11/1 - UTES Lecture: Climate Change and Geoengineering Panel Discussion

Climate Change and Geoengineering Panel Discussion

  J. Eric Bickel and Lee Lane

Thursday, November 1, 5:15 PM 

Mezes Hall 1.306. Refreshments served at 5pm

About the speakers:

Prof. J. Eric Bickel is a professor in the Graduate Program in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering (ORIE) and the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE) at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also a fellow in the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy (CIEEP) and the Center for Petroleum Asset Risk Management (CPARM). His research interests include the theory and practice of decision analysis and its application in the energy and climate-change arenas. His research has addressed the use of climate engineering to combat climate change, the modeling of probabilistic dependence, value of information, scoring rules, calibration, and risk preference. Prof. Bickel holds a MS and PhD degree in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University.

Lee Lane is a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute since 2010; he is also a senior consultant at Charles River Associates. Mr. Lane has been Co-Director of the Geoengineering Project at the American Enterprise Institute, Executive Director of the Climate Policy Center, Vice President for Research at CSX Corporation, Vice President for Policy at the Association of American Railroads, and he founded the consulting firm Policy Services, Inc. He is the author of Strategic Options for the Bush Administration Climate Policy, and he has authored or co-authored numerous policy briefing papers, articles, and book chapters. He received his B.A. degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin, where he also completed two years of post-graduate work in European history.

10/25 - UTES Lecture: Carbon Capture and Storage Panel Discussion

Carbon Capture and Storage Panel Discussion

  Gary Rochelle, Susan Hovorka, and Douglas Huey

Thursday, October 25, 5:15 PM 

Mezes Hall 1.306. Refreshments served at 5pm

 

About the speakers: 

Our speakers this week are recognized leaders in research and development in carbon capture and storage technology.

 

Prof. Gary Rochelle is the Carol and Henry Groppe Professor in Chemical Engineering at UT's Cockrell School of Engineering. He is director of the Rochelle lab and the Luminant Carbon Management Program in the Cockrell School. Prof. Rochelle received his B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering at MIT and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at UC Berkeley. Prof. Rocehelle has published extensively in top journals and has also consulted a variety of government and private institutions, ranging from the EPA to Exxon Research.

 

Dr. Susan Hovorka is a Senior Research SCienists at the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT and principal investigator at the Bureau’s Gulf Coast Carbon Center. Dr. Hovorka earned her B.A. in geology from Earlham college and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Geology from UT. Dr. Hovorka’s research focuses on assessment of the cost, safety and effectiveness of this mechanism for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. She is currently leading teams in field pilot CO2 injections to assess the cost, safety, and effectiveness of geologic sequestration as a mechanism for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Doug Huey is a Commercial Leader in GE Energy's gasification licensing business, a leading provider of cleaner coal technology.  Before joining GE, Mr. Huey held positions in International Business Development with BP and Amoco, and Sales and Marketing positions in specialty chemicals and engineered products businesses.  He earned his MBA from Wharton and holds a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Rochester.

10/18 - UTES Lecture: Gas-Power Nexus: A Closer Look at the Gas Value-Chain in Power Production

Gas-Power Nexus: A Closer Look at the 

Gas Value-Chain in Power Production

 Eric Bradley

Vice President, Strategy for GDF SUEZ North America

Thursday, October 18, 5:15 PM 

Mezes Hall 1.306. Refreshments served at 5pm

About the speaker:

Eric is Vice President, Strategy for GDF SUEZ North America and is responsible for setting business priorities for GDF SUEZ’s gas and power interests in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In this capacity, he has been most recently involved in identifying investment opportunities and priorities in Mexico, as well as asset restructurings in the United States.

Prior to GDF SUEZ, Eric was with Reliant Energy where he held a number of leadership positions within the Retail electricity business, with his last role there as the head of the Small

Commercial segment. Eric worked earlier in his career as a Management Consultant with Arthur D. Little and McKinsey & Co advising companies in the power generation, petroleum and petrochemical industries on strategy/M&A, market entry and performance improvement issues. He began his career with Exxon in various technical and project management positions.

Eric holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University; an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois as a 3M Corporation Fellow; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

10/16 - UT Energy Poll

The University of Texas at Austin Energy Poll, developed by the McCombs School of Business’ Energy Management and Innovation Center, seeks to provide an objective, authoritative look at consumer attitudes and perspectives on key energy issues. It is designed to help inform national discussion, business planning and policy development. Conducted biannually, the online poll rates leadership on energy issues, measures consumers’ energy priorities, and tracks knowledge and energy consumption behaviors. The poll is a collaborative effort of academics, polling experts, nongovernmental organizations, large energy users and energy producers.

The third release of of the UT Energy Poll will be tomorrow at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. See http://www.utenergypoll.com/ for more information and the results tomorrow.

10/11 - UTES Lecture: Charging ahead: Electric vehicles and the eVgo network

Charging ahead: Electric vehicles and the eVgo network
Arun Banskota

President of Electric Vehicle Services, NRG Energy 

Thursday, October 11, 5:15 PM 

Mezes Hall 1.306. Refreshments served at 5pm 

 

About the speaker:

Arun Banskota is President of NRG Energy’s Electric Vehicle Services, also known as eVgo. Previously, Arun led NRG’s Texas Wholesale Generation business, including a portfolio of 11,000 megawatts of diverse generation with over $1.2 billion in earnings and numerous development projects. Arun has more than 20 years of experience in developing, financing and managing renewable and fossil energy projects around the world. He served as the Managing Director of Global Power, the power generation business unit of El Paso Corporation, where he was responsible for 32 power plants in 14 countries with a generation capacity of 6,500 megawatts and a diverse portfolio of development projects. As Vice President of project development for OptiSolar (a start-up venture, later acquired by First Solar) Arun successfully built a backlog of solar projects totaling more than 1,500 megawatts. 

 

eVgo (ee-vee-go) is part of NRG Energy Inc., a Fortune 500 company at the forefront of changing how people think about and use energy.  eVgo’s investment of approximately $150 million will provide hundreds of eVgo Freedom Station public fast-charging sites along with individual charging stations at homes, offices, multifamily communities, schools and hospitals across our networks in Texas, California and the Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia region. 

10/3 - UTES Lecture: The Global Diffusion of Cleaner Energy Technologies

The Global Diffusion of Cleaner Energy Technologies

Professor Kelly Sims Gallagher

Wednesday, October 3, 12:15 PM   

Bass Lecture Hall (SRH 3) basement. Light lunch served at 12pm 

 

About the speaker:

Prof. Gallagher is Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.  She directs the Energy, Climate, and Innovation (ECI) research program in the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy.  She is also Senior Associate and a member of the Board of Directors of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, where she previously directed the Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group. Broadly, she focuses on energy and climate policy in both the United States and China. She is particularly interested in the role of policy in spurring the development and deployment of cleaner and more efficient energy technologies, domestically and internationally. She speaks Spanish and basic Mandarin Chinese, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

 

In addition to her own ground-breaking research, Prof. Gallagher’s current research collaborators include Dr. Xuan Xiaowei of the Development Research Center of the State Council of China, Prof. Arnulf Grubler of Yale University and IIASA, Prof. Gregory Nemet of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Charlie Wilson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the UK. Prof. Gallagher’s recent and upcoming books include No Great Wall: The Global Diffusion of Clean Energy Technologies, Acting in Time on Energy Policy, and China Shifts Gears: Automakers, Oil, Pollution, and Development.