Live from DC - The Energy Summit

Here in the Newseum in Washington , DC, many of the leaders of the United States are all in one room focused on clean energy. To name a few:

1. Majority Leader Harry Reid

2. Speaker Nancy Pelosi

3. DOE Secretary Steve Chu

4. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

5. Energy Czar Carol Browner

6. VP Al Gore

7. President Bill Clinton

8. Senator Byron Dorgan

9. Senator Jeff Bingaman

10. Congressman Ed Markey

11. John Sweeney, AFLCIO

12. John Podesta

13. Carl Pope, Sierra Club

14. Ex-CEO Wal Mart - Lee Scott

15. T. Boone Pickens

16. Van Jones

17. Bobby Kennedy, Jr.

18. Jon Wellinghoff, Chair of FERC

While clean energy broadly speaking is on the table, the summit is mainly focused on power transmission -- how do you get solar, wind and other renewables to the grid? Bracken Hendricks of the Center for American Progress released a study that outlines how to develop a clean energy grid:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/02/wired_for_progress.html

Senator Reid opened up the gathering with a focus on our dependence on imported oil. He noted its corrosive effect both on the US economy and national security.

Senator Wirth then asked Bill Clinton why it took so long to get to this point of action on clean energy. "We didn't have the votes," said President Clinton causing a humorous stir in the group.

President Clinton went on to talk about the critical need to gather steam on a climate bill that would put a price on carbon.

Al Gore then spoke and highlighted the reasons to move to the clean energy grid faster than ever thought possible.

Pelosi then spoke and acknowledged Bill Clinton and Al Gore saying that they are "broad in their thinking and specific in their recommendations."

T. Boone Pickens took up the mic and said "I am 80 years old, I don't have much time -- I am not a big believer in R & D because I am afraid the answer might come too late [laughter in the room]. " Pickens went on to highlight the need to build out a clean grid and also to use natural gas for large, long-distance trucks.

Van Jones then focused on green jobs and the low-income populations. "We can fight poverty and climate change at the same time... let's have kids put down handguns and pick up caulking guns, " he stated.

Steve Chu, DOE Sec., opened his remarks with a discussion of transmission. He noted that there are new direct current transmission and we need more research to figure out the best technologies to use for the the clean energy grid.

Ed Markey noted that the current state of energy is very much like the state of broadband in 1996. Back in 1996 "not one household in America had high-speed internet." By setting up the market right, the government unleashed tremendous private capital and innovation and that lead to Ebay, Amazon, Google and other companies and "3 million jobs."

Comments

[domorewithyourenergy]

The "smart grid" dialogue is finally getting to the real point of connectivity. The adoption of a direct current, DC, power standard will usher in the hybrid energy era. Buildings, vehicles, batteries, and the grid will share all kinds of power. Electronics consume DC power. Renewable energy sources produce DC power. Batteries charge and discharge DC power. There is a better way to connect the dots here. The currency of our existing electrical infrastructure is alternating current, or AC power. This is a good thing since AC power can be shipped long distances. New DC power networks in buildings will give our grid the headroom it needs by optimizing the short distance connection between, for example, the DC producing solar panels on the roof and the DC consuming computer servers inside the building.

[alvdh1]

You let it get to the grid by allowing residential and business producers to install and use it where it is produced with any excess capacity being sold into the grid at full retail rates. There plan is based on utility scale installations which are much less effcient than promoting the use directly where it is used.
This reduces the impact of energy loss from trasmission, stepping up and stepping down the voltages at transformers. Large centralized power stations are less efficient than distributed power.

[A. Siegel - Huffpost Blogger]

Well, this event was focused on the Smart Grid, yet many speakers discussed getting off oil with basically zero discussion of how the electrical system relates to our oil use. In the Q&A, I asked this of Reid / Pickens / Podesta / Wirth, raising electrification of rail, and Reid (mistakenly, imo) focused solely on high-speed rail.

Yet again, there was a public embracing of Pickens' dangerous laser-like focus on moving from one fossil foolish addiction to another, moving our transportation onto Natural Gas (or, as like Pickens & the industry prefer to say, "Clean Natural Gas").

The amount of money that it would take to modify 400,000 trucks to natural gas ($75,000 per truck, T. Boone's estimate) would be enough to pay for about 50% of the electrification of America's rail network. That electrification would enable perhaps 10 times the reduction in our oil addiction than that modification of trucks while not increasing our natural gas usage ... Hmmm ... what is a better expenditure of our money and which relates to a Smart Grid?

[PlugINCarsRule]

Just the fact that they are acknowledging the need and discussing such is HUGE! We really must get on about the business of becoming an energy independent nation. No one single factor burdens a society and economy more than the cost of fuel. Jeff Wilson has a fantastic book just out called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. It is exciting to see our nation finally starting to wake up to the seriousness of this need in our society. http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com

[SallyVCrockett]

I think it's a little ironic that Speaker Pelosi praised Nobel Laureate Gore for being "broad in [his] thinking and specific in [his] recommendations" but chooses not to even consider a revenue-neutral carbon tax, an approach Gore champions.