Recommended Events
Please see below for descriptions, pictures, and videos from select non-BERC energy and resources events that may be of special interest to our members.
Beveragess with BlueEnergy
Tue. Dec. 1, 2009 |6:30pm | 2181 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704
Providing energy in a developing area is tough. Doing this in a region that lacks a functioning economy is nearly impossible. Come learn how one Berkeley alumn is doing just that.
blueEnergy develops renewable energy and water sanitation solutions for isolated communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. Inspired by his coursework at Berkeley, Mathias Craig founded blueEnergy to address the developmental challenges faced by communities that have no access to energy, roads, communication devices or many of the other basic measures of development. By operating in a sparsely populated area away from any major cities, blueEnergy faces challenges different than those faced by organizations that work within an urban or near-urban area. As an engineer, Mathias was intrigued by the technical challenges involved in this proposition; as a Berkeley grad, he was excited by the opportunity to overcome these challenges.
Mathias invites you to join him to discuss the practical of implications of making development on the edge of the world work.
Please RSVP by Sunday, November 29!
Cleantech Open Awards Gala
Nov. 17, 2009 | 10am-7pm | The Masonic Center, 111 California Street, San Francisco
Complete Information Available Here.
The culmination of the world’s largest clean technology business competition is our annual Awards Gala designed to showcase the boldest cleantech ideas, the most ambitious entrepreneurs and the brightest, most engaged investors, venture capitalists and prospective technology customers.
Expo starts at 10am
Demo/Pitch Session start at 1pm
Awards Gala starts at 4:30pm
Reception and Reopened Gala starts at 6pm
BERC Student Members are eligible for substantially discounted $45 tickets. Use the event code "BERCGala" when you register and bring your student ID to the event.
U.S.-China Green Tech Summit
Nov. 16-17, 2009 | All day | Grand Hyatt Beijing, Beijing, China
The U.S. and China are the world's leading emitters of GHGs. However, due to thier economic strength and substantial technological capacity, both countries have great potential to meet the need for climate change mitigation through the development of clean technology. The degree to which these countries succeed in taking this opportunity will depend greatly upon how we work together, learn from each other, and push each other to work harder to identify and fulfillthese needs. The Green Tech Summit is an opportunity for the world to see some of the largest projects that these nations have put together towards meeting climate change mitigation and energy use rationalization goals and to compare these projects to find thier strengths and weaknesses. See the Summit's website for more information.
The Summit's U.S. team is looking for undergraduate and graduate students to help the planning and implementation effort. In particular interns are needed in the areas of web technology, graphic design, data management, communications and marketing, and english to Chinese translations of the summit's U.S. materials. Please contact Martha Serianz, the U.S. Director of the Green Tech Summit, for more information.
Professor Dan Farber: Addressing Climate Change: Where are We Now? What Happens Next?
Nov. 2, 2009 | 6-8pm | Goldberg Room, UC Berkeley School of Law
International negotiations are coming up in Copenhagen, and the Senate is considering new climate legislation. In the meantime, action is already taking place -- in the European Union, in California, at U.S. EPA, and before the federal courts. Dan Farber - Chair of the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Professor of Law - reviews the state of play and discusses upcoming developments.
Please find more information and purchase $5 ticket for hors d'oeuvres/soft drinks here.
Sponsored by the University of Illinois Alumni Club the San Francisco Bay Area.
6:00-6:30 - Check-In/Networking (hors d'oeuvres/soft drinks served)
6:30-7:30 - Presentation by Prof. Farber
7:30-8:00 - Q&A/Networking.
Conference on Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer in the U.N. Climate Negotiations
Oct. 26 - 27, 2009 | 9am-4pm | Sutardja Dai Hall, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), UC Berkeley
The Center for Environmental Public Policy is convening a conference about one of the key stumbling blocks in the U.N. climate negotiations – the debate over the role of intellectual property rights in the transfer of emissions-reducing technologies to developing nations.
The chief intent of this program is to facilitate expert discussion among clean tech stakeholders with the aim of preventing a negotiating impasse and controversy over IPR issues at the climate negotiations. The Copenhagen summit in December 2009 has the daunting task of drawing up a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, yet the chances of an agreement are increasingly uncertain.
MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE.
