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Sen. Reid Secures Nearly $300 Million for Energy and Water Projects in Nevada
[July 23, 2010]

Sen. Reid Secures Nearly $300 Million for Energy and Water Projects in Nevada


(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) WASHINGTON, July 22 -- The office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued the following news release: Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced more than $295 million for Nevada clean energy, water and national security projects in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill that was approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations today. In addition to the $2.5 million that will be provided to shut down Yucca Mountain, many of these projects will put Nevadans back to work and provide a boost to the state's economy. An amendment to provide $200 million to restart the Yucca Mountain project was offered during the markup and failed.



"In addition to funding projects that are building Nevada's clean energy industry and improving water infrastructure, this bill will help put Nevadans back to work, diversify our state's economy and help carry out the shutdown of Yucca Mountain," Reid said. "These are crucial funds that will help our state. I will continue fighting to ensure Nevada gets its fair share and never has to worry about becoming the nation's nuclear dumping ground." The breakdown of appropriations is as follows: * Yucca Mountain - $0 (funding will only support shutdown activities) * Clean Energy and Science - $21.85 million * Water Infrastructure - $38 million * Solar Demonstration Zone at NTS - $50 million (programmatic) * NTS Mission Expansion - $43.16 million (programmatic) * Desert Terminal Lakes Protection - $92.5 million (allocation of 2008 Farm Bill funding) * Rural Nevada Water Infrastructure Authorization - $50 million (authorization) The full list of funding included in the bill is below: PROJECT FUNDING Clean Energy and Science ($21.85 million) Project: Advanced Computer Simulation Initiative Requestor: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Location: Clark County Amount: $1,000,000 Description: This initiative will provide UNLV with unique hardware, robust software, and essential infrastructure resources in support of the University research community. The initiative will offer the University's research community and visiting researchers with the ability to visually analyze and compare results of advanced computer simulations.

Project: Alternative Energy Medical Complex Requestor: Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: Funding will install a solar photovoltaic system at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and integrate an advanced regenerative fuel cell system providing the system with greater flexibility. The system would be a showcase project in downtown Las Vegas, serving as an educational facility for patients and the surrounding community. The system will also serve as a backup generator for the Clinic, providing needed redundancy in the event of grid failure.


Project: Biofuel from Nevada's Municipal Wastes Requestor: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: To steam treat municipal wastes as a feedstock for biofuel production. Treatment of municipal waste with high pressure steam is not done in the US currently. UNLV has already secured the support of Republic Services, a major waste hauler, to provide source material for research.

Project: Collaboration on Renewable Energy Job Creation Strategies Requestor: Renewable Energy Accelerator 250 Location: Washoe County Amount: $300,000 Description: To generate collaborative, business-focused solutions to complex challenges that have arisen as we develop a new renewable energy economy. The Think Tank will provide support for Nevada's urban corridors and rural communities.

Project: Development of Nontechnology-enhanced Solar Cells with Low Cost and High Conversion Efficiency Requestor: University of Nevada, Las Vegas Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: To design new nanostructured architectures and molecular assemblies for the next-generation of solar cells. The concept is to develop nanoassemblies using electric fields for harvesting energy from sunlight.

Project: Great Basin College - Direct Use Geothermal Demonstration Project Requestor: Great Basin College Location: Elko County Amount: $1,000,000 Description: To create an opportunity for sustainable professional, technical and skilled and unskilled labor jobs and, through education and training, help to develop the regional workforce by enhancing and expanding an existing geothermal heating system serving four public agencies in Elko.

Project: Las Vegas Residential Energy Efficiency Program Requestor: City of Las Vegas Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: To launch a Sustainable Neighborhood Pilot Program that will perform residential energy efficiency audits and retrofits, and renewable energy installation, particularly for lower income families. This program will improve social equity in the City's older neighborhoods, while also serving as a demonstration for the larger neighborhood and increasing the sustainability of the larger community.

Project: Nevada Renewable Energy Consortium Requestor: Desert Research Institute Location: State-Wide Amount: $3,000,000 Description: The Nevada Renewable Energy Consortium is an association among the three Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) research institutions that will engage in mostly applied research activities designed to advance renewable energy technologies from lab scale to demonstration and commercialization.

Project: Nevada Renewable Energy Innovation and Development Cluster- Technology Commercialization and Site Development Requestor: Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization (NIREC) Location: State-Wide Amount: $3,000,000 Description: A broad coalition of statewide stakeholders (UNLV, UNR, DRI, NDA, & EDAWN) are collaborating to create and grow two large-scale renewable energy industry "clusters"--one each, in southern and northern Nevada, resulting in significant near-term job creation. The initiative is designed to launch a center for renewable energy "asset deployment" Project: Nevada Water Resources Data, Modeling, and Visualization (DMV Center) Requestor: Desert Research Institute Location: Washoe County Amount: $750,000 Description: To create a statewide center to house and use all available relevant data needed to better understand the current and potential future distribution of water resources within Nevada. The project will require a dedicated supercomputer along with new faculty in information management, hydrologic, atmospheric, and ecological modeling.

