Amendment #312 to H3600

Battery Testing Facility

Mr. Goldstein-Rose of Amherst moves to amend the bill by adding the following section:

"SECTION XXXX. Notwithstanding any general law or special law to the contrary, the department of energy resources shall expend an amount not to exceed $2,000,000 from the RGGI Auction Trust Fund established in section 35II of chapter 10 of the General Laws for planning, designing, originally equipping, and supporting a battery testing facility to be overseen by the Massachusetts clean energy center. The clean energy center shall hire a consultant or convene a working group to evaluate potential sites and private partners, staffing, management systems and administration, and equipment needs for a center to take sound lab-stage ideas for new battery technologies and manufacture test cells, conduct relevant measurements, coordinate with research labs, and build prototype and demonstration batteries and battery facilities to prove new technologies and make them available for Massachusetts industry. The consultant or working group shall study the potential economic development and job creation impacts of a fully functional battery testing facility. The consultant or working group shall seek input and involvement from various public and private entities in the state with expertise or capacity related to battery technologies, clean energy, manufacturing, or engineering. The department of energy resources shall expend no more than $50,000 of the funds appropriated in this section for the initial study. The initial study shall be completed no later than December 1, 2017. Once the initial study is completed, the clean energy center shall open a bidding process for entities that wish to host and run the battery testing facility; preference shall be given to sites in the four western counties; preference shall also be given to research-oriented institutions of higher education with capacity to staff the facility, especially in cases in which student interns could be given educational opportunities at the facility and volunteer their time to help staff the facility; preference shall also be given to proposals that include a coalition of public entities, and to proposals that include significant commitments of private partners for sponsorship or involvement in the facility. The total financial commitment from public and private entities in any acceptable proposal shall be at least $18,000,000 for the creation and operation of the facility, plus any costs associated with constructing any new building that the proposal may deem desirable. The clean energy center shall choose a proposal no later than May 1, 2018. The facility, once created, shall be operated by the entity or entities stated in the winning proposal, and overseen by the clean energy center. The facility staff shall proactively seek out new technologies and test those most likely to become breakthroughs, without regard to potential profits or current commercial trends, but may also test or demonstrate other technologies for private companies on a fee-for-service basis. The facility shall coordinate with manufacturing companies and workforce training entities with expertise in manufacturing to connect proven new technologies to manufacturing capacity."

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #312, as changed to H3600

Battery Testing Facility