Renewable Gas 360 2020

January 22-23, 2020

Sacramento, CA

Hundreds of California policymakers, public agency staff members, and renewable gas industry leaders convened in Sacramento for Renewable Gas 360, formerly called Rethink Methane. The rebranded event highlighted the environmental and economic benefits of implementing policies to incentivize the production and use renewable gases, including RNG, hydrogen, syngas and new in 2020, propane. The first panel imagined the gas utility of the future and how its role will change as the state aims to achieve a 100% renewable grid, while the second and fourth panels focused on the development of a roadmap for a renewable hydrogen future in California and examples of projects that are currently in development that will both produce and harness renewable hydrogen for clean energy.

For the first time, representatives of the propane industry described how their industry is moving toward renewable supplies, and what this might mean for a state struggling with how to ensure energy supply to remote communities. As is custom, the symposium’s dairy panel explored new strategies to use dairy biogas for virtual zero NOx power production (through fuel cells) as well as exploring the success of the most cost effective GHG reduction program funded by the California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Keynote speakers addressed strategies to advance the gasification of wood waste as a wildfire mitigation strategy, the benefits of power-to-gas as a mechanism to store curtailed renewable power, next steps in the effort to fund more rapid deployment of clean vehicle technologies that use renewable fuels, and the emergence of a new Green Hydrogen Coalition that will work to increase awareness of the benefits of renewable hydrogen. In addition, attendees heard about an important new study of the potential RNG supply out to 2040.

In between the sessions, policymakers and industry members networked and discussed how they can work together to help California meet its air quality and climate protection goals.

Renewable Gas 360 sponsors included Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, South Coast Air Quality Management District, Southern California Gas Company, California Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership, Propane Education & Research Council, RealEnergy, ROUSH CleanTech, American Gas Association, CR&R Incorporated, California Air Resources Board, Element Markets, Gas Technology Institute, Bloom Energy, BP, Clean Energy Renewables, Ingevity, Southwest Gas, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Shell.

Featured Speakers included:

• Joy Alafia, President & CEO, Western Propane Gas Association
• Kevin Best, Chairman and CEO, RealEnergy
• Michael Boccadoro, President, West Coast Advisors
• Jack Brouwer, Director, National Fuel Cell Research Center
• Michael Colvin, Director, California Energy Program, Environmental Defense Fund
• Hector De La Torre, Assembly Appointed Member, California Air Resources Board
• Rob Del Core, Managing Director, Hydrogenics USA
• Sean Ebnet, Lead Business Developer, Orsted
• Dave Edwards, Director and Advocate for Hydrogen Energy, Air Liquide
• Katrina Fritz, Executive Director, California Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative
• Angelina Galiteva, Board of Governors, California Independent System Operator
• Cliff Gladstein, President, Gladstein, Neandross & Associates
• Erin Grizard, Senior Director, Policy, Bloom Energy
• Gregory Huynh, Operating Agent Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
• Chelsea Jenkins, Executive Director of Government Affairs, ROUSH CleanTech
• Dan LeFevers, Director of State and Consumer Programs, Gas Technology Institute
• Janice Lin, Founder and President, Green Hydrogen Coalition
• Lawrence Lingbloom, Chief Consultant, California State Assembly Committee on Natural Resources
• Jenny Lester Moffitt, Undersecretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture
• Emily O’Connell, Director, Energy Markets Policy, American Gas Association
• Larry Osgood, Consultant, Advisor, Project Development & Optimization, Propane Education & Research Council
• Lorraine Paskett, Board Member & Chair, Renewable Hydrogen Initiative, California Hydrogen Business Council
• Jeffrey Reed, Advanced Power and Energy Program Chief Scientist, Renewable Fuels and Energy Storage, UCI
• Philip Sheehy, Technical Director, ICF
• Nancy Skinner, California State Senator, District 9
• Jeff Stewart, President, Blue Star Gas
• Sharon Tomkins, Vice President, Strategy and Engagement, and Chief Environmental Officer, Southern California Gas Company

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