10 million dollars the
governor pledged for supporting
Innovation grants and plus 5 million to
support the Hub
so we've been following supporting those
bills and following them
so far so good
um we do have uh one Senator trying to
take that 10 million and
um
kind of focusing it in another area but
I think we'll end up okay but we still
have some work to do
on that
um and then
um we had HB 2311
but that bill now has merged with uh but
that was from delegate Kilgore but that
bill is now merged with uh House Bill
2197. uh Kathy Byron this bill is
updating their renewable energy
portfolio standard
um
we added Advanced nuclear technologies
and hydropower to the bill so um
we know that that bill has a long road
to go but so far we've you know made it
past subcommittee uh hopefully we'll be
in committee this week There's no
companion on the Senate side so
we'll be
crossovers this week so it'll we still
have a lot of weight a long way to go
with that bill but I'm happy where it's
at right now
um House Bill 233 it establishes a small
modular nuclear reactor pilot program
um
that bill has not been heard yet in
committee it should be a subcommittee
tomorrow
and committee I'm not sure how it's all
going to work but that the time is
running out on the house side
um that bill is
um Patron by delegate uh Danny Danny
Marshall it's not a bill that I
um have that we necessarily put in but
we are supporting it
um so let you know how that goes
um a couple other bills that have popped
up during the session
um there's a nuclear education grant
funding program uh Patriot and O'Quinn
has that bill
um that bill is setting up a vehicle for
a fund to for money to go in to support
higher ed and nuclear education there's
no money behind that bill this year but
it is
um they are just putting the fund
together so later on when I talked to
delegate or Quinn about this the thought
process is that you know we will have
this in place if it makes it through and
we can have come up with a plan later
for funding that's needed
um also uh Delia Quinn he had another
bill for a revenue sharing agreement
between Advanced nuclear technologies
and advanced reactors and counties
um in the southwest
um and so
I think that bill is doing pretty well
again it's a bill that we're watching
we're supporting but I'm not active on
it
um
those are the those are really the the
big bills that um that regarding new
products going on will Payne he has a
bill in for his Southwest
um
research and development Authority
um they updated some wording in that and
they have added a nuclear there so we're
supporting that bill as well
but those are pretty much that is the
legislation we have going on
um any questions
good
um so did I did I put in a p just a
pitch this is for
um
for April she's working the halls and
doing a great job in Richmond on behalf
of a lot of these I know will and
Brayden will just wait in um there I as
your organizations if you've got folks
that are um you know in in Richmond and
working on various pieces of legislation
please make sure to connect them with
April so that we can broaden the support
for these bills I know there's been
really solid
um stakeholder support for for the
legislation but as it continues to move
through the process it's it's really
helpful so
um I know April keeps the the v-neck
board and her members informed and
there's there's folks there but if
there's others that aren't on the board
but you want to have your organizations
get involved please put them in touch
with April because all the help and all
the support helps
and I'll send Ryan the list of these
bills he and he can send them out to you
also you guys can keep updated to date
on where they're at but uh and if you're
interested for me just to email you
directly please let me know as well
um there is a um there's a lot going on
and I've you know last week was a busy
week I expect
um this this week is going to be a
little insane because a crossover
um
and then when we get to the Senate side
it's gonna you know it's not gonna be an
easy Row for any of our bills to get
through
um I do feel confident on the funding
um but you know we still have some work
to do there we do have some really good
support in the Senate
um and I I think we'll make it through
but it's just gonna it's gonna take a
little bit of um being there and making
sure that they've here um so our support
and one good thing about the legislature
this year and due to covet
um you can put comments online or
participate virtual in meetings
if I could I just like to say on behalf
of Virginia Tech we certainly very much
appreciate the work that you're doing on
behalf of the Virginia Innovative
nuclear Hub something that we are very
supportive of uh we do uh believe that
um with this level of State support we
can become one of the top states in the
country in terms of nuclear research so
very excited about this opportunity and
appreciate the work that you're doing on
behalf thank you thank you and you know
thank you for your team in Richmond too
they they do stand up and support the
legislation it's really helpful
foreign
so
um on to the hub
The Proposal is done I'm done
I I know there are some edits a couple
edits and we can make those I know there
was one point that was made about adding
something in about the governor's energy
plan
um I don't think it's necessary at this
point just because we're we're all
working towards helping supporting the
governor's energy plan and he's been
supporting us as well in our efforts so
um and so I I would love approval that
you know with the minor editing edit
changes that have been provided that we
can get this submitted and I can we can
be done with the proposal it's only been
two years
um so yeah so Ryan had sent around
um the
um let's call it near final or final
