Our Agency

State of Iowa
Iowa Energy Center Board
Meeting Minutes of February 11, 2021
Teams/Telephonic Meeting Only

Call to order 1:00 p.m.

Board Members Present
Joel Schmidt, Board Chairperson
Dan Nickey, Board Vice Chair
Stuart Anderson
Jennifer Johnson
Gul Kremer (joined at 1:10 p.m.)
Jenae Jenison
Debi Durham
Geri Huser
Troy DeJoode
Timothy Whipple (joined at 1:06 p.m.)
Valerie Newhouse
Rick Olesen

Board Members Absent
Nathan Young

Iowa Economic Development Authority Staff Present
Brian Selinger
Amber Buckingham
Stephanie Weisenbach
Ryan Young
Terry Roberson
Lisa Connell
Shelly Peterson
Betty Hessing
Kanan Kappelman
Emily Hockins
Staci Hupp-Ballard
MK Anderson
Jill Lippincott
Jeff Geerts
Beth Balzer

Others Present
Dr. Craig Just, University of Iowa
Nathan Seberg, Baldridge Environmental Services
Randy Seberg, Baldridge Environmental Services
John Espeland, Polymer Crete, Inc.
Troy Wright, Polymer Crete, Inc.
Nick Wylie, J. Pettiecord Inc.
Tanya Michener, Newton Development Corporation
Julie Vande Hoef, Alliant Energy
Alex Moon, IDNR
Lori McDaniel, IDNR
Mark Scheid, Ulteig Engineers
Brian Meng, Mid America Recycling
Ethan Hohenadel, Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives
Chaz Allen, Iowa Utility Association
Grace Seiler, GKAT Reclamation, LLC
Senator Carrie Koelker, Iowa State Senator
Representative Charles Isenhart, Iowa House of Representatives
Jeff Danielson, American Wind Energy Association
Brenda Biddle, Iowa Utilities Board Staff

Welcome & Introductions by Board Chairperson Joel Schmidt
Joel Schmidt welcomed everyone to the February 11th IEC Board meeting.

Roll Call by Betty Hessing, Administrative Assistant
A quorum was established.

Consideration of October 29, 2020, Meeting Minutes
Motion by
Motion
Second
Voice Vote
Debi Durham
I move approval of the October 29, 2020 minutes.
Dan Nickey
All ayes in favor. Motion approved.

Public Comment Period – No comments.

Fiscal Update – Attachment A
Presentation provided by Terry Roberson. Terry Roberson stated the Financial Report for this meeting reflects expenditures paid through January 31, 2021. We have two columns on the Loans Receivable—one is for the inherited loans from Iowa State University when we assumed the program and the other column is for the recent loans awarded and issued under IEDA and the IEC Board as it now exists. Also attached is a copy of the Iowa Energy Center’s Administrative Budget for FY21. Terry Roberson answered questions from Board Members.

Alternate Energy Revolving Loan Program (AERLP)
Loan Program Update – Stephanie Weisenbach stated we do not have any new loan applications for the Board to review or decide upon today, as we did not receive any submittals in this quarterly cycle. We have had a variety of inquiries about the program and she anticipates we will see applications for the May Board meeting agenda. We have been talking to the Loan Committee about the potential, future types of projects that the program might be able to consider if statutory changes are made, which we have discussed previously.

Stephanie Weisenbach asked if there were any questions. Dan Nickey asked for an update on the progress of what those discussions are. Stephanie Weisenbach asked Dan Nickey if he wanted to know the progress for the changes to the program and he replied that is what he meant. Stephanie Weisenbach referred to Brian Selinger, as Deanna Triplett could not attend the meeting today. Brian Selinger replied we are continuing to pull together information for the Loan Committee on the type of projects that could be embraced going forward. On the statutory component, that process is in motion on the legislative enhancements. As soon as we know more, we will get that to you. Also, from Deanna Triplett, if any Board member would like to speak directly to her, let Brian know and he can get you her contact information. We will definitely keep you posted as we learn and know more.

