Editor’s note: Keith Aldridge is vice president of Business Development at Advanced Energy.
RALEIGH, N.C. - “How will North Carolina integrate economics, behavior, supply and delivery strategies to shape our energy landscape?” That was the question for last week’s Sustainable Energy Conference, which generated more interest than even organizers imagined.
They expected less than 100 people would participate in the smart grid conference kicking off the three-day event held at NC State University’s McKimmon Conference and Training Center, yet more than 300 attended.
By April 17, the closing day, a total of 1,008 had taken part in the conference, the most in the event’s history, all actively involved in discussions about issues crucial to our state’s future.
I attribute this turnout to several factors. One is that businesses and their leaders recognize they have many opportunities to profit from products they develop that will maximize energy efficiency and renewability. Sustainable energy offers commercial enterprises genuine moneymaking potential – if they follow the federal government’s technical and policy standards for the smart grid, which is a system designed to store and distribute renewable energy production. The latter condition has been one problem hindering the industry’s growth, and it has affected hundreds of businesses.
Addressing that situation, keynote speaker Eric Lightner, director of the Federal Smart Grid Task Force with the U.S. Department of Energy, emphasized that his department is writing and developing official standards for use throughout the country. This improvement will help provide businesses with the guidance they need to create items on the smart grid that function as well in homes as they do in developmental laboratories.
Regarding the smart grid, Lightner described its status as an evolving concept, with many companies in the Triangle trying to incorporate being part of it and evaluate its effect on consumers.
The smart grid is one of three key issues discussed in the conference which play a part in establishing the Triangle as the second cleantech cluster in the United States, behind San Diego. The others are transportation and water, where we will need to adapt our approaches if we intend to be successful in this area.
While our water energy potential is huge, we too often waste our freshwater supplies unnecessarily. Conference speakers noted we could cool the towers of nuclear plants using treated sewage water with no change in the quality of electricity generated. Expect to hear the phrase “fit to use” more in the future when people discuss how to best implement our precious water resources – is it fit to use the same clean water for drinking and washing our clothes to sprinkle our lawns, for example?
For transportation, the challenge is developing a regional sustainable energy approach at home and in the office. We already have electric automobiles in the Triangle, but we need the infrastructure to support more utilization of them beyond electric fueling stations. We must have a system in place that allows for greater ease of charging vehicles wherever we are located in the Triangle. Many of our regional planners are tracking
Another item that struck me from nearly every speaker I heard is that natural gas is an ally of renewable energy and efficiency. The fuel does generate some pollution, but it burns cleaner than many other sources we use. Despite the aim of the conference, we know that renewable and efficiency alone will fail to solve all energy problems in the future, and the growth of natural gas is an encouraging addition to our resources.
Throughout the speeches, networking and 27 informational sessions available for attendees to enjoy, I was impressed by the efforts shown at this conference of our industry, the N.C. Energy Division of the state’s Department of Commerce, utilities and businesses all working together to build sustainable energy processes for our state’s future growth.
We have the elements in place and the determination to reach this goal, including the economic incentive for companies to capitalize on the issue. Through effective collaborations on projects, I am confident the Triangle will be a leader for the creation and installation of energy efficient and renewable devices and processes in our daily lives at work and at home.
Editor’s note: Advanced Energy was a bronze sponsor for the 10th Annual Sustainable Energy Conference. For more information, visit the Advanced Energy website at www.advancedenergy.org.