Project: Oversight of Yucca Mountain Shut Down and Reclamation Requestor: Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects Location: Carson City Amount: $2,500,000 Description: Provide technical and policy oversight of activities in Nevada associated with the shutdown of the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository project including activities related to the physical closure of the the Yucca Mountain site and associated facilities and lands, reclamation and remediation of lands and resources, environmental analyses required as a result of the shut down, and other activities to protect Nevada's interests.

Project: Rapid Battery Charging Device for Electric Vehicles Requestor: Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association, together with UNLV researchers and local partners, will build advanced prototypes of rapid battery chargers and will test and evaluate the design, performance, and manufacturability of those prototypes using existing electric vehicles.

Project: Renewable Energy Feasibility Study and Resources Assessment for Lincoln County, NV Location: Lincoln County Amount: $500,000 Description: This project will facilitate rapid development of Lincoln County's abundant solar, biomass, geothermal and wind energy resources through identification, analysis and formulation of effective strategies for capitalization of opportunities for utility-scale and locally-distributed generation of renewable energy resources.

Project: Reno Hydrogen Fuel Requestor: Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County Location: Washoe County Amount: $1,000,000 Description: Funding will build on past years' work to establish an international center for development of geothermal and hydrogen fuel technologies, through the build-up of hydrogen fuel infrastructure and retrofitting vehicles.

Project: Solar Energy Infrastructure Enhancement Requestor: Three Square Food Bank Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: To enhance the infrastructure of Three Square Food Bank's new regional food campus by installing a rooftop solar array on the rooftops of two warehouses totaling 120,000 square feet. Utilizing solar energy will enable Three Square to reduce its annual energy costs by at least 50% -- a significant savings which can be used to collect and distribute more food to the growing number of southern Nevadans in need of assistance.

Project: Solid State Preparation and Characterization Lab Requestor: University of Nevada, Reno, (UNR) Location: Washoe County Amount: $500,000 Description: For the construction and development of a Solid State Preparation and Characterization Lab that will include state-of-the-art equipment to prepare and analyze a wide range of solid state samples for scientific research and engineering applications.

Project: Sustainable Campus Initiative of Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe Requestor: Sierra Nevada College Location: Washoe County Amount: $400,000 Description: For energy efficient improvements and integrating renewable energy for the college's facilities, which will also contribute to public education programs and working with partners in green building and clean energy development.

Project: Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility Environmental and Energy Enhancement Requestor: City of Sparks Location: Washoe County Amount: $1,000,000 Description: For the installation of a 1 megawatt co-generator to convert methane gas produced from wastewater sludge into electricity for Reno, Sparks and most of Washoe County. Utilizing this renewable energy supply, the co-generator unit will reduce the wastewater treatment plant's total electrical consumption by 20-30%.

Project: UNLV - Intermountain West Sustainable Development Project Requestor: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Location: Clark County Amount: $500,000 Description: To support the Intermountain West Research Office's efforts to develop strategies for dealing with growth in the region, including for development of sustainable hard infrastructure (clean energy, water and transportation) and soft infrastructure (policy and government institutions).

Project: UNR - Energy Storage for Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources Requestor: University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Location: Washoe County Amount: $1,000,000 Description: To form an interdisciplinary team to address 5 (inter-related) energy storage technologies through fundamental research, scale-up of prototype technologies, and integration into the emerging "smart grid".

Project: UNR - Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy Requestor: University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Location: Washoe County Amount: $250,000 Description: For competitive research, education (UNR students plus workforce training and professional development), and outreach through the Center.

Project: Wind Resource Monitoring and Training Program Requestor: Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) Location: Washoe County Amount: $1,000,000 Description: To accurately model wind resources in Nevada, this project will develop a Nevada-specific computer model. TMCC, in cooperation with the Desert Research Institute, will develop the model using data gathered from a network of anemometers set up throughout the State. The first phase of the project is measuring and monitoring of wind resources at multiple locations to determine the reliability of this energy resource in relation to the unique terrain of Nevada. Workforce training will also be a component of the project.

Project: Industrial Technologies Program Language Requestor: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Location: Clark County Amount: $1,000,000 programmatic language Description: To support micro turbine power generation up to 400kW and the development, testing, and evaluation of pulse flow refrigerant, variable speed/variable capacity air cooled absorption exhaust heat recovery technology Water Infrastructure ($38 million) Project: Las Vegas Wash Improvement Project Requestor: Southern Nevada Water Authority Location: Clark County Amount: $1,150,000 Description: For the restoration, habitat enhancement, and water quality improvement of Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead by implementing various action items in the adaptive management plan, necessary to provide for the restoration and long-term management of the wash.

