7th annual Energy Transition Symposium — Monday, October 30 & Tuesday, October 31.
Symposium was free of charge.
Click here to register to view post-event videotaped sessions
Click to download printable agenda: Full Agenda in Brief — Oct 30-31 energy transition symposium
Click here to view pictures from this year’s symposium
Monday - October 30, 2017
10:30 - 7:00 pm: Exhibits and energy-related posters
10:30 - 11:15 am: Networking and registration
11:15 - 12:45 am: Women in Clean Energy lunch
Men & women in all energy-related fields encouraged to attend!!
11:15 - 11:30 am: Welcome and Introductions
Maury Dobbie, Symposium Chair, Assistant Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Executive Director, Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory
11:30 - 12:35 pm: Panel “Unleashing the Power of Women in an Ever-Changing Energy Landscape”
Panelists will address areas where women can help produce a favorable business climate while meeting environmental, climate, social justice, job creation, economic development impacts and community goals. This panel of distinguished women executives will share their stories and observations as they moved through their respective careers.
Moderator: Bobi Garrett, Deputy Laboratory Director & Chief Operating Officer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Panelist #1: Amy Halloran, Sr. Manager, Renewable Energy Technologies; Wind, Water, Solar, and Geothermal Energy Programs Sandia National Laboratories
Panelist #2: Laura Nelson, Governor’s Energy Advisor and Executive Director, Utah Governor’s Office of Energy Development
Panelist #3: Cathy Woollums, Senior Vice President, Environmental Services and Chief Environmental Counsel, Berkshire Hathaway Energy
12:35 - 12:45 pm: Next Steps and Future Vision for Colorado C3E’s vision for “Unleashing the Power of Women in Energy”: Dawn Putney, Owner/Founder, Toolbox Creative and Colorado C3E board member.
1:00 - 2:00 pm: Grand Challenge #1 Decarbonizing Fossil Fuels
With the world reaching near-total consensus on the seriousness of climate change impacts, efforts have intensified many-fold to find ways of reducing carbon emissions. One of the avenues being explored is ‘decarbonization’ of fossil fuel use by either decarbonizing the fuels before they are burnt or by capturing the CO2 they emit on combustion. In this session the various available options are reviewed in the context of their economic and environmental viability.
Moderator: Mark Northam, Founding Director, Executive Director, School of Energy Resources, University of Wyoming
Panelist #1: Jennifer Wilcox, Associate Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines
Panelist #2: Kipp Coddington, Director, Energy Policy & Economics & Director, Carbon Management Institute, University of Wyoming
Panelist #3: Larry Baxter, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Brigham Young University
2:10 - 3:10 pm: Grand Challenge #2 Clean Energy Leadership by Cities, States, and Corporations
Given the current uncertainty regarding federal leadership on climate, response is increasingly being shouldered by cities, states, and corporations. This session explores their boots-on-the-ground initiatives aimed at local and regional clean energy strategies.
Moderator: Judy Dorsey, Principal, Brendle Group
Panelist #1: Mark Hartman, Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Phoenix
Panelist #2: Mark Pischea, President, Conservative Energy Network
Panelist #3: Joe Reynolds, Chairman, Nevada Public Utilities Commission
3:20 - 4:20 pm: Grand Challenge #3 Effective Cyber and Energy Security
The national energy network in the United States consists of a highly interlinked set of electric lines, pipelines, roads, rail lines, generating assets, and sprawling distribution grids. Coordination of these complex assets is through computer networks that are the subject of increasing concerns about vulnerability to malicious hacking, weather events, national disasters or inadvertent system failures. This session explorers the issue of vulnerability of the information networks that control our energy infrastructure.
