2021 Energy Seminars

Climate change is impacting our planet in ways that are becoming ever more apparent. The infrastructure that undergirds modern life — from roads and ports to energy generation installations and transmission lines — is one area increasingly at risk from climate-fueled flooding, fires, extreme heat, and sea level rise. Infrastructure is also key to helping us avert the worst effects of a warming planet as we transition to more affordable, sustainable, just, and reliable energy systems. The Dartmouth Energy Collaborative invites you to join us for our winter lunchtime seminar series as we explore the challenges and possibilities of building a more just and resilient infrastructure system that powers the energy transition.

January 12: | Vulnerable Systems: Climate Urgency and Energy Equity 

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In the first session of our Critical Infrastructure in a Climate Changing World series, Professor Shalanda Baker of Northeastern University and Associate Professor Erich Osterberg of Dartmouth look at the societal impacts of climate change and explore the opportunities for a more equitable energy future.  
 

January 26 | Policy Perspectives on Climate and Infrastructure

In our second session, "Policy Perspectives on Climate and Infrastructure," Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) Julio Friedmann and President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association Abby Hopper '93  will discuss climate change and infrastructure from a policy perspective. What are the policies governing infrastructure  that have contributed to the urgency of our climate moment? What policies are needed to help us transition to a more sustainable energy future and address the impacts of climate change that we are already seeing?

The talk will be moderated by Elizabeth Wilson, Director of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society and Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. 

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February 9 | Technological Perspectives on Climate and Infrastructure

In our third session, "Technological Perspectives on Climate and Infrastructure," VP of Product and Energy Markets at Voltus, Dana Gurnsey '06, TH'07, '08, will share her perspective on how the energy industry, and in particular her company, Voltus, which provides cash-generating energy products to commercial, institutional, and industrial customers, are thinking about climate change and energy infrastructure. She will explore the changes in capacity, information technology, and policy over the past few decades and discuss what those mean for a climate-changing world.     

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March 2 | Finance Perspectives on Infrastructure and Climate 

How do we finance the energy transition, ensuring that there is an adequate — and equitable — investment in the infrastructure needed to move toward a more sustainable energy future for all? In our fourth session, "Finance Perspectives on Infrastructure and Climate," Dartmouth Professor Matthew Delmont and Founder & CEO of re:focus partners Shalini Vajjhala will share their perspectives. 

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March 9 | Local Impact: Climate and Infrastructure in the Upper Valley 

On Tuesday, March 9 at 12:15 p.m., join us for "Local Impact" our final session of Critical Infrastructure in a Climate-Changing World. How are local industries thinking about the impact of climate change on local infrastructure and our communities? How can we build more resilient communities that are able to adapt and cope with the effects of climate change as well as help mitigate its worst consequences? Hypertherm's Environmental Stewardship Team Leader, Robin Tindall and Corporate Improvement Program Manager Alex Jaccaci, join Dartmouth Sustainability Director Rosi Kerr in a conversation focused on the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont. 

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March 30: Electric Industry Discourse on Climate Change and Weather in SEC Public Disclosures

What can be learned about electric industry companies' behavior, plans, and positioning from what they say, and how they say it, in legally required public disclosures? Motivations of electric industry companies are assumed, often reasonably, to reflect general corporate attributes, such as profit-driven decisions and use of the considerable information on how weather events affect electric system reliability. In the midst of large-scale weather-related power interruptions, many may question a company's operational planning, as well as its ability to identify risk.  Julia Chelen, Research Associate with the Dartmouth Institute at the Geisel School of Medicine, will discuss how behavioral decision research can be used to identify meaningful differences between individual companies and assess how a company may act in the future.

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April 13 | Renewable Energy Project Finance Basics with Josh Pearson '97 

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About the Talk

Building large-scale renewable energy projects demands time, money, human capital, and risk tolerance. Most renewable projects would never be built without the involvement of third-party debt and equity investors. Understanding the essential assets, financial attributes and risks associated with renewables projects is prerequisite to an understanding of renewable project financing. It also provides insights into public policies, consumer preferences, economies of scale and other macro topics that will influence the future of renewables.  With this overview in mind, we will address the following questions:

• What are the most common types of financings available for utility-scale wind and solar energy generation projects?
• At what points in a project's life cycle do financings come into play?
• What assets are necessary for these financings, and what economic incentives and considerations shape these investments?
• What are "offtake agreements", and what role do they play in a project's operations and financings?
• What is "tax equity financing", and how do the federal "Production Tax Credit" (for wind) and "Investment Tax Credit" (primarily for solar) benefit renewable projects?
• What are the macro drivers of new renewables investments, and what opportunities exist to expand renewables?

April 27 | Energy Pools: Creating a Data Visceralization for Energy Consumption 

Caroline Casey '21, Nikki Stevens (PhD candidate) and Jacque Wernimont (Distinguished Chair, Digital Humanities and Social Engagement) have worked collaboratively to build an interactive and tactile installation to help people understand energy usage in the United States. Climate and data scientists have continued to search for ways to make large scale data sets and long-term problems accessible to non-specialist audiences. Energy Pools is an effort to use large-scale art installation with recycled textiles to make energy data accessible and tactile and to encourage viewers to explore the steps needed to change the future of energy use in the United States. This talk will feature a discussion of the creation of the installation and thoughts on how tactile engagement with energy data might facilitate information understanding.

