Ocean Power Conference in Lisbon - More than 100 Ocean Energy Experts to Participate

The Ocean Power conference takes place in Lisbon, Portugal, in just 10 days. With over 100 ocean energy experts set to attend, including 30 project and device developers, this event will provide an excellent networking platform for participants to address future business strategies in this expanding market.

The European Energy Association states that ‘the global theoretical potential of ocean energy has been estimated over 100.000 TWh/year (as a reference, the world’s electricity consumption is around 16.000 TWh/year). The global technical resource exploitable with today technology is estimated to be in the order of 45.000 TWh/year for wave energy; tidal current energy is in the order of 2.200 TWh/year, salinity gradient energy in the order of 20.000 TWh/year, and of ocean thermal energy in the order of 33.000 TWh/year.’

Ocean energy technologies are still in their infancy in comparison to other alternative energy sources, yet the market potential is huge and the rate of development is rapidly increasing. The past two years have been particularly exciting in terms of industry development, with the implementation of encouraging demonstration projects and the first commercial projects are now underway.

Amongst the participating companies:
Aquamarine Power, Hidroflot, Aquatera, Orecon, Pure Marine Gen, Wave Bob, Sea Energy, Vattenfall, Dong Energy, E.ON, ESB International, Garrad Hassan & Partners, Marine Current Turbines, AWS Ocean Energy, Ocean Power Technologies, OceanLinx, Ocean Wave Energy Company, Green Ocean Energy, Alstom Hydro, APEM, British Wind Energy Association, Coordinated Action on Ocean Energy, US Department of Energy, Ecofys, Elecnor, EMEC, Emerging Energy Research, EurOcean, European Ocean Energy Association, Generg Servicos, IEA-OES, INORE, International Power, Koralion Partners, MC Graca, Norvento, Ocean Wave Energy Company, Offshore Marine Management, Oregon Wave Energy Trust, Robotiker, S&C
http://www.greenpowerconferences.com/

3rd Renewable Energy India 2009 Expo

Starting today, the 3rd Renewable Energy India 2009 is a global platform to showcase the potential of power generation using renewable resources. The expo, adorning 3-day long concurrent conference sessions, is intended to be a forum to nurture business contacts, imbibe latest technological trends and prepare for the exponential growth of this sector in India.
August 10-13 2009, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India
http://www.renewableenergyindiaexpo.com/

"Home" premiere - an ode to the planet's beauty and its delicate harmony

The world premiere of “Home”, the documentary about the current state of the Earth, produced by French award-winning filmmaker Luc Besson and directed by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is available free to view on YouTube since the 5th of June, to mark and celebrate the 37 annual World Environment Day.
In the 90 minute full-length film, never-before-seen landscapes from the sky aim to raise awareness of the current state of planet Earth and demonstrate the urgency for more sustainable living.
"Home is an incredible movie that enables a global audience to experience our planet like never before through camerawork that helps us see landscapes from the sky so we can experience complicated environmental situations from above," said Mats Carduner, head of Google France and Southern Europe. "We're thrilled to work with renowned film creators Luc Besson and Yann Arthus-Bertrand to raise awareness of the state of our planet and to align with the television and movie industries as part of this initiative."
"The message in this film is incredibly important since it underscores the question of survival. It needs powerful and accessible platforms like YouTube and Google Maps to reach the largest audience", said Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Home director and producer. "It's too late to be pessimistic. Together we can still do something."
Watch movie: http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

NYISO to Host Symposium on Energy Efficiency, Demand Response and Advanced Metering

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) will host a symposium entitled “The Future is Now: Energy Efficiency, Demand Response and Advanced Metering” on June 27, 2007, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm, at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Hotel in Albany, NY.

The event will bring together state and federal policymakers, energy service providers and financial experts to address current issues in energy efficiency, demand response and advanced metering. Speakers are scheduled to address the present status and focus of federal and state policies and programs, the latest research in the field and the potential for increased investment in the sector.

The role of independent system operators, such as the NYISO, in facilitating demand-side management and renewable energy development is becoming increasingly evident. “Well-structured regional wholesale electricity markets operated independently allow far greater amounts of renewable energy and demand response resources to be integrated into the nation’s electric grid,” according to a February 26, 2007 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from the American Wind Energy Association and 21 other organizations supporting renewable power and energy efficiency.

“Governor Eliot Spitzer is promoting a clean energy strategy that includes reducing electricity use by 15 percent from forecasted levels by the year 2015. The New York State Public Service Commission has initiated a proceeding to establish an Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. The NYISO will play an integral role in assisting the Empire State to achieve its energy policy goals, and we are pleased to host this conference as part of that effort,” said Mark Lynch, NYISO President and CEO.

“The NYISO’s demand response programs are making important contributions in stabilizing the bulk electricity grid during peak demand periods. When heat waves pushed the demand for electricity to record levels in 2006, demand response provided nearly 16,500 megawatt-hours of load reduction – more than in any previous summer. This year, more than 2,500 end-use customers – accounting for more than 1,600 megawatts – are registered to participate in our demand response programs,” Mr. Lynch remarked.