draft from from April I know yeah final
I know Andrew had sent
um um back some some a few edits
um that I know April has received were
there any other comments or
um
or comments from from The Authority
because I do we would like a um
to move to to approve that as final and
and keep the Hub process moving forward
okay with that
um do I have a motion to approve yep
Andrew you're on mute
okay so Andrew has moved to approve the
proposal
um from from v-neck on the on the Hub do
I have a second
second
Randy with a second
um all in are actually I think Brandy do
we need to do the roll call vote on this
one
yeah since we're online
um I think it prudent to do the roll
call on that
uh Ryan can you lead the the roll call
vote for for the authority members I can
thank you
all right uh
and sorry if I what's your name uh
Jeffrey Fox approve
uh Ken ball
I uh Bill Briscoe
I
John Capps
I and Stoddard
hi Larry Corky
aye
Thomas uh you know that rich Diddams
uh Gene gretchik hi
uh Scott Koppel
aye Woody Lawman
Michael Lemke
Randy Heflin
hi
Tim stooler I Gary Tepper
hi
that should be it
did I miss anyone
um I think you have to register me as an
eye too okay
but I think um with that the I eyes have
it so that is approved April go fourth
and Implement now right congratulations
um was there was there anything else
from the from the v-neck side that we
needed to update on yeah and I'm gonna
go back I'm gonna follow up with the Hub
more
um the v-neck board um voted last
end of last year to put together a
committee between industry and
universities to develop the governing
documents
um for the Hub so they're in the process
of putting that together now
um we hired um Bob Bailey some of you
may remember have used to sit on the
board as the authority as well to help
us walk through those documents so
um excited to have him but I decided to
have the industry and the universities
working together on this part of it so
that's where we're at there
um
I mentioned it earlier uh briefly that
I've been talking to the Department of
Education about putting some programs in
regarding
um with their work based learning
program with middle schoolers and high
school students hopefully by the next
meeting I'll have more to report on that
but I'm pretty excited about the
some of the things that we may have
going on to get to younger students
about how and what it's like to work in
the nuclear industry and what
opportunities there are
um
and then I I need to get another meeting
with the working group
um for the advanced nuclear
um I hopefully I'll get that set here
next couple weeks
um but that will be going on as well to
get an update and keep working on our
priorities on what we need to do
um then we're still working with the
Virginia Economic Development
partnership I'm putting together
um their value statement I think they're
pretty almost done but there's still a
few companies that will be reaching out
to and we'll probably we'll do an event
with them sometime this spring to and
announce that and possibly do some other
meetings
see that is everything right now
um it's just exciting times so it's been
a lot of fun and um you know still work
with it closely with the governor's
office really appreciate their guidance
and support
um they've been great to work with and
they're very excited we brought in the
nuclear Innovation Alliance to give them
briefings on different Technologies and
the nuclear regulatory process
and they all stayed awake through all of
it
great any questions
yep go for it
thank all of you and especially April I
I joke with April that we need to get
her an office in the Patrick Henry
building because
how often we rely on her right now and
she she's definitely been working the
Halls too in Pocahontas and
and you know the last minute last
weekend when we asked some of you all to
kind of help us with the work through
the surprise with the power Innovation
Hub
um and that twist uh it's it's
incredibly meaningful and helpful and
you know the governor and the whole team
were really excited about kind of taking
this to the next level and
you know obviously also kind of
developing the road map for
um site selection
determining what partners and
um you know kind of putting some more
things on paper especially in terms of
costs I think that that's probably one
of the things that we've been talking
about the most especially with some of
the bills in the legislature so I just
want to thank all of you we appreciate
the decades and Decades of work and no
we have a lot of work ahead but but it
sounds like you're you're all up to it
so thank you
thank you Chelsea
um one other thing to know I'm pretty I
can't believe I didn't mention top right
off because it's the first time since
covid but
um those of you remember before covered
we did a yearly visit with students from
VCU or ANS
um to come to the legislator legislature
um that Pro that project is starting
again this year we will have VCU
students and Liberty students I have
reached out to Virginia Tech working a
couple of another program to give them
to do some Outreach with legislators
um but so I'm excited to have that
starting again
foreign
yeah that's great
any other questions for April
okay
thank you
um so the next thing is we have the
minutes that were sent out from the
November meeting did anybody have any
um edits to those that we need to
incorporate
all right
um then otherwise can I uh get a motion
to approve the minutes
so moved
Michael Lemke thank you second second by
Scott okay great
um Ryan I think we need to do the the
roll call again
uh
Jeff Fox
hi
uh Ken ball
I bill Briscoe hi John Capps hi Dan
Stoddard
aye Larry Corky I rich dittms
Gene gretchek
aye Andrew Hutton yeah hi
Scott Coppell
aye uh Woody Lawman
uh
Tim stooler
I
Gary Tepper hi