Grant Program
Grant Program Update – Attachment B - Amber Buckingham gave an update on the current status of the Grant Program. Currently all of the grants, except the one we will be discussing later today from the last round, have signed agreements and have started working on their projects. Amber Buckingham is currently working on setting reporting requirements with them. Meetings will be scheduled throughout the month of April to do a quick check-in. Amber is currently working on scheduling virtual and/or on-site monitoring visits for the grants that were awarded in 2019. We will be focusing on those in late February and early March.

Amber Buckingham stated that at the May Board meeting, she is planning to provide a status report with general updates on the progress of the grants. We will be about a year in, so good progress on all of those. At the next few Board meetings, we are planning to get a couple grant recipients to present their current results and get updates on those.

We are planning to launch the third round today if the approval of the Policies & Procedures document happens. We will plan to do a press release to stakeholders and parties who have indicated their interest in the program and all of our normal media contacts. We will also post that information on the IEDA web page and open up the pre-applications in IowaGrants.

We are planning to announce the future funding decisions at the August 5th Board meeting. A timeline is provided in your Board packets. So, we will open the pre-applications today and they will close on March 19th and then those funding decisions will be made at the August 5th Board meeting, barring any future delays. We are looking at an allocation of $4M again. We will only fund those grants that meet those minimum score requirements set forth in the Policies and Procedures.

Amber Buckingham asked if there were any questions regarding the current or future program and no questions were asked.

Approve Amended Grant Program Policies & Procedures – Attachment C
Amber Buckingham stated that in the Board packet is an updated copy of the Policies & Procedures. The main changes to the Policies & Procedures include cost share updated requirements, clarifications to reporting requirements and minor tweaks to the scoring matrixes for both the pre-application and the full application phase.

Amber Buckingham stated that in your Board packets, the first major change is under the Eligible Applicants. We wanted to solidify that applicants can apply jointly with ineligible applicants, but the eligible applicant cannot simply act as a pass through to ineligible applicants.

Under Budgetary Requirements, we just changed the indirect cost basis. Previously, the indirect costs of the 20% of the IEC award were calculated on the total project budget. We have changed that to be based on the total IEC award request, just so it matches the policy for the cost share, so they are both based on the same number for clarity sake. The most major change is the change to the Cost Share requirements. We have chosen to require cost share in this round of Energy Center funding. Previously, we did not require it. We wanted to keep that minimum cost share very low, so we have stuck with 5%, but we did feel it was important for applicants to have some skin in the game when they are applying for these funds. We did note that the in-kind donations can still be used for their cost share unless you are with private industry. If you are with private industry and you are asking for money for supplies and materials or equipment that will benefit you in the long run, post-grant, we are asking that applicants provide at least 10% of those budget line items as cost share. Amber Buckingham provided an example in the Policies and Procedures document. Applicants will still have the opportunity to obtain extra points if they do go over that 5%, so we did lower that threshold for extra points to 5.1%. Unrecovered indirect costs cannot be used as cost share and the cost share must be accounted for in the pre-application phase.

Amber Buckingham stated that the next change is we are requiring the application approval certification document in the pre-application phase since we do require that cost share--at that point it made sense to move that up to the preapplication phase. We also updated the pre-application scoring matrix. We wanted to make sure the scoring matrix was weighted in the same manner that the full application was, so we had some weight to some of the scores. We are sticking with the 25 minimum score to move on to the full application phase, which is the same as it was during the last round. In the full application, we added a bit of language in the evaluation criteria, especially for the first two sections. We wanted to clarify how we will be scoring these items. We added, “Does the benefit appear to be sound and reasonable for both of these?”, and then “Does the fulfillment of the key focus area seem sound and reasonable?”. We did change this cost share piece, so we have included a couple extra points for those folks that have between 5.1 and 10 percent cost share.We cleaned-up some of the information for the administration of the grants and we will be issuing a letter of intent along with the agreement, now that we have a nice shell that we can use for our recipients. We cleaned-up some of the language for clarification for reporting with some deadlines and due dates that we did not have in prior rounds of this document.
Amber Buckingham stated that was the end of the changes and asked if anyone had questions. Joel Schmidt asked if this had been reviewed and recommended by the Grant Committee and she replied it has been. Chairperson Schmidt entertained a motion.