Registration for the June 27 symposium is available on-line or visit the NYISO website (www.nyiso.com). There is no fee for the event, but those interested in attending must register by June 20.

Reporting from WINDPOWER 2007 - Wind Energy Industry Sets Bold Vision for Growth

Wind to Supply 20% of Nation's Electricity by 2030, says AWEA and industry leaders

[I am currently attending the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) WINDPOWER 2007 Conference, the wind energy industry's annual trade conference, in Los Angeles, CA. The conference is wrapping up today, and this is the first of a series of posts discussing the conference proceedings...]

The American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2007 conference is in full swing this week with conference attendance - the largest ever at nearly 7,000 attendees - providing clear evidence of the size and strength of the rapidly growing wind energy industry.

At the conference, which kicked off Sunday, June 3rd at the Los Angeles Convention Center, AWEA and industry leaders outlined a bold new vision for the wind energy industry: wind energy will provide 20% of the United States' electricity needs by 2030.

The 20% Vision was the general theme of this year's conference, the largest ever. Several panels and plenary sessions dealt with various aspects of what it would take to make this vision a reality.

AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher set the stage for the conference's theme, sharing the industry’s 20% Vision at the conference's opening plenary Monday morning — an initiative that the industry, AWEA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other stakeholders spent the last year working on after first unveiling it at WINDPOWER 2006 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“That’s a bold vision. It’s not a forecast, but it’s a plausible scenario,” said Swisher. “It requires a transformation of the industry.”

Swisher underscored the challenges of achieving such a vision and many of these challenges were the focus of panel discussions that followed over the next several days.

The 20% Vision would involve installing over 300 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy in the United States by 2030, AWEA estimates. Installed wind energy capacity in the United States is currently around 11,700 MW (11.7 GW), nearly 2,500 MW of which was installed in 2006. The panelists estimated that the wind industry would need to grow to the point where 15-20 GW of wind power is installed annually by the 2020s in order to achieve the 20% Vision's goal.

In order to reach the 20% benchmark Swisher and others highlighted the following two major challenges that the wind energy industry will need to address and overcome:

Policy Support: securing long-term, stable public policy support at a federal level will be key to achieving anything close to a 20% market penetration rate. AWEA and industry leaders have been focusing on two key pieces of federal legislation: a long-term extension of the the federal production tax credit (PTC) and a federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS).

Opening plenary speakers, including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, argued that these two policies are needed to be long-term and stable, enabling the industry’s value chain to be augmented and made more efficient.

Congress will likely vote on both a long-term PTC extension and a 15-20% federal RPS in the next two months and perhaps as soon as the next couple of weeks.

Transmission: A 20% level of wind penetration, which would mean installing over 300 GW in capacity, also requires building the necessary transmission infrastructure to carry wind power from wind-rich areas, often located far from populated areas in the American West and Mid-west, to load centers - i.e. cities and populated areas. Transmission constraints were a frequent topic of discussion at the conference and several panels focused on what it will take to build the necessary transmission infrastructure to support a major build out of wind energy in the United States.

As part of the 20% initiative, American Electric Power developed a map of what a major nationwide network of high-voltage transmission lines - renewable energy 'superhighways', as one panel presenter put it - might look like with 20% wind penetration. A national 'backbone' network of high-voltage (500 kV and higher) transmission lines would enable large amounts of power to flow from wind rich areas to populated areas, allowing the wind industry to tap the nation's best wind resources, currently stranded too far from existing transmission infrastructure and/or population centers.

The cost to build such an infrastructure would be roughly $60 billion, AEP concluded. It's worth noting that regardless of the role wind plays, the nation’s transmission infrastructure is in need of major upgrade due to both growing energy demand and a dearth of recent investment in the nation's transmission infrastructure.

I will take up both of these topics at greater detail in subsequent posts. These two issues - long-term, stable policy support and major investments in transmission infrastructure - were the two main 'take-home' issues from WINDPOWER 2007.

Panel speakers discussed several other challenges to the 20% wind vision.

Swisher said that for wind to realize its potential, geographically large electricity markets and regional transmission organizations such as the PJM Interconnection or Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs) would need to be the norm, thus maximizing wind’s strengths while minimizing its variable nature. Larger control areas and regional markets would minimize the effect of wind's intermittent nature on grid reliability and lower costs of wind integration.

Other challenges mentioned by Swisher and other conference panelists include the need to streamline the siting and permitting processes. The industry, various panelists mentioned, needs to find a way to streamline and standardize the current siting and permitting regime - which includes dozens of different processes that very on a state-by-state and even county-by-county basis - in order to effectively site and permit projects at the pace required to meet the 20% Vision's goal, which will likely require 15-20 GW of wind power installed annually.

In order to speed siting without sacrificing environmental protection, several panelists, including Julia Levin of the National Audubon Society, urged the industry to adopt strict and proactive industry best practices when it comes to siting and wildlife impacts mitigation. Strong self-regulation could establish a precedent that wind development can have minimal environmental impacts and would reduce the need for stringent environmental permitting regulations.

