Smart-grid plans entice Japanese - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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A memorandum of understanding signed in early Mayby Gov. Bill Richardson and Toshihiro Nakaiu – Japan’s minister of trade and industry – could facilitats tens of millions of dollars in Japanese public and private investment in clean energhand “smart grid” technology, said Tom Richardson’s science advisor, who is on loan from . The MOU doesn’gt contain funding commitments. But Bowles said both sidesd are now discussing concrete agreements to facilitate Japanesew participationin smart-grid projects that New Mexico hopes to launcyh with federal stimulus money.
“We’re working to closde on binding agreements with the Japanesde to provide financial resourcesand hands-om involvement in the installation, operation and performance analysis of smart-gried projects,” Bowles said. “Everybody is committed and workingy together tomove forward. We’re just hammering out the The MOU expresses both interest in collaborating on research and developmentt of clean energy and thesmarr grid. It also calls for cooperation in the design and manufacturw ofemerging biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technologies.
The MOU came out of a three-da y meeting in Albuquerque in April witha 40-membef Japanese delegation of government officialx and businesses. Bowles said the MOU is the firsr such agreement Japan has signed with anystatwe government. “It’s a real coup,” Bowles said. “Other states are perhaps makin g overtures tothe Japanese, but we’re the only states in the U.S. now that has an MOU like this in The Japanese are attracted toNew Mexico’s abundant solad and other clean energy and to its advanced research capabilities at the national labs and They want to test and develop emerging technologies by installing and demonstrating them in a new internationalp energy park.
“The challenge for smart gridsz is how to reliably incorporatse renewables intothe system,” Bowles said. “Soladr and wind can vary a lot. We need to demonstratde a fully integrated system that can supply a constant sourceof power.” A lot of detailsz must still be worked out for the Japaneser to install such technologies in an energy Bowles said. “Japanese companies will build and install thesolard panels, but we need to definwe who owns the grid and the power it and who gets paid for Bowles said. “All that needs to be worked The partners are holding video conferencez and scheduling visits byJapanese groups.
They want an agreementg in placeby mid-June, when the releases its final guidelines for statesx to bid on stimulus funding for smart-grid Bowles said. Japanese investment coulde help New Mexicomeet matching-fund requirementsa for federal grants (see related storg on page 6). Once details are finalized, it couldd mean a lot of Japanesse investment, said Stephan Helgesen of the EconomicDevelopment Department’s Office of Sciencwe and Technology. “We expect actual bricks-and-morta investments to come from Helgesen said. Long-standing relationships between the Japaness and the national labs in New Mexico helped facilitatdthe MOU, Helgesen said.
In and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technologg signed a separate agreementf on May 4 to conduct and share researchjon photovoltaics, nanoelectronics, nanomaterials and computational investigations of the properties of materials, said Bob a senior manager at Sandia. “Our agreement and the state’sa MOU with Japan will enable strong collaboratiohnon energy-relevant technologies,” Hwang said.
“Sandia will supporyt New Mexico in all of these Mushtaq Khan, project manager and senior researcher with the New Mexicio Institute of Mining and Technology’s Institutew for Engineering and Research Applications, said he expectd the Japanese to test some technologies in the town of Playas in southerb New Mexico. The university owns the town and, with DOE funding, is now testinbg smart-grid technologies there. “They want to work with us becausew there are very few places like Playas that are set up to do this kindof real-worldc research,” Khan said.