KCCD's new energy lab looks to support 'Carbon Valley'

Sep. 11—The shorthand pronunciation has been set — "see-rehl" — but as an internet search term, the California Renewable Energy Laboratory hasn't gained much prominence yet. But just wait.

CREL aims to turn a $50 million line item in the current state budget into a workforce-training nexus for carrying out climate-friendly activities seen as driving California's energy future, with particular focus on carbon capture, renewable-power microgrids and clean transportation.

Formally established this summer at Kern Community College District, the institute brings together existing public and private initiatives — and with them, hopes that new challenges facing the county's economic drivers of oil and ag will coincide locally with new investment and quality jobs in the evolving field of renewable energy.

As such, CREL is expected to take a prominent place among Kern's growing "Carbon Valley" movement, whose other participants include city and county government, the local petroleum industry and an $83 million energy innovation center planned for Cal State Bakersfield.

"These are exciting times," said Tunde Deru, special projects consultant for KCCD's carbon reduction center of excellence, which will be housed at CREL.

Much about the organization's structure is still being decided as the institute's newly appointed director, former Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, meets with local stakeholders and begins to give form to CREL in the areas of budgeting, programming and academics.

Part of the vision has already been outlined, with plans for three centers of excellence devoted to clean energy and grid resilience, clean transportation and the California Resources Corp. Carbon Management Institute.

Each is expected to perform a range of educational activities, workforce development and "technology transfer" efforts that will commercialize new technologies. There also will be "living laboratory" demonstration projects to include a carbon-capture project at Bakersfield College and a microgrid system at BC's Weill Institute downtown.

CREL builds on existing partnerships and work that has already begun. KCCD's exclusive, years-old relationship with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is seen as offering local students of all ages, and the local community as a whole, exposure to the field's most promising technologies.

Money for the overall effort has been devoted from three sources outside the state budget.

In October, Bakersfield-based Valley Strong Credit Union pledged $2 million to form BC's Valley Strong Energy Institute, which continues to put on webinars introducing relevant energy topics to local audiences.

In August, Long Beach-based CRC pledged a total of $2.5 million to fund carbon management-related initiatives at KCCD and CSUB. Work at both schools is expected to complement the local oil and gas producer's plans for multibillion-dollar investments in what's called carbon capture and sequestration. Chevron and several other local oil companies are also planning greater involvement in CCS, which removes greenhouse gas from the atmosphere or a smokestack and injects it deep underground for permanent storage.

Non-monetary support came in March with the announcement of a federal grant offering KCCD and the city of Bakersfield assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy in designing and operating microgrid systems that would generate, store and direct power for energy networks serving local industry. (The county received a similar grant supporting its plan for a CCS hub in western Kern.)

As part of CREL's focus on workforce training, new educational courses are under development or will soon be offered at KCCD. Some are already available to students interested in installing electric vehicle charging stations.

CREL's first high-profile event is coming this fall with a two-day economic mobility conference scheduled for Oct. 25-26 as a kind of warmup to the California Economic Summit being hosted this year in Bakersfield. Addressing local economic implications of energy and climate resilience, the event will feature presentations by the state treasurer, the director of NREL, the vice chair of the California Energy Commission and the head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Parra sees CREL as taking a "holistic approach" to promoting renewable energy, with activities extending into advocacy in federal and state government. She called the lab part of a "one-stop shop where we are creating the future and engaging and being the future Carbon Valley of the state."

Pointing to local assets that range from industrial expertise to the right geology for indefinite storage of carbon, Parra noted Kern has been identified as ideal for public and private investment in CCS and renewable energy generation.

Now it's a matter of coordinating local efforts, she said, adding, "We've got it all so it's incumbent upon us to work together."

Deru, who has worked locally in solar and conventional energy, said the fields of renewable energy and carbon management are evolving quickly and so Kern must be ready with workers who are prepared for the path ahead.

"Our goal is to prepare the workforce of the future energy economy," he said.