Energy Technology Demonstration Facility (ETDF)

Executive Summary

An Energy Technology Demonstration Facility (ETDF) is being developed at King Countys new $1.8B wastewater treatment facility near Woodinville, WA.  The 114 acre parcel includes a former brownfield site, redeveloped for industrial use. 

This project site has many important features

• An 8400 sqft Energy Technology Demonstration Facility
• The Brightwater wastewater treatment facility
• A Regional Community Environmental & Energy Education Center (Center)
• A 72 acre public Environmental Park

The goal of the ETDF is to be a versatile platform for researchers, manufacturers, and interns in the Pacific Northwest to use to design and test a wide variety of experimental, near, and commercially ready, equipment using methane gas from the plant as fuel, as needed. 

ETDF devices will be displayed to students and the general public to help increase demand for these products, and provide additional economic development to the region.  Visitors will also learn about the innovative processes being used by King County at the wastewater plant, and explore Energy Sustainability themes and topics while at the Center.

The ETDF is designed as a platform to do research on, test, and demonstrate many different types of clean energy technologies, to include, but not limited to

1- Biogas reformers, digester gas processing

2. Electrical and thermal generation devices might include Stirling engines, fuel cells, micro-turbines, PV, solar/thermal, micro wind turbines and small reciprocating engines.

3- Electrical and thermal storage.  Examples are: batteries, capacitors, flywheels, phase change and a wide variety of other UPS devices

4- Electrical and thermal monitoring.  For example: inverters, power quality, power monitoring, and smart grid devices.

The Project Team will help provide a how-to template for organizations wanting to incorporate certain pieces of equipment into their own infrastructure

Project Team, Funding, & Status: Friends of the Hidden River, a 501(c)(3) non profit, working with King County, developed broad support for the project and secured funding for the feasibility and design of the ETDF through a series of State of Washington Community grants. CH2MHill and Mithun Architects are performing the design work.

• The ETDF design is estimated to be complete December 2008.
• Construction cost is presently estimated at $1.8M. 

Long-term funding for operation of the ETDF is planned to come from a mix of private and public sources. 

Training and Education: The project team is developing a long-term agreement for student interns at the site to enable cutting edge technologies to be incorporated into engineering and energy-related curriculum and coursework.

Project Support and Commitment: The project team is gathering letters of support for this project and letters of commitment from vendors and potential tenants who have an interest in using the facility to research, develop and display their products.

Contacts:  King County:  David Van Holde 206-296-3748   John Komorita 206-263-9459

      Friends:          Chuck Collins  206-351-1507         John Schmied   206-714-4742

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