The conference was frequently abuzz with news about the Rahall Amendment to the upcoming House Energy Package that would have imposed what the wind industry argues are draconian environmental permitting requirements on wind development and even threatens wind developers and operators with jail time for violations. The amendment, proposed by Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, released a substitute amendment yesterday that would remove much of the contentious provisions. The amendment will be considered at a mark-up committee today.

(It's worth noting that Congressman Rahall, who hails from coal-rich West Virginia, has never been regarded as a friend of wildlife and no major environmental organizations were consulted about the amendment. National Audubon Society, NRDC and other wildlife champions have supported responsibly sited wind power development as a way to combat global warming and it's impact on wildlife and neither organization supports the Rahall Amendment)

Expanding the wind energy industry to provide 20% of the nation's electricity supply by 2030 would clearly involve a tremendous economic boom for the United States. Senator Daschle said the wind industry has the potential to have the “same economic impact as the dot-com revolution.”

Realizing the 20% Vision would also have significant impacts on the United States' greenhouse gas emissions. Several panelists pointed out that wind power is one of only a few existing, scalable carbon-free energy resources available to tackle the global warming imperative.

Steven Chalk, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the U.S. Department of Energy, said it is imperative that the nation scale up in wind power and other renewables. “Energy efficiency [alone] is not going to get us to our goals,” he said.

The opening plenary panel consensus was that, as Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, said, “Climate change will increasingly be the determining factor” in terms of policy affecting wind energy.

The public is coming to understand the necessity of addressing global warming and the importance of renewables, panelists said; however the industry needs to do even more in communicating this message, they argued. “I think one of our priorities has to be to make this case to the public,” said Robert Lukefahr, president, Power Americas at BP Alternative Energy.

The WINDPOWER 2007 conference's size and theme both indicate that the wind energy industry is no longer an "alternative energy" source, but is rather a mainstream industry poised to become a major contributor to U.S. electricity generation. There will still be challenges and growing pains ahead, but the U.S. wind industry is forging ahead to generate a significant share of U.S. electricity. The 20% by 2030 Vision will help the industry focus on overcoming these challenges and achieving industry goals.

AWEA and other partners will be publishing a 20% Vision roadmap report in the coming months.

[A hat tip to Carl Levesque of AWEA for his reporting from the conference.]

Roosevelt Energy alternative energy conference

Hello everyone!

It's great to be a part of cleanergy.org! I wanted to let everyone know about a very exciting alternative energy conference happening this coming October in the beautiful city of Madison, Wisconsin. I am part of a student-run group, Roosevelt Energy (part of the US-based Roosevelt Institution), and I would love to get some feedback from cleanergy readers. If you were to go to a conference like this, who would you like to hear speak? Is there anything in particular you would like to do or receive? Any comments about anything would be wonderful.

And just fyi, the conference is slotted for October 5 - 7, 2007 in Madison. We would love to have you join us!

Please check out our website at www.rooseveltenergy.org, and contact me at schaffer@rooseveltenergy.org. I'll be sure to keep you all posted as to the line-up of speakers once we begin finalizing them.

Thank you very much!

John Doerr about Cleantech Investing at TED Conference

Intersolar 2007 set to break all records again (June 21-23, Freiburg, Germany)

As in previous years, the international trade fair Intersolar 2007 reflects the dynamically growing solar technology industry in Europe. After the tremendous growth of the last few years, this year has once again seen the leading trade fair achieve record growth. Compared with last year, the number of exhibitors is up from 454 to 600, while the exhibition space has been increased from 26,000 square metres to 34,000 square metres.
http://www.intersolar.de

California Clean Energy Fund Conference, June 18th

The California Clean Energy Fund will hold an all day conference to "assess California's progress in turning clean energy policy initiatives and technology breakthroughs into market realities."

Sessions will focus on detailing specific ways in which public policy and the private market are both working and struggling to bring clean technologies to scale.

Michael Peevey, who is a CalCEF Board Member, commented in the official press release that it is important to take "a hard look at the tough road still ahead and engaging in a frank discussion that tackles the challenges we face."

The full-day event, sponsored in part by PG&E, Nth Power, VantagePoint Venture Partners, DFJ Element, Nixon Peabody LLC and New Resource Bank, and managed by Global Inventures, includes a rich program comprising panels and keynotes examining:

- The role of high-tech entrepreneurs in building the market for clean
energy
- Whether existing policy efforts and the surge in private financing have
the clean energy industry positioned for success
- Challenges and successes from the investor's perspective
- What it takes to drive clean energy innovations in California
- Energy efficiency and innovation in transportation technologies
- How entrepreneurs can partner with regulated corporate entities to
advance clean energy innovation
- Major challenges California faces in terms of policy and business
climate
- Economic and employment-related benefits of the clean energy transition

CalCEF to Host Its First Annual Conference Detailing California's Transformation as a Driver of Clean Energy Initiatives [Offical Press Release]