ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit: Day One
The ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit (The Summit) is an annual conference and technology showcase that brings together experts from different technical disciplines and professional communities to think about America’s energy challenges in new and innovative ways. Now in its thirteenth year, the Summit offers a unique, three-day program aimed at moving transformational energy technologies out of the lab and into the market.
The summit is taking place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland.
Agenda: Day One | Day Two | Day Three
| 10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Remarks & Keynote Address | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:15 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. | Fireside Chat
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| 10:50 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. | Fireside Chat
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| 11:15 a.m. – 11:35 a.m. | Keynote Address
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| 11:35 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. | Fireside Chat
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| 11:55 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. | Keynote Address
| Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
| 11:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m. | Government Agency Networking Program (GANP)
| The Government Agency Networking Program (GANP) at the annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit provides an opportunity to meet with representatives from federal government agencies to discuss research interests, funding solicitations, grants, and other potential partnership opportunities.
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Fast Pitch: Batteries & Storage
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| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Lab to Impact: Maximizing Success with Technology Licensing Offices
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In this panel, we will delve into best practices for how and when to engage with Technology Licensing Offices, and what common pitfalls to avoid. We will hear from a diversity of stakeholders representing an inventor, investor, lawyer, and licensing office, who will share their successes and failures – drawing from decades of experience. Whether you are looking to spin out a startup or license a technology, this panel will help provide practical takeaways on how to maximize success and impact.
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy Given the Recent Achievement of Ignition at the National Ignition Facility
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This panel will address the following questions about the prospects for inertial fusion energy (IFE): Can lasers be made efficient enough to enable a commercial IFE power plant? Can targets be made inexpensively and at scale? Are the physics challenges going from indirect drive (as is done on the National Ignition Facility) to direct drive (or another concept) tractable?
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Fast Pitch: Industrial Processes
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| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Decarbonizing the “Bus Stop” of the Future: Innovations in Urban Transportation
| As cities strive to reduce carbon emissions and improve urban transportation, defining the “bus stop” of the future, and with it, the necessary technology innovations and infrastructure, is becoming increasingly important. In high population density areas, where large metro systems are not available, the energy implications of the shift towards electrified and on-demand mobility options must be considered. Ride-hailing services currently optimize for pick-up proximity, but what does the equivalent approach for passenger transit look like in these situations and what role does energy efficiency need to play when the most convenient option is continued reliance on privately owned, personally driven cars? How does the increase in car sales during the pandemic further factor into future solutions? This thought-provoking panel will explore the disruptive innovations and flexible options that can address the energy consumption of future modes of urban transportation and tackle the question of how to ensure equity for all.
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Beyond VC: Alternative Funding Sources for Startups
| Panelists from a range of non-dilutive (federal, state and non-profit) and “less-dilutive” (venture debt, in various structures) funding sources will discuss how energy- and climate-tech startups can navigate non-traditional funding sources to best support their companies’ growth plans.
| 5:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. | Tech Demo: Advanced Operation & Maintenance Techniques implemented in the Xe-100 Plant Digital Twin to reduce Fixed O&M Cost
| X-energy is an Advanced Reactor design company and an awardee of the ARPA-E GEMINA Program. The main objective of the GEMINA Program is to demonstrate how Digital Twins can reduce Fixed Operations & Maintenance (O&M) costs for the Advanced Reactors (i.e. the Xe-100). X-energy’s 3D Immersive Digital Twin Experience demonstrates the integration between the physics-based Xe-100 Simulator and a 3D virtual representation of the Xe-100 plant. Users can walk through and interact with the Virtual Reality (VR) model as if it were the real Xe-100 plant. During the design phases of the Xe-100, the 3D model is being used for iterative design reviews to incorporate feedback, optimize layouts, and inform future work. During the operation phase of the Xe-100, the 3D model will be used for training of plant staff, particularly Maintenance crews. Combined with X-DATA™, X-energy’s Digital Twin product, the 3D Immersive Environment supports the implementation of “Central Maintenance” concepts that will ultimately lead to a safer, more reliable, and more economic nuclear plant for the 21st century.
| 5:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Tech Demo: Low-cost non-destructive plant root phenotyping
| Tomographic Electrical Rhizosphere Imager (TERI) is a technology aiming to make plant root phenotyping easier and faster. Root digging, washing, photographing, counting, and analysis have been the standard practice for field scale root phenotyping for a very long time. This is a process that is low throughput and very time and labor consuming. TERI aims to disrupt this practice to significantly accelerate plant root phenotyping at field scales to help accelerate the development of new root-superior plant varieties that are more resource efficient and climate resilient. TERI technology is based on the dialectic properties and behavior of plant root systems and can work under almost any type of soil, moisture, and plant species conditions. The lightweight of the hardware system and the user-friendly software interface make the system very easy to use by anyone without the technical background.