2009 Energy Justice Conference and Appropriate Technology Arcade
Oct. 23 - 24 | all day | University of Colorado, Boulder
The Conference brings together leading international and U.S. decision-makers in politics, engineering, public health, law, business, economics, and innovators in the sciences to explore how to address the critical needs of the energy-oppressed poor (EOP) through long-term interdisciplinary action, information sharing, and deployment of appropriate sustainable energy technologies.
The Energy Justice Conference features several prominent UC Berkeley researchers, including Dan Farber (Chair of ERG, Professor of Law), Ashok Gadgil (Senior Staff Scientist at LBNL - EETD, Professor of Engineering), and Kirk Smith (Proffessor of Global Environmental Health). BERC Co-President Sarah Barker-Ball will also speak about the role of student organizations in affecting change in the energy sector, using BERC as the primary example.
MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE.
Science at the Theatre - Hope or Hype? What's nExt for Biofuels?
Sept. 28, 2009 | 7-8:30pm | Berkeley Repertory Theater (Roda Stage), 2015 Addison St, Berkeley
From
the sun to your gas tank:Can a new breed of biofuels help solve the
global energy challenge and reduce the impact of fossil fuels on global
warming? A diverse audience filled the Berkeley Rep to hear three
Berkeley Lab experts --Jay Keasling, Jim Bristow and Susannah Green
Tringe -- together with moderator John Fowler, KTVU health and science
editor, discuss how fast science is moving from genomes to
"grassoline."
More information on the event available from LBNL.
Science at the Theatre - Jon Fowler: Hot Technology, Cool Science
May 11, 2009 | 7-8:30pm | Berkeley Repetory Theatre (Roda Stage), 2015 Addison St, Berkeley
KTVU Channel 2's Jon Fowler led an engaging discussion of technology in research and products that may enter markets soon. The phylo chip, a handheld DNA probe, can identify the bacteria in a given sample; useful for health and environment quality assessments. A flat battery presents a possible breakaway from highly flammable liquid cylindrical batteries and excellent for powering electric cars. Computers were not invented with energy efficiency in mind but Berkeley Lab proposes Green Flash, a computer that runs using the same technology used in cell phones. And for our roofs, cool roofing material works to limit building energy use.
Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference –- Energy Storage: Enhancing the Value of Renewables
May 6, 2009 | 12-7pm | Lawrence Hall of Science
More than 200 attendees – approximately 30% students and 70% professionals – made their way up to the Lawrence Hall of Science for the 3rd Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference. After welcoming remarks, a panel of representatives from PG&E, MDV, Better Place, MegaWatt Storage Farms, Greentech Media and McKinsey & Co discussed different policy approaches to accelerate the adoption of energy storage technologies and what it would take for energy storage to scale up. Experts from different renewable energy and battery companies, including Seeo, EnerVault, Solar Reserve and EPRI then engaged in a panel discussion about the application of different energy storage technologies, the markets these technologies address and the synergies with renewable power generation, particularly reducing variability of clean sources. Guest Speaker Michael Liebreich presented a detailed perspective on the investment in clean energy worldwide and closing Keynote speaker Commissioner Jeff Byron talked about the complementary role of different smart energy approaches such as energy storage, energy efficiency and conservation. Find slides and videos at the conference website.
James McMahon, LBL Department Head, Energy Analysis: Addressing Climate Change with Energy Efficient Solutions in Buildings and Industry
April 8, 2009 | 4-5:30 | 110 Barrows Hall
Dr. McMahon believes the three steps to mitigating greenhouse emissions are through energy efficiency, 'decarbonization', and lifestyle changes. With the example of the refrigerator, he illustrated that with research and development we can deploy more energy efficient technology while updating current buildings to be more energy efficient. For example, the naturally ventilated San Francisco Federal Building evinces technological capacity; political and social will to implement such technologies appears to be simultaneously increasing, as indicated by forward thinking policies such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to "green" the House. Click here to see Dr. McMahon’s slide presentation.