Project: Nevada Inter-Tribal Energy Consortium Requestor: Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada, Incorporated Location: Washoe County Amount: $150,000 Description: Funding will directly benefit 27 federally recognized Indian tribes in Nevada by supporting the development of energy on Indian lands. This assistance would include building tribal capacity related to energy development with the long term goal to facilitate a tribal energy cooperative which would generate clean energy.

Project: NLV Water Reuse Facility Requestor: City of North Las Vegas Location: Clark County Amount: $3,000,000 Description: To complete construction of a Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) and collection/discharge systems at the Nellis AFB. Once complete, the WRF will be able to treat all of the wastewater within the City's service area.

Project: Rural Nevada Water Infrastructure - Sec. 595 (appropriation) Requestor: Rural Nevada counties and towns Location: Rural Nevada counties and towns Amount: $20,000,000 Description: To fund Sec. 595 of WRDA 1999 (P.L. 109-53) to provide rural localities in Nevada with funding for the design and construction of water supply, wastewater treatment, environmental restoration and surface water protection projects.

Project: Tahoe Partnership (Section 234) Requestor: Lake Tahoe Transportation and Water Quality Coalition Location: Lake Tahoe Amount: $900,000 Description: For design and construction assistance for stream zone restoration and the control and treatment of urban storm water.

Project: Tahoe Restoration (Section 108) Requestor: Lake Tahoe Transportation and Water Quality Coalition Location: Lake Tahoe Amount: $4,000,000 Description: For direct on-the-ground design and construction assistance to local and state government for stream zone restoration and treatment of urban storm water. Both of these types of projects are identified as critical components of watershed restoration.

Project: Truckee Meadows, Nevada Flood Control Project Requestor: Truckee River Flood Control Project Location: Washoe County Amount: $4,500,000 Description: To provide protection from flood damage, ecosystem restoration, and recreation along the Truckee River from Reno to Pyramid Lake. To continue work on the General Re-evaluation Report, Environmental Impact Statement, pre-construction engineering design, and to begin construction on one or more already-authorized features of the project.

Project: Urban Flood Demonstration Program Requestor: Desert Research Institute Location: Washoe County Amount: $2,000,000 Description: To support an ongoing collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Engineer Research and Development Center to develop capacity to reduce flood damage in urban areas and develop integrated design tools for stream restoration.

Project: WateReuse Foundation Requestor: Southern Nevada Water Authority Location: Clark County Amount: $2,500,000 Description: To support applied research to demonstrate the chemical and microbiological safety of recycled and reclaimed water, which will reduce costs and improve the efficiency of water recycling, desalination processes and brine concentrate disposal.

PROGRAMMATIC FUNDING SUPPORTED BY SEN. REID ($93.16 million) Project: Solar Demonstration Zone at the Nevada Test Site Requestor: President (supported by Sen. Reid) Location: Nye County Amount: $50,000,000 Description: Sen. Reid, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the location of the Solar Demonstration Zone at the Nevada Test Site. The Zone will be a test bed for innovative concentrating solar energy technologies that will help make Nevada the leader in solar energy technology development.

Project: Nevada Test Site Mission Expansion Requestor: President (supported by Sen. Reid) Location: Nye County Amount: $43,165,000 Description: To support expanding the mission of the Nevada Test Site to include nonproliferation and arms control agreement verification research to help advance the President's weapons nonproliferation objectives. The new capability at NTS will support US capabilities to monitor international treaties and cooperative agreements, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.

AUTHORIZATIONS, REPORT LANGUAGE AND ALLOCATION OF FUNDS Desert Terminal Lakes Requestor: Nevada entities participating in the restoration of Walker and Pyramid lakes and their water basins.

Location: Northern Nevada Amount: $92,500,000 allocation of Farm Bill funds Description: Allocation of mandatory spending authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill for Desert Terminal Lakes restoration projects.

Rural Nevada Water Infrastructure - Sec. 595 (authorization) Requestor: Rural Nevada counties and towns Location: Rural Nevada counties and towns Amount: $50,000,000 authorization Description: To increase the authorized funding level for the Sec. 595 Rural Nevada program authorized by WRDA 1999. There is roughly $55.2M in project requests that would benefit from increasing the authorized funding.

Analysis of networks between human activity and natural systems Requestor: Desert Research Institute Location: State-Wide Amount: Report Language Description: To create a systems framework to identify relationships between and guide future development networks of human activity and the natural system. The project will analyze 5 US regions, focusing on different patterns of urbanization, economic activity, connection to marketplace, and environment.

TNS hc11-JF78--100723-2925432 StaffFurigay (c) 2010 Targeted News Service

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