| 6:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. | Tech Demo: Basin-SCAN: Basin Scale Continuous oil and gas emissions mitigAtion Network
| Founded in 2018 through the ARPA-E MONITOR program, LongPath Technologies is the “5G” of methane measurement and abatement, providing a proven and standardized approach across the value chain. Our specialized laser systems detect, locate and quantify site-level emissions across 20+ square mile regions with a single laser tower, and the continuous emissions monitoring networks provide actionable real-time alerts and quantitative emission rates to oil and gas operators. LongPath’s innovative regional-scale solution provides continuous, reliable data at the lowest cost to the customer.
| 7:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Tech Demo: Pilot Production for Commercial Sampling of Rare-Earth-Free Iron Nitride Permanent Magnets
| Niron Magnetics has developed the first powerful permanent magnets free of rare earths and other critical materials. Niron’s Iron Nitride-based Clean Earth Magnet® technology makes use of globally available commodity raw material inputs. As an ARPA-E SCALEUP awardee, Niron is expanding its pilot production to support commercial design partnerships, including those with GM, Volvo Cars, Western Digital, Tymphany Audio, and Premium Sound Solutions.
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Building the Green Transition: A Justice-Centered Vision for Permitting Reform
Efficiently greenlighting the development of renewable energy projects is crucial to the clean energy transition. But the conversation about how to reform permitting processes has been dominated by proposals that aim to speed the permitting process by limiting democratic participation and weakening environmental review. These proposals risk leaving frontline communities more vulnerable to exploitation—particularly from polluting industries—and making it faster and easier to develop fossil fuel projects.
On March 21, the Roosevelt Institute hosted a one-day, in-person conversation in Washington, DC, to discuss the need for permitting reform that centers climate justice and highlights progressive ideas for how to hasten the green transition.
10:00 am SESSION 1: WELCOME- Marissa Guananja, Chief Programs Officer, Roosevelt Institute
- Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Director of Climate Policy, Roosevelt Institute
10:15 am SESSION 2: PANEL – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH PERMITTING?
Moderator: Hannah Vogel, Policy Advisor, Office of Senator Edward Markey
Panelists:- Jungwoo Chun, Postdoctoral Impact Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate and Sustainability Consortium
- Adam Cohen, Co-founder and CEO, Ranger Power
- Jamie Pleune, Associate Professor of Law (Research) and Wallace Stegner Center Fellow at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
- Anthony Rogers-Wright, Director of Environmental Justice, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
11:15 am SESSION 3: PANEL – WHAT ABOUT COMMUNITIES? PERMITTING AS A TOOL FOR JUSTICE.
Moderator: Adrien Salazar, Policy Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Panelists:- Aminah Ghaffar, Community Organizer, 7 Directions of Service
- Fermina Stevens, Director, Western Shoshone Defense Project
- Naomi Yoder, Staff Scientist, Healthy Gulf
12:00 pm LUNCH
12:45 pm SESSION 4: KEYNOTE- Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts
1:15 pm SESSION 5: PANEL – NEPA REFORM: HOW CAN PERMITTING SUPPORT EQUITY AND IMPROVE DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION?
Moderator: Dana Johnson, Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy, WE ACT
Panelists:- Raul Garcia, Legislative Director for Healthy Communities, Policy and Legislation, Earthjustice
- Maria Lopez-Nuñez, Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy, Ironbound Community Corporation
- Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Executive Director, Western Environmental Law Center
- Nicky Sheats, Director of the Center for the Urban Environment at the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research, Kean University
2:00 pm SESSION 6: PANEL – HOW CAN WE REFORM PERMITTING PROCESSES RELATED TO TRANSMISSION?
Moderator: Jennie Chen, Senior Manager, Clean Energy, World Resources Institute
Panelists:- Nathanael Green, Senior Renewable Energy Advocate, Climate & Clean Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council
- Suedeen Kelly, Partner & Co-chair, Energy Practice, Jenner & Block LLP
- Tyler Norris, Vice President of Development, Cypress Creek Renewables
- Christine Powell, Deputy Managing Attorney, Earthjustice
- Abbie Dillen, President, Earthjustice
This Is Climate: Water
World Water Day, marked every March, was established by the United Nations to focus attention on the importance of fresh water around the globe. On Wednesday, March 15 at 9:00 a.m. ET, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Melissa Ho, World Wildlife Fund senior vice president for freshwater and food, Alexia Leclercq, Start:Empowerment co-founder, and Julie Waechter, DigDeep co-CEO, join Washington Post Live to discuss possible solutions that address global water inequities and the role of water in sustainable development.
Speakers:- Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.)