Orville Schell, Dean at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society: Why It’s Not Possible to Solve Climate Change Without China
April 6, 2009 | 6-7pm | Sibley Auditorium
Mr. Schell’s presentation about China and climate change centered upon one simple message: the US and China need to cooperate at scale and speed if either is going to realize its obligations and opportunities in climate change mitigation. The Asia Society, of which Mr. Schell is a director, has recently published a comprehensive report, Common Challenge, Collaborative Response: A Roadmap for US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change, which highlights several areas that such cooperative efforts should target as priorities: deploying low carbon emissions technologies, improving energy efficiency and conservation, developing an advanced electric grid, promoting renewable energy, and quantifying emissions and financing low carbon technologies. Mr. Schell and his team will be meeting with high level leadership in China this next week to start gauging the response to the report. Download the report here. You can watch a webcast of Mr. Schell’s talk here.
SCience at the Theatre - Cyrus Wadia, LBNL: How to Bring Solar Energy to Seven Billion PeoplE
April 6, 2009 | 7-8:30pm | Berkeley Repertory Theatre
To a full house of 400 people at the Berkeley Rep, Cyrus Wadia provided an in-depth look at his research to discover and develop a new material system toward a more expansive solar photovoltaic future. He substantiates on what is required for solar to reach the 1.2BB people living without electricity today. He covers topics of: the history of photovoltaic R&D efforts; material selection based on abundance, new synthetic pathways for scaleable materials, and preliminary results of working solar cell devices he has fabricated with these principles in mind. See the video of Cyrus’s talk here. - http://berc.berkeley.edu/video
Anthony D. Barnosky - Heatstroke: Nature in Age of Global Warming
April 1, 2009
Ecosystem services, biodiversity and the feeling of wilderness are being threatened by the 'gang of four' - global warming, habitat fragmentation, exotic species, and a growing human population. These four are acting in concert, contributing to amphibian decline in Yellowstone National Park and declining numbers of cheetahs on the African continent. Barnosky's book Heatstroke addresses those situations and suggests that slowing global warming, keeping established nature preserves and creating new ways of nature conservation would mitigate the damage of this perfect storm on nature. And be prepared to expect nature surprises like the pizzly - a polar bear and grizzly bear offspring!
Malo Ander Hutson, Professor of City & Regional Planning: Urban Sustainability and Community Development
March 20, 2009
Professor Hutson defines urban sustainability as an urban community with "an environmental, economical, and social system that is able to maintain a high quality of life for its current and future generations". To do this, we must start "doing green". Professor suggests we touch upon four areas: economy, environment, equity, and health. His suggestions include the need to create careers for people in renewable energy, develop more efficient land use, develop sustainable initiatives, and to do community-inclusive land planning. Though these ideas require great efforts, regional planning will depend on the state and federal government responses to economical challenges and the future of the stimulus bill. More information on the Economic Recovery Package can be found here.
Tom Allnut: Expansion of Marine and Terrestrial Protected Areas in Madagascar
March 12, 2009
REBIOMA is a data management project started to address the endemism and mammals threatened by deforestation from agriculture. This database research project included the UC Berkeley Claire Kremen Lab. Analysis conducted by the project has successfully pushed the Madagascan government to commit to protecting 12% of its protected areas. Currently a project the conserve 6 million hect-acres of terrestrial land is coming to a completion while a proposed project to understand the biodiversity of marine life of Madagascar is just beginning. With political instability in Madagascar, the future of the conserving marine areas are in question yet the REBIOMA project continues capacity building with local Madagascans.
Redwoods and Climate Change—A Strategic Research and Monitoring Initiative
March 5, 2009
Dan Porter of Save the Redwoods League delivered an inspiring seminar regarding the Redwood and Climate Change Initiative. Save the Redwood League, in partnership with researchers from UC Berkeley and Humbolt State University, is in the midst of establishing a general model program to understand the Redwood’s ability to survive and adapt to climate change. The program hopes to understand the trees’ response to past climate changes and establish research plots in Redwood Reserves in Northern California to model future global and regional climate change. More information or comments regarding this initiative can be directed to Dan Porter.
Clifford Rechtschaffen - Climate Change: The View from the California Attorney General's Office
March 3, 2009 | 12:30-1:45pm | 140 Boalt Hall
Clifford Rechtschaffen is a Special Assistant Attorney General in the California Attorney General’s Office. His presentation summarized California’s actions related to global warming, which was good background for some, and common knowledge for others, but he also focused in detail on the Attorney General’s actions. This is where it got really interesting. Jerry Brown has been extremely active, suing cities that fail to consider climate change in their general plans, and debating global warming skeptics such as Pat Buchanan. Mr. Rechtschaffen showed an entertaining clip from CNBC, which closed with Jerry Brown almost shouting: “Pat Buchanan is wrong, and he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about!”. Great stuff.