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July 28 | Mini-Symposium | Clean Energy Infrastructure is Human Infrastructure 

Congress is currently negotiating the Biden administration's dual multi-trillion dollar infrastructure proposals — the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. These proposals  would invest massive sums of money in what is traditionally regarded as infrastructure —  roads and bridges, water systems, the electric grid and transmission networks. They also have an explicit focus on climate resilience and addressing the racial inequities that were caused or exacerbated by past infrastructure projects (highways dividing minority neighborhoods, highly polluting energy generation plants being sited near Black and brown communities, etc.) While debate around the proposals is highly partisan, with arguments predictably focusing on the price tag, another point of contention is the ways in which the proposals link jobs, training, wages, and education and other aspects of so-called 'human infrastructure' to more traditional conceptions of infrastructure. 

What are the costs and benefits of this approach? Join us as a panel of experts discusses the Biden infrastructure plan and its climate and clean energy elements, from economic, policy, and equity angles. 

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The construction and operation of residential and commercial buildings represent about 40 percent of energy consumption in the US and globally. Despite steady growth in renewable energy generation, fossil fuels -- oil, natural gas, and coal -- make up the lion's share of energy production (and carbon emissions) in the world. Additionally,  according to International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol, "over the next 40 years, the world is expected to build 230 billion square metres in new construction – adding the equivalent of Paris to the planet every single week." Therefore, how we build, where we build, and how we operate our homes and commercial buildings are critical considerations in averting the worst effects of climate change. 

This fall, join the Dartmouth Energy Collaborative for a lunchtime Energy Seminar Series as we explore the impact, challenges, and opportunities that the construction and operation of the built environment presents for a warming world. We'll learn about the current status of the Dartmouth campus, explore the approaches other colleges have taken to sustainable building and efficiency, look at the Empire State Building retrofit project, hear about the tools available to move the needle, and wind up the series with a  tour of the new, highly efficient Irving Institute building. 

September 21 | Dartmouth: Where We Are, Where We're Going 

How do sustainable building practices and energy efficiency figure into Dartmouth's long-term energy and sustainability goals? What is required to ensure a sustainable future on a campus with a significant number of historically important but energy inefficient buildings? What are the costs and benefits of committing to efficiency goals? What are the financial and institutional obstacles we face as we adopt sustainable building and retrofitting practices? How does our current moment measure up to our aspirations? Join Dartmouth Sustainability Director Rosi Kerr as we explore the past, present, and future of Dartmouth's built environment and its energy challenges and opportunities. 

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October 5 | Higher Aspirations: Other College Campuses' Approaches to Sustainable Building 

During our last session, Rosi Kerr took us on a deep dive into Dartmouth's approach to buildings and energy and how we're progressing toward our goals. This time, we'll meet representatives from other colleges that occupy the cutting edge of sustainable building and operations. What was required to corral the will and the resources to prioritize this approach? What compromises were necessitated? What can Dartmouth learn from these campuses to improve our own sustainability profile? Join us as we explore and learn from different approaches to campus sustainable building practices with Shan Arora from Georgia Tech, Shana Weber from Princeton University, and Dano Weisbord from Smith College. 

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October 19 | A Sustainable State of Mind: Retrofitting the Empire State Building 

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The Empire State Building, completed in 1931, was the most ambitious building project of its time. Since then, this landmark has stood as an icon of New York City — and, more recently, of the potential for energy retrofits to drastically reduce the carbon emissions in a city where buildings generate an enormous percentage of the carbon output. The building's first retrofit project, in 2010, netted the building's occupants a 40% reduction in energy usage and more than $4 million in annual savings. More recent work on the building aims to further reduce its footprint. Join Irving Institute Senior Research and Strategy Advisor Stephen Doig and Dana Schneider, Senior Vice President, Director of Energy and Sustainability at Empire State Realty Trust, both of whom worked on these retrofit projects, as we look at the Empire State Building as a case study in mitigating the emissions impact of the urban landscape.

Novermber 2 | Making it Happen: Tools to Accelerate Carbon-Free Building

The widespread adoption of retrofitting older buildings and employing sustainable practices for new construction is a critical tool in our efforts to avoid the worst effects of climate change. While some cities are implementing carbon emissions standards for buildings, the current pace of change is not meeting the urgency of the moment. What are the policy, technological, and financial hurdles that are slowing progress on this front? How can we move the needle on this critical sector? Join us as we examine the obstacles and opportunities around sustainable building. Join Thayer School of Engineering Dean Alexis Abramson (moderator), Joe Hagerman (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Kathy Hannun (Dandelion Home Geothermal), Sarah Ladislaw (Rocky Mountain Institute), and Andrew McAllister (California Energy Commission) as we explore these questions and map the road ahead. 

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Novermber 16 | Meet the Institute's New Home 

For our final session in the fall Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Perspectives on Buildings and Energy series, we'll introduce you to the new home of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society! 

Located on the campus' West End, between the Thayer School of Engineering and the Tuck School of Business and in the direct sightline of Baker Library, this highly energy efficient 55,000-square-foot facility will contain teaching and learning spaces, faculty and research offices, demonstration labs, meeting and collaboration spaces, a cafe, and other space designed to foster informal interaction among faculty, researchers, and students. Dartmouth's Sustainability Office will relocate to the new building, which will also house a number of Tuck, Thayer, and Arts and Sciences faculty offices and labs. 

For this session, we'll hear from Institute Director Elizabeth Wilson, Institute Senior Advisor Stephen Doig, building architects Elaine Hoffman and Arjun Mande, and Design Corps students currently engaged with building-related projects to learn more about the history of the Institute and the building, the design process, its energy and sustainability features, as well as the impact it will have on student and community life on campus. We'll share lots of images of the nearly-completed facility and answer questions from the audience as well. 
 

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