Moderator: Alan Rudolph, Vice President of Research, Colorado State University
Panelist #1: Andy Bochman, Senior Cyber and Energy Security Strategist, Idaho National Labs
Panelist #2: Steve Brown, Vice President & Chief Security Officer, Xcel Energy
Panelist #3: Donald Paul, Executive Director, University of Southern California Energy Institute, William M. Keck Chair of Energy Resources, Research Professor of Engineering
4:30 - 5:10 pm: MJ Bradley - Natural Gas Supply Collaborative Report
The Natural Gas Supply Collaborative (NGSC) is a voluntary collaborative of natural gas purchasers, including natural gas distribution companies and electric generating companies, that are interested in promoting safe and sustainable practices for the supply of natural gas. America’s abundant natural gas resource offers significant economic and environmental benefits to consumers. At the same time, many stakeholders are calling on the natural gas industry to provide more information related to sustainability practices associated with natural gas production. This effort intends to encourage voluntary reporting to address how natural gas producers work to protect the environment and local communities by identifying a concise set of non-financial performance indicators that respond to stakeholder questions. The group believes reporting on these indicators serves both NGSC participants and producers. This report will be officially released to the public at 8:00 am MT on October 30 at the energy transition symposium. Click here for the press release that will go live at 8:00 am MT on October 30. For more information. Click here for the report.
Click here for Press Release: NGSCPressFinal
Moderator: Bill Ritter, Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University
Panelist #1: Robert LaCount, Executive Vice President, M.J. Bradley and Associates
Panelist #2: Kate Fay, Environmental and Regulatory Policy Manager, Noble Energy
Panelist #3: Cheryl Campbell, Senior Vice President of Gas, Xcel Energy
5:10 - 6:00 pm: Public Reception (appetizers served, cash bar)
6:00 - 7:00 pm: Evening Keynote Address
Amory Lovins, co-founder and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute
Moderated discussion by Bill Ritter, Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, former Colorado Governor
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Tuesday - October 31, 2017
7:00 - 8:00 am: Registration, breakfast, networking
7:00 - 5:00 pm: Exhibits and energy-related posters open
8:00 - 9:15 am: Welcome and Session 1 - Setting the Stage
As societies transition to more interconnected and interdependent energy systems over the next number of decades, we will be faced with several transitional challenges in cyber and energy security, social and economic justice, the management of environmental impacts and resource conflicts, evolving policy and regulatory landscapes, and the need for new business models to drive innovation in energy production, distribution, and end-use. This session will explore these and other energy challenges that lie ahead.
Moderator: Cherry Murray, Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor of Physics, Harvard University former Director, Office of Science, Department of Energy
Panelist #1: Jon Goldin-Dubois, President, Western Resource Advocates
Panelist #2: Austin Brown, Executive Director, UC Davis Policy Institute
Panelist #3: Jim Piro, CEO of Portland General Electric
9:20 - 10:20 am: Session 2 -Behavioral and Human Dimensions
Understanding human behavior and social structures are critical to achieving energy and climate goals. As we drive vehicles and use energy to service our homes and workplaces, human behavior is a central part of optimizing energy performance. For this reason, energy professionals working to promote new energy initiatives are beginning to factor behavioral dynamics into their plans. Likewise, technological advances in artificial intelligence, smart controls, and automation enable new interactions between users and energy systems. At the community and structural levels, various considerations related to energy poverty and access to affordable technologies must be centrally considered in discussions of human behavior and interactions with energy systems. This session explores the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of energy users and the energy systems around them as well as structural insights into how people consume and can access different energy sources.
Moderator: Stephanie Malin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Colorado State University
Panelist #1: Bas van Ruijven, Project Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder
Panelist #2: Dave Ciplet, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Colorado-Boulder
Panelist #3: Richard Caperton, Director, National Policy and Partnerships, Oracle
10:30 - 11:50 am: Session 3 -The Grand Challenges Facing our Country: Solutions and Innovations
This session provides several excellent examples of how research scientists are solving the complex energy issues our world is facing today. From new methods of producing energy to mitigating environmental impacts to improving the efficiency of end-use systems, listen as researchers share information on technologies nearing commercial viability.
