Smart-grid plans entice Japanese - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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A memorandum of understanding signes in early Mayby Gov. Bill Richardsom and Toshihiro Nakai – Japan’sa minister of economy, trade and industrgy – could facilitate tens of millions of dollars in Japanese public and private investmenty in clean energyand “smartg grid” technology, said Tom Richardson’s science advisor, who is on loan from . The MOU doesn’ty contain funding commitments. But Bowles said both sidesd are now discussing concrete agreements to facilitate Japanese participationin smart-grifd projects that New Mexic hopes to launch with federal stimulus money.
“We’re working to close on binding agreements with the Japanese to providre financial resourcesand hands-on involvement in the installation, operatioj and performance analysis of smart-grid projects,” Bowles “Everybody is committed and working together to move We’re just hammering out the The MOU expresses both sides’ interes in collaborating on research and developmenty of clean energy and the smart It also calls for cooperation in the design and manufacture of emerginbg biotechnology, nanotechnology and informationn technologies.
The MOU came out of a three-da meeting in Albuquerque in April witha 40-member Japanese delegation of government officials and Bowles said the MOU is the first such agreement Japa n has signed with any state government. “It’a a real coup,” Bowles said. “Other states are perhaps makinh overtures tothe Japanese, but we’re the only stat in the U.S. now that has an MOU like this in The Japanese are attracted toNew Mexico’d abundant solar and otheer clean energy resources, and to its advancecd research capabilities at the national labs and They want to test and develop emerginf technologies by installing and demonstrating them in a new internationalo energy park.
“The challenge for smart grids is how to reliably incorporats renewables intothe system,” Bowles said. “Solarr and wind can vary a lot. We need to demonstrater a fully integrated system that can supply a constany sourceof power.” A lot of detailws must still be worked out for the Japanesw to install such technologies in an energy park, Bowlesz said. “Japanese companies will build and install thesolar panels, but we need to define who owns the grid and the powedr it produces, and who gets paid for it,” Bowlesa said. “All that needs to be workeed out.” The partners are holding video conferencea and scheduling visits byJapanese groups.
They want an agreement in placweby mid-June, when the releases its final guidelinesz for states to bid on stimulusd funding for smart-grid Bowles said. Japanese investment could help New Mexicomeet matching-fundc requirements for federal grants (see related story on page 6). Once detailse are finalized, it could mean a lot of Japanese said Stephan Helgesen of the EconomicDevelopmentg Department’s Office of Science and Technology. “Wde expect actual bricks-and-mortar investments to come from this,” Helgese n said. Long-standing relationships between the Japanese and the national labs in New Mexico helped facilitatethe MOU, Helgesemn said.
In fact, and Japan’s National Institute of Advancex Industrial Science and Technology signed a separate agreement on May 4 to conducy and share researchon photovoltaics, nanoelectronics, nanomaterials and computational investigations of the properties of materials, said Bob a senior manager at Sandia. “Oufr agreement and the state’s MOU with Japaj will enable strong collaborationon energy-relevant technologies,” Hwangg said. “Sandia will supporf New Mexico in all ofthese activities.
” Mushtaq project manager and senior researchere with the New Mexico Institute of Mininvg and Technology’s Institute for Engineering and Research said he expects the Japanese to test some technologiesd in the town of Playas in southern New The university owns the town and, with DOE is now testing smart-gried technologies there. “They want to work with us becaus there are very few places like Playasx that are set up to do this kindof real-worlc research,” Khan said.