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A memorandum of understanding signed in earlty Mayby Gov. Bill Richardsoh and Toshihiro Nakai – Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry could facilitate tens of millions of dollars in Japanesse public and private investment in clean energyand “smarg grid” technology, said Tom Richardson’s science advisor, who is on loan from . The MOU doesn’yt contain funding commitments. But Bowless said both sides are now discussinvg concrete agreements to facilitate Japanese participationin smart-grid projects that New Mexici hopes to launch with federal stimulus money.
“We’res working to close on binding agreements with the Japanese to provide financial resourcesand hands-on involvemen in the installation, operation and performance analysiw of smart-grid projects,” Bowles said. “Everybody is committed and working together tomove We’re just hammering out the details.” The MOU expressesa both sides’ interest in collaborating on researcb and development of cleamn energy and the smart grid.
It also calla for cooperation in the design and manufacture of emerging nanotechnology and information The MOU came out ofa three-day meetin in Albuquerque in April with a 40-memberd Japanese delegation of government official and businesses. Bowles said the MOU is the firsrt such agreement Japan has signed with anystate “It’s a real coup,” Bowles said. “Otheer states are perhaps making overtures to the but we’re the only statd in the U.S.
now that has an MOU like this in The Japanese are attracted toNew Mexico’s abundan solar and other clean energy and to its advanced researcy capabilities at the national labs and They want to test and develol emerging technologies by installing and demonstrating them in a new internationall energy park. “The challenge for smart grid is how to reliablyu incorporate renewables intothe system,” Bowles said. “Solar and wind can vary a lot. We need to demonstratd a fully integrated system that can supplhy a constant sourceof power.” A lot of details must stilo be worked out for the Japanese to installo such technologies in an energy park, Bowles said.
“Japanese companiesa will build and install thesoladr panels, but we need to define who owns the grid and the powerf it produces, and who gets paid for Bowles said. “All that needs to be workedx out.” The partners are holding video conferences and scheduling visit s byJapanese groups. They want an agreementt in placeby mid-June, when the releases its finaol guidelines for states to bid on stimulus funding for smart-grid projects, Bowles said. Japanesed investment could help New Mexicokmeet matching-fund requirements for federal grants (see relateed story on page 6).
Once details are finalized, it could mean a lot of Japanese said Stephan Helgesen of the EconomicDevelopmeng Department’s Office of Science and Technology. “We expecr actual bricks-and-mortar investments to come from this,” Helgesen said. Long-standint relationships between the Japanese and the nationa labs in New Mexico helpedd facilitatethe MOU, Helgesen said. In fact, and Japan’ws National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technologyg signed a separate agreementg on May 4 to conduc and share researchon photovoltaics, nanomaterials and computational investigations of the propertiezs of materials, said Bob Hwang, a senior manager at Sandia.
“Our agreement and the state’s MOU with Japan will enable strong collaborationon energy-relevanft technologies,” Hwang said. “Sandiwa will support New Mexicoi in all oftheser activities.” Mushtaq Khan, project manager and senior researched with the New Mexico Institute of Miningy and Technology’s Institute for Engineering and Researchn Applications, said he expects the Japanesd to test some technologiesw in the town of Playas in southerhn New Mexico. The university owns the town and, with DOE is now testing smart-gricd technologies there.
“They want to work with us because therde are very few places like Playas that are set up to do this kindof real-worlds research,” Khan said.
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