Moderator: Bryan Willson, Director, Energy Institute, Colorado State University
Panelist #1: CSU Technology for Optimizing Logistics in Produced Water Management – Ashwin Dhanasekar, Research Associate at CSU and Assistant Director for Center for Energy Water Sustainability
Panelist #2: Methane Emissions – Greg Rieker, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado
Panelist #3: Carbon Fiber for Wind Technologies – Derek Berry, Senior Engineer, NREL
Panelist #4: Carbon Capture, Reuse & Sequestration – Mark Northam, Executive Director, School of Energy Resources, University of Wyoming
Panelist #5: The Future for Coal Use in the U.S. – Eric Eddings, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Utah
Panelist #6: Low-cost Technologies to Quantify Pollutants in Air and Water — Chuck Henry, Chair of Chemistry, Colorado State University
Panelist #7: Autonomous Vehicles – Tom Bradley, Assoc Professor of Mechanical, Engineering & Systems, Colorado State University
Panelist #8: Bioenergy from Beetle-Kill Wood: the BANR Project — John Field, Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, CSU
11:50 - 12:30 pm: Lunch served, networking, exhibits open
12:30 - 1:30 pm: Session 4 Governors’ Lunch Keynote Panel
Governors can inspire non-partisan collaborations and regional cooperation by creating mutually beneficial initiatives and outcomes in a complex world of energy transitions. This session will explore issues and opportunities facing Governors in the ever-changing landscape of energy development, technology innovation, and shifting consumer needs for energy.
Moderator: Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter
Panelist #1: Governor John Hickenlooper (D)
Panelist #2: Wyoming Governor Matt Mead (R)
Panelist #3: Montana Governor Steve Bullock (D)
1:40 - 2:40 pm: Session 5 - Repowering the Western Economy
The changes underway in the electricity sector are accelerating even though the Clean Power Plan is being withdrawn by EPA. With no federal mandate, utilities and commissions must make 20-year investment decisions in the face of tremendous uncertainty. This panel will discuss the key issues facing electric utilities, state policy makers, cities, and corporations as part of the transition to a low-carbon electric grid. The panel will also examine the new opportunities for electric utilities to expand their businesses and lower emissions by electrifying the transportation sector and other energy end uses and powering those sectors with clean electricity.
Moderator: Patrick Cummins, Senior Policy Advisor, Center for the New Energy Economy
Panelist #1: Laura Nelson, Governor’s Energy Advisor and Executive Director, Utah Governor’s Office of Energy Development
Panelist #2: Cathy Woollums, Senior Vice President, Environmental Services and Chief Environmental Counsel, Berkshire Hathaway Energy
Panelist #3: Jeff Ackermann, Chairman, Colorado Public Utilities Commission
2:50 - 3:50 pm: Session 6 A Global Perspective: How is the World Energy Economy Transitioning?
This panel session will discuss megatrends and associated challenges relating to energy security and the impending transition to low carbon energy future on a global scale.
Moderator: Morgan DeFoort, CEO and co-founder of Factor[e] Ventures
Panelist #1: Rod Rinholm, Executive Director, Business Development & Education, Gas Technology Institute
Panelist #2: Geoff Houlton, General Manager-Marketing Strategy & Fundamentals, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Panelist #3: Morgan Bazilian, Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
4:00 - 5:00 pm: Session 7 - Capstone
As the Capstone Session, the panelists will recap what has been discussed during the two day energy transition symposium. In addition, they will explore how the procurement goals of the largest energy consumers are changing the markets and creating economic drivers for renewables. Industry executives and public sector leaders will provide insights on how cities, states and large corporations are making decisions that will drive energy markets. The panelists will discuss ideas for a path forward. What will the major drivers be over the next decade and how will utilities, states, technology and research need to evolve?
Moderator: Bill Ritter, Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University
Panelist #1: David Eves, President, Xcel Energy-Colorado
Panelist #2: Rose McKinney-James, Managing Principal, Energy Works, LLC, McKinney-James & Assoc.
Panelist #3: Dan Arvizu, former Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory now Director Emeritus
5:00 pm: Adjourn