- Melissa Ho, Senior Vice President, Freshwater & Food, World Wildlife Fund
- Alexia Leclercq, Co-Founder, Start:Empowerment
- Julie Waechter, Co-CEO, DigDeep
In a segment presented by Ecolab, Calvin Emanuel, vice president and general manager of Sustainable Growth Solutions at Ecolab, and Glenn Prickett, president and CEO at World Environment Center, will discuss how industry can be a positive force in supporting a water-secure future while driving business outcomes. The conversation will cover the central tenets of corporate sustainability programs that conserve water, foster business resilience, and create positive impacts in support of communities around the world.
Speakers:- Calvin Emmanuel, Vice President & General Manager, Sustainable Growth Solutions, Ecolab
- Glenn Prickett, President & CEO, World Environment Center
- Moderated by Kathleen Koch, Journalist
At the The Washington Post, 1301 K Street, NW
Congressional Climate Camp: Implementing the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
What to learn more about climate policy? But not sure where to start? We have you covered. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to join us for our start-of-the-new Congress briefing series, Climate Camp. We will go over the basics of the legislative process, highlighting key areas and opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation policy.
Our fourth session in EESI’s Congressional Climate Camp series is on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. These laws provide billions of dollars to confront the climate crisis and strengthen critical infrastructure. Panelists will provide an update on the status of their implementation, describe how state and local governments and organizations are accessing funds, and explain the oversight role Congress must play to maximize these investments.
Speakers- Dr. Henry McKoy, Jr., Director, Office of State and Community Energy Programs, U.S. Department of Energy
- David Terry, President, National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO)
- Sarah Kline, Consultant, Bipartisan Policy Center
- Kevin Rennert, Fellow; Director, Federal Climate Policy Initiative, Resources for the Future
- Duanne Andrade, Executive Director, Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF)
- Jana Barresi, Head of Washington, D.C., Office, Lowe’s Companies Inc.
This event, at 2168 Rayburn, 2 PM-3:30 PM, is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to expedite check-in.
A live webcast will be streamed at 2:00 PM EST at www.eesi.org/livecast.
Rising Risks: Managing Volatility in Global Commodity Derivatives Markets
- Michael Gelchie, Group Chief Executive Officer, Louis Dreyfus Company
- Derek Sammann, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Commodities, Options & International Markets, CME Group
- Alicia Crighton, Chair of the Board, Futures Industry Association
- Christopher Edmonds, Chief Development Officer, Intercontinental Exchange
- Dan Berkovitz, Former Commissioner, Commodities Futures Trading Commission
Protecting Public Health and the Environment in the Wake of the Norfolk Southern Train Derailment and Chemical Release in East Palestine, Ohio
On Thursday, March 9, 2023, at 10:00 AM ET, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, led by Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), will hold a full committee hearing on addressing the environmental and public health threats from the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio.
Witnesses
Panel I- Sherrod Brown, United States Senator, The State of Ohio
- JD Vance, United States Senator, The State of Ohio
- Bob Casey, United States Senator, The State of Pennsylvania
- Alan Shaw, President and CEO, Norfolk Southern Corporation
- Debra Shore, Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,, Region V
- Anne Vogel, Director, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
- Richard Harrison, Executive Director and Chief Engineer, Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission
- Eric Brewer, Director and Chief of Hazardous Materials Response, Beaver County Department of Emergency Services
A Sectoral Approach to Climate Mitigation: The Energy Sector
Analyzing climate change and proposing solutions at the nation-state level can obscure the path forward, as ambition varies widely across countries and can change dramatically as soon as the next election. Furthermore, coordinating the actions of nearly 200 nations (including more than a dozen major emitters) presents its own challenges. Viewing climate solutions as sectoral rather than “national,” may be more productive and give a clearer of how to cut the most emissions in the fastest manner.
This webinar series, sponsored by American University’s Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) and the not-for-profit think tank Energy Innovation, reframes causes and solutions of climate change as “sectoral” issues.
The energy sector has been the focus of many mitigation efforts to date, as clear alternatives like renewable technologies are readily available and increasingly competitive. Should the energy sector be the highest priority for mitigation strategies? What has been done right and what has been done wrong to date? What sort of changes would enhance energy sector mitigation strategies (particularly as these relate to the energy grid)?
Speakers:- Michael O’Boyle, Energy Innovation
- Michelle Solomon, Energy Innovation
- Dan Fiorino, Center for Environmental Policy, School of Public Affairs
- Moderator: Gabriela Siegfried, EPRI
Mike O’Boyle is Energy Innovation’s Director, Electricity. He directs the firm’s Electricity Program, which focuses on designing and quantifying the impacts of policies needed to affordably and reliably decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid. Mike’s expertise includes clean electricity standards, wholesale market design, monopoly utility regulation, and energy efficiency policies.
