RENew Santa Fe

Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs are working in concert with local energy businesses and WildEarth Guardians to develop a program that will chart the course for renewable energy development in Santa Fe. Ultimately, the REnew Project will produce a series of computer simulation models that will chart various energy scenarios for Santa Fe and provide a series of complimenting road maps for renewable energy implementation. This initial meeting will begin the process for the RENew effort. .

Numerous business interests, civic groups and citizens in Santa Fe, NM seek a relatively rapid, large-scale conversion in the city to greater energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, including, solar PV, solar thermal, wind, and geothermal. The major challenge associated with the rapid and efficient conversion to a low-carbon future at a citywide scale is the complexity of the relationships and interactions between power supply and demand, costs and benefits associated with non-renewable sources, energy efficiency and conservation, existing infrastructure and policies, changing demographics, natural and physical characteristics of the landscape and environment, social behavior, legal, policy and fiscal boundaries, and uncertainty in the future. Resolving some of this complexity will help allow more rapid, large-scale transformation to renewable energy in Santa Fe.

Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories will partner with key members of Santa Fe’s renewable energy business community, representatives from the city and state government, regional NGOs, and citizens, in a 2-3 year project to collaboratively develop a long-term (5-15 yr) plan for transformation of Santa Fe to renewable energy. Central to this planning process will be the collaborative, stakeholder-driven development of a computer simulation model that will help integrate data and knowledge from many different experts and resources, and that will lead to the development of a roadmap and policy recommendations for the transformation in the city to renewables.

WildEarth Guardians will serve as the liaison among participating individuals and groups. The collaborative model development process will include careful assembly of the collaborative stakeholder modeling group by WildEarth Guardians and partnering small businesses. The collaborative effort will yield not only a model, but greater understanding, insight and consensus among stakeholders as they evaluate competing long-term plans for Santa Fe’s conversion to renewable energy technologies. The process will include an integrated resource planning (IRP) framework, and thorough consideration of the future role for energy efficiency and existing energy infrastructures and sources. Stakeholders involved in the model development process will “own” the model, will understand how it was built, and will be able to use it and demonstrate it to others. The model will allow the simulation of many different energy futures in Santa Fe and allow stakeholders to evaluate costs and benefits of each. The model (and the collaborative process leading to it) will help stakeholders come to consensus on the best and most appropriate future development scenarios, and then provide them with a tool for demonstrating those scenarios to business leaders, policy makers, and others. The model will allow stakeholders to create an explicit roadmap for future development that can be used to guide the actual implementation, including both financial, policy and technical components.

Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories will collaboratively develop with regional stakeholders and with facilitation and other input from WildEarth Guardians a conceptual model of Santa Fe residential and commercial energy supply and demand dynamics including policy-related issues. The Laboratories will identify leading questions facing stakeholders on how the transformation of Santa Fe to varying levels of renewable energy could take place, identify data requirements for conversion of the conceptual model to a computer simulation model that will help answer those questions, and develop a high-level project plan for development of a computer simulation model and a roadmap (or maps) describing conversion of Santa Fe to renewable energy.

People who participate as stakeholders in the project should have expertise in one or more of the following areas: solar and other renewable energy system design, installation, materials production, procurement, financing, community planning. If you wish wish to participate, you should be able to commit to 2-3 hour meetings every 3 weeks, starting after this kickoff and continuing through September (approximately 8 meetings). Meetings will be held in Santa Fe. Occasional time will be spent between meetings in telephone or email communications.