Trottier Symposium on Sustainable Engineering, Energy and Design

Trottier Symposium on Sustainable Engineering, Energy and Design

Full Event

In 2016, the landscape for renewables looks
encouraging and challenging. The recent
enthusiastic buzz and public support surrounding
renewable energy confronts doubt despite decades
of roughly 30% annual growth in solar and wind
production. Costs of renewables are dropping
rapidly, as photovoltaic modules costs have fallen by
approximately 10% per year over the past 30 years
and the costs of wind turbines by roughly 5%. Yet,
still only 23% of installed capacity is from renewable
resources. Why not a higher percentage?

We hear lots about the falling costs of renewable energies and how, in many places, solar technologies in particular are cheaper than standard, grid-produced energy. R&D has already vastly driven up efficiency of renewable technologies and driven down costs. Technological innovation is accompanied by business model innovation to deploy renewable energies in unprecedented ways. Our political landscape is shifting quickly, potentially enabling greater uptake and integration. This is highlighted also in the developing world, where the majority of growth in energy use is predicted to arise from in the coming decades.

Meet our speakers

Mark O’Malley (March 8th)

Director of the Energy Institute, University College Dublin Recognized as a world authority on Energy Systems Integration and in particular Grid Integration of Renewable Energy, OMalley is cofounder of the International Institute for Energy Systems Integration.

Paul Denholm (March 8th)

Senior Analyst, Energy Forecasting & Modeling Group, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Presentation:
Do we really need storage to operate the renewable grid of the future?

Mark Z. Jacobson (March 9th)

professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Director, Atmosphere Energy Program Stanford University, USA

Presentation:
Roadmaps for transitioning all 50 U.S. states and 139 countries to wind, water, and solar power for all purposes

Phil Radford (March 9th)

Environmental, Clean Energy & Democracy Thought Leader
As the youngest Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, Radford convinced Facebook, Apple and other high tech companies to shift to 100% clean energy. What did this take? What was learned?