However, ASC and its federal experts fully intend to continue seeking funding for the partnershp’s projects, including SFIP’s energy program as previously detailed.  Stay tuned for more information.

SFIP and its energy/climate program have been invited by the Applied Solutions Coalition (ASC) to join in a multi-partner grant application to DOE, through the department’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). Sonoma County, California will act as the lead applicant, along with partners Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Story County, Iowa; Buncombe County Schools, North Carolina;  Sonoma Mountain Village; Applied Solutions Coalition; and SFIP. The total request among all partners is approximately $5 million.

In its role as an “applied solutions laboratory,” SFIP will support the Coalition and its members with innovative approaches to their goal of implementing community-scale energy, infrastructure, and economic initiatives for a low-carbon regime, including transporation, the built environment, and land use. If funded, SFIP’s $500,000 request will sustain its energy program for the three-year grant period, with several specific projects to be advanced. These include the enhancement of the CLEAR model with Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Community Action Platform project; and the Code Green Energy Innovation Lab with the Business Innovation Factory. The strategy is to work with  ASC to deploy new innovations through its local government members, and from there, to scale nationally. A decision is expected from DOE in March of 2010.