A lot of the questions centered around the federalism and preemption issues that will be raised as both the state and the federal government attack the problem of climate change, an issue that CLEE will be covering extensively at their conference in Washington, that will be simulcast at Boalt.
Unleashing the Clean Energy Economy—Speakers: Michael Shellenberger and Peter Barnes
February 18, 2009 | 5:30-6:30pm | 170 Boalt Hall
The Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) debate between Michael Shellenberger and Peter Barnes provided two innovative and powerful perspectives on how to mitigate climate change and emerge into a clean energy economy. Shellenberger, best known for co-authoring “The Death of Environmentalism” and Break Through as well as co-founding the Breakthrough Institute, presented his argument that only innovation and new technologies being developed and deployed on a massive scale can achieve the level of carbon emission reductions necessary to stem off catastrophic climate change. He further argued that in the long history of new technologies replacing existing ones, there has never been a case where innovation or adoption came about as a result of making an old technology more expensive. Instead, new technologies must be made effective and cheap in order to compete and edge out coal and petroleum. To achieve this, Shellenberger argued for a massive investment of $500 billion over a ten year period to spur research, design, development, and deployment of a wide range of clean energy sources.
Peter Barnes, a successful entrepreneur and President of Cap and Dividend, focused largely on the danger of not having a guarantee that the necessary emissions reductions would occur. Failure to reach 350 parts per million CO2 would be “like playing Russian Roulette with the planet”. As such, the cap and dividend strategy would ratchet down emissions by capping carbon as it enters the economy and reducing levels by roughly 2% per year through 2050. The market would set the prices and efficiently reduce emissions, and every American with a social security card would receive equal dividends monthly to compensate them for the expected increase in energy prices. This solution fixes the market failure in which the true cost of carbon isn't paid, and at the same time rewards those who conserve and punishes those who “guzzle”. In addition, this plan's strength is its simplicity: an upstream cap requires little oversight and the automatic dividend system can be done electronically with minimal costs. Notably, Barnes agreed that large investments in clean energy technologies should be made in addition to the Cap and Dividend scheme.
Shellenberger further challenged Barnes on the geographic inequities of his proposal, arguing that those who care less about global warming and can least afford the increased energy prices will pay the most in this scheme because they rely on coal for their electricity needs due to their location in the Midwest and other regions. Furthermore, he suggested that there was no history to support the concept of increasing prices in order to spur technology transformation, “We didn't get computers by making typewriters expensive”.
Download Mr. Shellenberger's slides as jpegs or his entire powerpoint.
Paul Sabin - The Energy Crisis and Climate Change: Lessons from History
February 9, 2009 | 12:30-1:45pm | Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall
Professor Sabin, who teaches History and Environmental Studies at Yale University, asked thoughtful questions regarding the role of history in framing contemporary energy and climate policy. He addressed: (1) how history is currently framing and influencing energy and climate policy?; (2) what historical lessons might enhance our thinking about climate change and energy?; and (3) what kind of histories should we write and tell about energy and climate change?
Sabin argued that we should strive to understand lessons from historical narratives, rather than seeking concrete practical guidance for our future. For example, additions of new major energy sources in the past have not replaced existing sources, but rather been used in addition to them. Thus, we should be skeptical of the proposition that new renewable energy generation can replace our dependence on fossil fuels.
Peggy Liu, Chairperson of the Joint US-China Cooperation on Clean Energy (JUCCCE): Can China Go Green?
February 5, 2009 | 12:30-2pm | Haas School of Business
JUCCCE Chairperson Peggy Liu discussed the possibility of China going big and green at the same time, and the efforts of JUCCCE to work within China to offer policy and professional leaders opportunities to tap into the clean tech economy and guide China towards harmonious development. JUCCCE programs focus on delivering near-term results in areas of greatest impact to transform the way China uses and creates energy. Established in 2007, JUCCCE has offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, and Beijing, and offers many volunteer opportunities to get involved in this exciting field. For more information, please visit www.juccce.com.
