The Pecan Street Project is a bold effort to build on Austin’s reputation as a leader in clean, renewable energy by designing the electricity generation and distribution system of the future.

In December 2008, the city articulated a desire to generate 300 megawatts of clean energy within the city limits. The Pecan Street Project was initiated to help the city meet that goal. Phase I of the project (January 2009 – August 2009) will identify the technical, financial and systems challenges that Austin will face in meeting this goal, and provide recommendations to overcome them via a strategic and technical roadmap.

The city, Austin Energy, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the University of Texas enlisted participation from Environmental Defense Fund, as well as some of the country’s best corporations, to provide technical and economic guidance and expertise during the first phase of the project. The goal is to design:

• A system that delivers plentiful, reliable and affordable power to our growing citizenry;
  
• A system that is responsible with our most precious natural resources, like our air and water;
  
• A system that can eliminate our need for more polluting power plants;
  
• A system that produces a power plant’s worth of energy, generated within the city limits via renewable resources;
  
• A system with a sound and sustainable business model; and
  
• A system to share with cities across America and around the world.
  

This project will help map the creation of the infrastructure needed to power Austin (and other U.S. cities), grow economies and preserve the environment.
During the first phase of the project, EDF will lead an effort to determine the technical details and economic challenges that must be met and prepare a set of solutions for the practical application of distributed generation in a real world utility environment.

For more information visit: www.pecanstreetproject.org