DOE, BNL Shine at Advanced Energy 2009 Conference
November 24, 2009
The Department of Energy (DOE) and Brookhaven Lab were well represented at Advanced Energy 2009, the state’s premier conference for advanced energy, held this year at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center in Hauppauge November 18-19.
The keynote speaker at the luncheon on Wednesday, November 18, was Arun Majumdar, newly appointed director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E is the nation’s only agency devoted to transformational energy research and development. Majumdar broadly described the energy crisis facing the nation and pointed to several promising avenues for research and development that can have game-changing impact on finding solutions, including building efficiency, the smart grid and others. His vision for ARPA-E involved developing new technologies on the basis of innovative basic research results, as well as carrying out basic research to create new technologies or to enable dramatic extensions of existing technologies.
Speaking after his talk, Majumdar said, "Consider the most prolific and game-changing technologies of the 20th century: Artificial fertilizers, airplanes, transistors, the polio vaccine, nuclear energy, the internet, and so on. Now, imagine those breakthroughs occurring over a 10 to 20 year time span. That's what we need now in energy technologies to substantially reduce greenhouse gases, enhance our energy independence and security, and increase our country's technological lead in the world."
Thursday’s keynote speakers included former Brookhaven Lab Director John Marburger, currently a professor at Stony Brook University.
At Wednesday’s afternoon session, Lab Director Sam Aronson chaired DOE’s Showcase of Science and Technology R&D, which featured talks by Patricia Dehmer, deputy director of DOE’s Office of Science, and representatives from the Office of Science’s Offices of Basic Energy Science, Bioenergy and Climate Research, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Electricity. Topics covered included superconductivity and the Smart Grid, climate measuring and modeling, basic science for advanced energy and renewable energy science.
While on Long Island for the conference, Dehmer seized the opportunity to tour the NSLS-II construction site at Brookhaven, see sidebar and photos.
A number of additional BNL scientists were on the program at Advanced Energy 2009. They included:
- Devinder Mahajan, Energy Sciences and Technology Department (EST), who chaired a session on Bio-Energy Science and Technology
- Mark Toscano, Energy and Utilities Division, who spoke on using biofuels for steam production
- Bill Horak, EST, who detailed the New York City “Pilot Study” in his talk on the Water Energy Nexus Initiative, an evolving program currently being spearheaded by DOE to focus diverse talent and resources on very complex and interconnected technological, economic, and socio-political issues inherent in regional, national water and energy supply and demand issues
- C.R. Krishna, EST, spoke about the Lab’s biofuels applications and synthesis research
- Tom Butcher, EST, delivered a talk on development of hydrokinetic power for New York State
Brookhaven and DOE served as host sponsors of the conference, which featured 35 sessions on five tracks. Organized by Long Island’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC), headquartered at Stony Brook University, the conference attracted more than 1,000 participants from government, business and academia.
Touring the NSLS-II construction site are, from left, Pat Dehmer, Marty Fallier and Steve Dierker.
Dehmer Tours NSLS-II Construction Site
Pat Dehmer, deputy director of DOE’s Office of Science, toured the construction site for NSLS-II while on Long Island to participate in Advanced Energy 2009. Dehmer was instrumental in siting the planned $912-million user facility, scheduled to open in 2015. Stating “the place is here, the time is now,” Dehmer announced that NSLS-II would be built at Brookhaven while attending the project’s first user workshop at Brookhaven in July 2007. Along with other dignitaries, Dehmer was also present at the NSLS-II groundbreaking in June of this year.
2009-1519 | INT/EXT | Newsroom