Michelle Solomon is a Policy Analyst in the Electricity program at Energy Innovation, working to accelerate the transition to a clean and affordable electricity sector in the United States. Prior to joining Energy Innovation, she completed her PhD at Stanford University in Materials Science and Engineering, focusing on nanotechnology. Immediately after graduate school, she was a Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow in the office of Senator Ed Markey, where she worked on all things energy and environment.
Daniel J. Fiorino is the founding Director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Distinguished Executive in Residence in the School of Public Affairs at American University. Fiorino is the author or co-author of seven books and some 60 articles and book chapters, including A Good Life on a Finite Earth: The Political Economy of Green Growth (Oxford University Press, 2018), Can Democracy Handle Climate Change? (Polity Books, 2018), and Conceptual Innovation in Environmental Policy (with James Meadowcroft, MIT Press, 2017). MIT Press also published the second edition of Environmental Governance Reconsidered (with Robert F. Durant and Rosemary O’Leary) in 2017.
Gabriella A. Siegfried is a Senior Sustainability Analyst at the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI), Gabriella performs research within the energy sector related to ESG governance/disclosure, corporate social responsibility, and cross-industry benchmarking. While at EPRI, Siegfied has led projects on climate change mitigation through sustainability goal-setting and circular economy metric development for the energy sector. Through AU’s Center for Environmental Policy, where Siegfried worked during her MA program, she conducted research on environmental justice, such as analyzing Hurricane Katrina reconstruction and the Texas Freeze of 2021 from an environmental justice lens.
The economic case for tackling climate change now
The dangers of global warming are increasingly evident—extreme weather, rising sea levels, wildfires, and melting glaciers—but there hasn’t been sufficient political will to take the steps needed to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, which scientists deem essential.
To examine the economic case for moving sooner rather than later, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy and the Center on Regulation and Markets at Brookings will convene a virtual conference on March 6 to discuss two recent papers. The first, by the IMF’s Tobias Adrian and coauthors, focuses on the benefits of phasing out coal as an energy source. Following the presentation, the World Bank’s Carolyn Fischer will react. The second, by Hutchins Nonresident Senior Fellow Glenn Rudebusch and coauthors, quantifies the inverse relationship between carbon prices and future temperatures, illustrating how climate policy choices determine climate outcomes. Following this presentation, Irene Monasterolo of EDHEC Business School will respond. All four will then participate in a panel discussion on the broader implications of these issues.
Viewers may submit questions by emailing [email protected], on Twitter using the hashtag #ClimateEcon, or at sli.do using the code #ClimateEcon.
Welcome- David Wessel, Director – The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy Senior Fellow – Economic Studies
- Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor & Director – Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund
- Carolyn Fischer, Research Manager of the Sustainability and Infrastructure Team in the Development Research Group – World Bank
- Glenn Rudebusch, Nonresident Senior Fellow – Economic Studies, The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
- Irene Monasterolo, Professor of Climate Finance – EDHEC Business School, EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute
- Moderator: Sanjay Patnaik, Director – Center on Regulation and Markets, Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development Fellow – Economic Studies
- Tobias Adrian
- Carolyn Fischer
- Irene Monasterolo
- Glenn Rudebusch
Future Generation: Exploring the New Baseline for Electricity in the Presence of the Inflation Reduction Act
What does the future of electricity look like in the wake of major climate policy packages including the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act? EPRI and Resources for the Future (RFF) will explore recent findings and the latest power sector modeling.
Join us on Wednesday, February 15 for this RFF Live virtual event featuring opening remarks by EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, Joseph Goffman, followed by a panel of energy sector modelers from RFF, EPRI, EPA, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Panelists will present recent findings on how the electricity sector is expected to transform in the coming decades as a result of the IRA, illuminating a new baseline for the sector.
Presented by EPRI and RFF
Opening and Framing- Billy Pizer, RFF
- Robert Chapman, EPRI
- Joseph Goffman, EPA
Panelists
- Karen Palmer, RFF (moderator)
- John Bistline, EPRI
- Cara Marcy, EPA
- Daniel Steinberg, NREL
- Kevin Rennert, RFF
Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining
Join the Climate and Community Project for a briefing and happy hour to discuss its latest report, “Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining.”
Where: Friday, February 10 at 5:30PM
When: Creative Grounds DC, 1822 North Capitol St NW, Washington, DC 20002
Please be ready to show proof of up-to-date COVID-19 vaccination.
We need to decarbonize the US transportation sector — one of the top contributors to our country’s GHG emissions. Decisions made now will affect the speed of decarbonization and the mobility of millions — and decarbonization will transform global supply chains, with implications for climate, environmental, and Indigenous justice beyond US borders. Join us for a discussion with Dr. Thea Riofrancos, lead author of Climate and Community Project’s latest report Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility with Less Mining, to consider the future of the transportation system, futures of lithium mining, and how we make it just and equitable for all.