11/4/2011
TEDx @ UVM - 10/286/3/2011
VT Expo 2011Renewable Energy Vermont Conference
11/12/2008The Renewable Energy Vermont Conference was held on 10/15 at the Sheraton Hotel in South Burlington.
During lunch, Northern Power received a Renewable Energy Award. CEO Bud Cherry made it clear to the crowd that the company has been effectively separated from Distributed Energy Systems, having “survived the failure of a public company”, with Northern Power now striking out on its own again as a private company. Northern Power recently attracted $37MM in venture capital from Rockport Capital and Allen & Company, and is now poised for growth. Cherry noted that the company also plans to hire 20 people in the next few months.
David Blittersdorf of Earth Turbines spoke on the “Can Vermont Become 100% Renewable?” panel, using his time to describe what he saw as the Big Energy Picture. Blittersdorf noted that the modern world has raced towards a period of Peak Oil through its rapid consumption of pent up solar energy (stored in the form of oil), over the past 200 years, and is quickly racing towards a new era.
Blittersdorf encouraged a focus on conservation and efficiency, while bringing renewable energy sources online. He noted that the launch of Grandpa’s Knob 60 years ago in the hills of Vermont established our state as a pioneer in renewable energy, while suggesting that Vermont should continue to blaze new trails and continue to innovate at the forefront of renewable energy initiatives. David indicated that he believes that electricity rates could double or triple in the next 10 years, and that these numbers should urge everyone to think about how we can bring solar and wind technologies online here in Vermont. One area that David believes Vermont should be acting now, is through the use of solar thermal technologies on homes across the state, because the technology works today, and can present a cost-effective return on investment. He noted that Hawaii, Spain and Israel already have legal mandates on solar thermal for new construction, and suggested that Vermont should follow suit.
Also serving on this panel was Jim Marston from the Environmental Defense Fund, having travelled up from Texas. He suggested that the wholesale cost of non-nuclear power to Vermont last year was 10 cents per KWH, and that wind could come in below that rate, while also hedging risk against volatility, dependence on foreign oil, quelling national security concerns, and having a major impact on our renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Marston indicated that he learned a new term while at the REV conference that he found entertaining: “Cow Power”, noting that at Texan renewable energy conferences, they still “use a word that starts with an “S” and ends with a “T”.
Below is a picture of NativeEnergy’s booth at the conference. NativeEnergy is a FreshTracks portfolio company based here in Vermont that works to help finance a number of those cow-power renewable energy projects, and sells the carbon offsets and RECs to its customers, including Clif Bar, The Dave Matthews Band, Warner Brothers, Seventh Generation, Ben & Jerry’s and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.
