Clean technology and energy efficiency leaders from Google, the California Public Utilities Commission, McKinsey, the DOE, Kleiner Perkins, and many other green tech folks, will get together on May 20-21 at the inaugural Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency. The event is organized by UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency and will explore the pipeline of new efficiency technologies as well as the current business, economic, and policy landscape and the obstacles and opportunities it presents. Preregistration has closed, but you can attend by registering at Corwin Pavilion at UC Santa Barbara, where the event is taking place.

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Green businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area abound, and green professionals are fortunate enough to be offered an array of green events they can choose from at any time. As editor of green media outlet CleanTechies, I particularly like one event that is taking place tomorrow. The Green Chamber of Commerce and law firm Wendel Rosen are co-sponsoring a panel on “Practical & Legal Considerations for Communicating Your Message” – an event that no green communicator would want to miss (at least in my opinion). Personally, I think it’s a fabulous idea to get green media leaders together, and I trust William Acevedo from Wendel Rosen will do a great job moderating the panel, which includes the following leading local green media experts:

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CleanTechies is proud to be official media partner of two upcoming clean technology-related events that are just upon our alley: Both events connect CleanTechies from different parts of the world and allow them to share their insights and experiences with their counterparts. Both events are being held for the 5th time this year – while TABCON brings US professionals together with those from Turkey, the Germany California Solar Day unites them with their German counterparts.

Check out our Events Calendar for more upcoming CleanTech conferences, and submit more events.

If you are interested in a media partnership with CleanTechies, please contact us.

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A wave of Green Technology innovation is sweeping the world – is the United States willing, and ready, to lead?

That was the question that Andrea Larson presented to the audience a couple hours ago at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. I was a bit disappointed in most of her comments – beginning with the fact that she chose dwell on “the ignorance” of those that don’t believe in Global Warming… please!

There is nothing less important about this issue than fighting to convince those that don’t believe in it (Peyton speaks about the argument well – I welcome you to join that ongoing discussion).

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I spent the last couple days learning about how countries in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean might best to stimulate the implementation of renewables at the first annual REEM Conference. The conference was largely an attempt to identify and some lessons learned and best practices from the EU, and even the US, which could help shape policy in these regions.

I would contend that knowledge sharing is always constructive. Yet, as some of the entrepreneurs on the panel explained their decidedly unique and varied frustrations and successes surrounding each of their projects, I could not help but feel that the concept of pontificating on would be effective policies for a developing countries from a well lit and air conditioned downtown San Francisco hotel ball room was a bit cheeky, if not resoundingly inadvisable.

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Last night I had the dubious distinction of being the guy sitting next to former director of the CIA, Ambassador, and Undersecretary of the Navy (a post he held before I was born), and current Senior Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton and partner at Vantage Point Venture Partners, R. James Woolsey.

He has a fairly clear message that he is happy to share with anyone that will listen:

The United States is at grave risk to both “malignant” and “malevolent” disruptions to the grid and that threat can be addressed through distributed renewable generation which can simultaneously reduce the importance of oil to the ignominious fall from grace of salt.

I have had the pleasure of hearing him speak and spending some time with him before moderating last night’s event, and despite how highly I thought of him before, he did not disappoint.  His is a decidedly aggressive approach to the US’ energy future, and like the well trained litigator he is, he presents his case very well.  Electric vehicles and distributed renewables are the hallmarks of an utopian (utopic?) energy future, that would leave OPEC states reeling with the need to find, as he puts it,  honest work, and reducing the disposable cash reserves some currently use to fund terrorist activities.

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Last week I went to the World Bank’s Energy Week in DC.  It was an exciting event in which the World Bank hosted “energy and finance industry executives, senior donor and developing country government officials, stakeholders and leading-edge thinkers of the energy sector”.  Seminars discussed energy efficiency, rural electrification, alternative energy resources, and climate change.  The Global Energy Assessment was an interesting topic discussed by US renewable energy trade organization and private sector.  If you’ve been paying attention to renewable energy there was nothing new, except the passion to engage the emerging markets. 

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“We stand at a moment when global affairs are rapidly shifting, requiring that shared solutions tap all sources of innovation. Changes made today will have a lasting effect on our future, our nation and our world – demanding we understand the challenges we face and the opportunities for creative solutions.”

“Global Priorities:
Critical Choices for the Obama Administration”
63rd Annual Conference, World Affairs Council
April 2-3, 2009

The Westin Hotel in San Francisco last Friday was definitely the place to be if you wanted to hear some of the nation’s energy thought-leaders reflect on the energy crisis we are facing. Sponsored by energy giant Chevron, the World Affairs Council’s annual conference was a truly inspirational event that delved deeply into energy topics within the greater geo-political context of world affairs. With back-to-back speeches, panel discussions and breakout sessions, the day-long event provided different assessments of our energy behavior from various angles and offered sustainable solutions to protect our climate.

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Solar energy system: $1,000,000
Last month’s energy bill: $1.19
Reduced carbon emissions: Priceless

What sounds like an advertisement by a well-known financial institution is actually taken from a postcard you can find at Honig Vineyard. In August 2006, the winery threw the switch on its photovoltaic system and has been 100% solar-powered since then. With 819 Sanyo 200-watt modules, the installation was one of the largest in the country when it was installed. Mounted on the ground, the modules generate sufficient power to run the whole winery, including cooling and bottling. This allows Honig to save over $42,000 a year in electricity bills. Not only that: Over the next 30 years, it will prevent over 7.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions (the equivalent of planting more than 34 acres of carbon dioxide-absorbing trees). The economics seem to be working out, according to Michael Honig:

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The European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC) was held last week in Marseilles, welcoming 7,500 participants over 4 days. The whole industry was there, participating in a massive competition of glossy brochures and freebies, but also hard business.

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