HB1908 – Creates a grant program for utility scale renewable energy and innovative grid scale storage projects.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Barnard (R; 8th District; Benton & Franklin Counties) (Co-Sponsor Fitzgibbon, D)
Current status – Referred to the House Committee on Environment & Energy.
Next step would be – Action by the committee.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –

If specific funding were appropriated for it, the bill would create a grant program for electric generation from a renewable or nonemitting resource and for grid-scale storage projects using “new or emerging technologies whose practical applications are still largely unrealized at a commercial scale”. (It isn’t clear that all renewable resources would be eligible for funding, since the bill also says that “stable, dispatchable, utility-scale clean energy technologies” are what the funds may be used for.)

The program would be administered by the Department of Commerce; it would prioritize projects capable of catalyzing Federal or private funding. Grants would be available to joint operating agencies, utilities, tribes, and commercial project developers. The bill’s findings declare the Legislature’s intention to provide $100 million in funding for it, and the bill directs Commerce to develop guidelines for applications on the assumption that funding will be available for the 2027-2029 biennium.