2nd Annual US-China Green Energy Conference a Catalyst for Change and Innovation

By Mignon O'Young, Editor

Conserving natural resources and curbing carbon emissions.  Investing in clean technology and increasing renewable energy production.  Developing sustainable eco-cities and implementing environmental policies.  The race to effectively address these crucial challenges has begun.  American and Chinese professionals are collaborating at various private and public levels to develop solutions at a global scale.

The 2nd Annual US-China Green Energy Conference served as a channel for such collaboration and exchange of knowledge and information, and took place on October 22 – 23, 2009 in Palo Alto, California.  Its organizer, the US-China Green Energy Council, is a non-profit organization which facilitates and sponsors green energy collaborative initiatives and projects between the U.S. and China, and serves as a platform for the integration of policy, business, investment, research and educational projects for the two countries.

The line up of speakers ranged from governmental agency representatives to clean tech business representatives who discussed their latest achievements in energy related policy:

• The Mayor of Palo Alto, Mr. Peter Drekmeier, talked about a few of the City’s achievements such as passing the Green Building Ordinance in 2008 and generating 50% of the city’s energy from hydropower by its own municipal utility district.
• The Consul General of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Zhansheng Gao, reported on his country’s goals that ranged from increasing energy efficiency to stepping up efforts to develop a green economy.
• The Commissioner from the California Public Utilities Commission, Ms. Dian M. Grueneich, discussed California’s $3.1 billion/3-year commitment to implementing energy efficiency programs which would help create at least 15,000 skilled green jobs and avoid 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The conference also featured panel discussions that covered examples of U.S. – China collaboration on green building designs, master planning of eco-cities, and development of smart technologies:

• Green Building Design:  For the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) teamed up with the Beijing Science and Technology Group to focus on developing green goals, one of them being the development of Chinese green building standards.  With the assistance of Joseph Huang of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the DOE also provided technical design review and energy analysis for the design of the Beijing Olympic Village.
• Sustainable Development:  Heller Manus Architects based in San Francisco, California was selected by Guangzhou City, China’s third largest city, to develop and design a master plan based on eco-city and smart growth design principals.
• Smart Grid:  Intel and the State Grid Corporation of China Lab worked together to develop grid modeling and simulation software, network isolation, power station automation, and applications of embedded technologies.

The numerous interdisciplinary topics presented at the conference underscored the importance of integrating different environmental, business, and governmental strategies in order to bring about sustainable development, be it a city, a clean technology business, or even a smart product design.  It made good sense to have the professionals from the world’s top two emitters of carbon dioxide come together to exchange information and work toward developing global solutions.  What better time to do so after U.S. Secretary Steven Chu announced the plans to develop a US-China Clean Energy Research Center in July, 2009?

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