Colorado Renewable Energy Authority
Grants First Matching State Funds For Solar Energy and Biofuels

On April 17, 2007, the Colorado Renewable Energy Authority (“Authority”), signed into law by Governor Ritter in 2006, met to dole out the first of $2 million in matching funds allocated by the State of Colorado for each of the next three years to renewable energy research and development. By the end of the meeting, two things were clear:

• First, the Authority has not yet allocated all of the available matching funds to specific projects
  
• Second, the Authority is making multi-year funding commitments, such that funds that will only be available in 2008-2009 are being allocated now

Colorado Renewable Energy Authority Board of Directors
The Authority’s Board of Directors (“Authority Board”) is composed of up to two Governor-appointed members and four ex-officio members, including the presidents of the Colorado School of Mines (“Mines”), Colorado State University (“CSU”), the University of Colorado (“CU”), and the Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (“NREL”).

Instructions to Allocate Funds to Collaboratory
The Authority is instructed to allocate state matching funds to support proposals made by the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory (“Collaboratory”), a consortium of CSU, CU, Mines and NREL that formally organized in late February 2007. Since many members of the Authority Board are also members of the Collaboratory Executive Board, the Authority Board pledged at the April meeting to address and resolve any conflicts of interest, particularly with the hiring of an Authority Executive Director.

Another meeting topic concerned what types of private funding was eligible for state matching funds. A private industry or company first has to pay the Collaboratory to become a “sponsoring member” of a particular project. These dues or fees are not eligible for matching state funds. Once a company becomes a sponsoring member, that company may then pay what one Board member termed, “fees to play.” These fees, when made to advance shared research projects, are eligible for matching state funds under House Bill 06-1322. The Authority Board did not discuss Federal funding at the April meeting, and Federal funding is presumably eligible for matching state funds.

House Bill 06-1322 authorizes the Authority Board to allocate $2 million per fiscal year for the next three years. As of the April 17, 2007 organizational meeting, the Colorado legislature had authorized, but not appropriated, this $2 million, which means that the $2 million was available but had not been set aside into a trust fund or escrow account. The Board agreed to secure this funding lest competing spending projects appropriated available funds first.

At the April meeting, the Authority approved commitment of matching funds to research involving solar energy and research involving biofuel. The Authority committed matching funds to a Collaboratory project known as the “Joint Institute for Revolutionary Solar Photoelectrochemistry, Photochemistry, and Photobiology for Direct Solar Energy Conversion.” The Authority committed matching funds equal to 15% of the amount paid by the U.S. Department of Energy to the Institute up to $1 million per year. The U.S. Department of Energy had not announced its funding level at the time of the April 2007 meeting.

Thereafter, the Authority Board passed a motion providing matching funds equal to the annual fees contributed by Sponsoring Members to shared research projects undertaken by the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (“C2B2”). The Authority pledges up to a maximum of $500,000 in the first year of C2B2 operations, up to a maximum of $750,000 in the second year of C2B2 operations, and up to a maximum of $1,000,000 in the third year of C2B2 operations. At the time of the vote, the Authority Board estimated that approximately $300,000 in funding was currently available and eligible in the C2B2 project for state matching funds.

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