Motion by Stuart Anderson
Motion - I move to approve the Amended Grant Program Policies & Procedures.
Second Rick Olesen
Roll Call Yes: 12 Abstain: 0
Motion approved.

Grant Award Declination – Building Enclosure Council – Attachment D
Amber Buckingham explained the Iowa Energy Center Board approved a grant for the Building Enclosure Council of Iowa on September 17, 2020 in the amount of $10,575. Upon receipt of the award letter, the recipient realized that the budget in the application was incorrect and they would not be able to complete the deliverables, as outlined in the application, with the funds that had been provided and approved. We had some internal discussion and feedback from the Grant Committee and the recipient has agreed to the rescission of their grant award and intends to submit a new pre-application during the upcoming grant cycle. We would propose the approval of the rescission of the grant award made on September 17, 2020, to the Building Enclosure Council of Iowa. They have provided a declination letter for your review.

Motion by Gul Kremer
Motion - I move to approve the rescission of the grant award made on September 17, 2020, to the Building Enclosure Council of Iowa.

Second Dan Nickey
Roll Call Yes: 12 Abstain: 0
Motion approved.

Brian Selinger stated we have three presentations, but he would introduce the first two presenters together because of the tremendous synergy and partnership between these two organizations/companies. Brian Selinger introduced Dr. Just from the University of Iowa. This is an intriguing project that the Iowa Energy Office has had the privilege to be engaged in conversation with Dr. Just for at least a year. They were able to obtain IEDA’s funding support at our December Board meeting and Brian thought the Board would find some value in hearing about what he is attempting to achieve and how that aligns with the mission of the Iowa Energy Center and advancements of the Iowa Energy Plan. Directly following Dr. Just’s presentation, Brian Selinger stated he is pleased to have with us Nathan and Randy Seberg from Baldridge Environmental Services. The second presentation, “Wastewater Case Studies to Prove Ratepayer Benefits in Underserved Iowa Communities” is one that you, as a Board, kindly provided grant support to.

University of Iowa Wastewater & Waste-to-Energy Research Program – Attachment E
Dr. Craig Just, Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, with the University of Iowa, gave his presentation.

Wastewater Case Studies to Prove Ratepayer Benefits in Underserved Iowa Communities – Attachment F
Nathan & Randy Seberg, with Baldridge Environmental Services, gave their presentation.

Brian Selinger introduced John Espeland with Polymer Crete, Inc. Brian Selinger explained that IEDA was very pleased that this project opportunity came before us for funding consideration and support and we were able to provide a grant from our Federal Competitive Grant Program. We know how fortunate we are in Iowa for our robust wind resources—all the positive benefits that come with that—economically and environmentally. But there is never a perfect silver bullet solution on anything in life, so there are challenges, but those challenges can be turned into opportunities. So, this ability to take obsolete wind turbine blades and repurpose them and revalue them and try to keep those out of landfills, it jumped out at us as an opportunity. We are pleased to have John Espeland and his project team share some of their results and where they ultimately want to go with this.

End of Life Wind Turbine Blade Recycling and Repurposing – Attachment G
John Espeland with Polymer Crete, LLC gave a presentation.

Other Business

Energy Office Updates
Brian Selinger stated that we just put the finishing touches on the Annual Energy Center Report. Brian stated he will be emailing Board Members momentarily with a pdf copy of that. Also, it has just been posted to the IEDA website and very soon, it will be posted to the Legislative Portal so the Legislature will have a chance to view that.

We will be in touch as Grant and Loan Committee meetings draw near; we will circle back with you and keep you posted on the status of the legislative effort with the loan fund. As we had folks come in and offer presentations, we will continue to be thoughtful about some topics and projects. Brian Selinger expressed to Board Members that if they have an interest or idea for presentation topics, please do not hesitate to reach out to him or an IEC team member. Brian thanked Board Members for their ample time and stated that some really good information was
shared today.

Next Quarterly Board Meeting May 13, 2021, at 1:00 p.m.
Chairperson Schmidt asked for a motion to adjourn.
Motion by Dan Nickey
Motion I move to adjourn.
Second Joel Schmidt

Adjournment 2:54 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Betty Hessing, Administrative Assistant