and then Tom
hi
okay
so I just had a couple of updates but I
also wanted to open it up for for any
other member updates I think the key
thing at least at the the federal level
as we've obviously seen uh turnover in
the leadership in the house over the
past couple weeks that has meant we
finalized the leadership on the key
committees and subcommittees of
importance to nuclear
um the the takeaway I think here is we
maintain a lot of strong supporters and
knowledgeable people in the
um
in the leadership positions of of the
Energy and Commerce Committee the House
Appropriations Committee even though
there's obviously not only just party
changeover but you actually have
subcommittee changes
um in the case of the energy and water
Appropriations Committee with Mike
Simpson who is a
long time installer supporter of nuclear
energy moving over to Interior but being
replaced by Congressman Chuck Fleischman
who represents Oak Ridge National Lab
and is very knowledgeable and deeply
supportive of of nuclear energy issues
so I think we're in in very good good
shape with the with the changes I think
it just kind of underscores
the growing kind of bipartisan support
for for nuclear energy so even when you
have a significant change
um in house leadership
um kind of nuclear soldiers on which is
which is great
um
and then beyond that I think you know
we're going to roll into kind of a an
interesting budget season with the with
the backdrop of whatever happens with
the debt ceiling debate so
um we'll have more updates
um but Doe's got its hands full anyway
with implementing all the the funding
that's gotten over the past past couple
years
um so there's there's plenty to do
theirs I think you know will in April
have highlighted as well
so with that are there any updates from
Authority members that you'd like to to
brief everyone on
here today
okay not hearing any
um I'm gonna ask Ryan
um in um for our to to do a doodle Poll
for our second quarter meeting I think
we'll Target obviously after the the
legislative session so we can get an
update on kind of things where things
shake out um that will be an in-person
meeting so
um we'll Target that for the Richmond
area
um probably sometime in the you know
April May
time frame but we'll we'll send that out
and get that on the calendar
um as as soon as we can
are there any other comments or or
questions from the from the authority
members before we go to the comments
from the public
okay
um if anyone would like to make public
comments we'll open that up now if you
can raise your hand or let us know and
we'll go from there
Eric are you still on
um
all right I'm not hearing any comments
but I think
Eric I still see your phone number so
just maybe on mute if you wanted to make
any comments
hello can you hear me okay yep we can
hear you go ahead yeah uh it's on y'all
Dan y'all needed to meet somebody on
muted me finally because I was trying
desperately to click over so anyway uh
yeah Erica gray Henrico Virginia
um I I want to ask I mean this is the
first time
um we've done an um like a a phone
meeting
um I didn't know we could do those when
did that change
uh yeah that changed um last year after
the the legislative session there's um
allowances for uh virtual meeting
um I think it's once maybe twice twice
per per year now so this will be one of
ours okay yep all right well that I
guess that's pretty convenient then
um I would like
um because I'm not there in person and
because uh that seemed to be very
difficult uh for me to get in on that
link was like crazy long
uh to get like to be able to do it on
the computer so that's why I had to call
in on the phone be nice if you got to do
um phone calls to maybe make that a
little bit clearer a little bit easier
than um that link y'all gave was crazy
um anyway
um since I can't like see the
presentation
um I too would like to have
um sent to by email minute
and the notes
um and the slides as well please
and I'd also like to know I mean
obviously
I don't know who was talking about the
legislation if that was April or brandy
um I'm not sure why um it was just
talking about the the patron that's
carrying a bill and not actually
mentioning the number I'm not sure but
um yeah I can see that there's plenty of
nuclear energy bills and the way they're
written I'm not sure how many of these
will pass or not uh the issue at hand
really is is the Virginia at large
doesn't it's not really aware of of what
y'all are trying to do as it goes for
small modular reactors and you know
putting them into different communities
or planning to and you know regardless
of what y'all say the nuclear energy is
not renewable and y'all still have a
trash problem in nuclear ways we don't
have a solution for it and so I guess
you guys want to just keep on going or
maybe it's just a cash cow it keeps
getting all that free money in free
prizes and so forth but that's really
not caring about
Virginians at large or the people in the
communities that would have to house
something that only exists on paper
that's not vetted so
um you know I guess I I've already done
my share of reaching out to my Senator
and my delegate and I'm going to
continue to uh
promote that others do the same
that's all I have to say thank you
yes please send me the the today's
meeting I'd appreciate that very much
okay
thank you are there any other
comments public comments today
okay not seeing any
um thank you everybody for joining us
I'm glad we could do the the virtual
meeting
um we will be in touch about uh the
second quarter meeting and uh with that
we are adjourned thank you great thank
you thank you Tom thanks everyone thanks
Tom thank you
foreign
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I can't boot you if you'd like
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