Energy Speaker Series: Each semester the Energy Initiative brings nationally and internationally known energy experts to Duke to discuss current and relevant issues facing our country and the world. These speakers offer members of the university community the opportunity to engage in topics across the energy spectrum.
Conferences: The Energy Initiative organizes or cosponsors several conferences during the academic year. Decisionmakers and leading experts from the business, policy and academic community meet for a day or more of in-depth discussions of specific energy issues.
Energy Mix: Meet businesspeople, faculty, entrepreneurs, students and other members of the local energy community who are interested in the future of energy at our monthly mixers. Check our Facebook and Twitter feeds as well as our events calendar for dates and locations.
Power Lunches: Energy professionals, entrepreneurs and other guests join Duke students and faculty for small-group discussions of issues relating to their work. These events may require advance sign-up for the limited number of available seats.
Energy Research Seminars: This new series will allow groups of faculty, researchers and students from Duke and other universities to learn about and receive feedback on new scholarly energy research.
Upcoming Events:
No events scheduled at this time. Check back for updates. Latest update 2013-05-08.
Previous 2013 events
See a list of our Fall 2012 events
Wednesday, Jan. 16: Energy Mix
Our monthly social and networking reception for students, businesspeople, faculty and other members of the local energy community.
Thursday, Jan. 17: Power Lunch with Ray Bartoszek: America's Energy Shift – Infrastructure to Make it a Reality
Learn about the expected growth of gas production from the Marcellus Shale and the infrastructure needed to bring it to market. Ray Bartoszek has 25 years of experience in energy, trading and logistics, 13 of which were spent with Glencore, Ltd. where he managed physical and derivative trading in crude oil, refined products, LPG and natural gas.
Wednesday, Jan. 30: Power Lunch with Marcia Walker: Inspiration and Insights - Opportunities in Industrial Energy Efficiency
Marcia Walker, SAP’s director for Energy Solutions Marketing, discussed industrial energy management and efficiency and how software solutions are creating big opportunities for industry by advancing energy data analytics and decision making. She also identified career paths by which students may consider entering this sector.
Monday, Feb. 4: Power Lunch with David Hoppock: Electricity Planning in North Carolina - the 2012 Duke Energy and Progress Energy Integrated Resource Plans
Learn about investor-owned utility Integrated Resource Planning in North Carolina. David Hoppock is a research analyst with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions who researches public utility commission decision-making, electricity generation investments under uncertainty, and coordination of state economic and environmental regulation of the electricity sector.
Thursday, Feb. 21: Energy Mix
Monday, Feb. 25: Energy Speaker Series: The Canadian-U.S. Energy Relationship: Business, Politics and the Environment
A panel of energy experts from Canada explored current business, political and environmental issues that shape the energy relationship of Canada and the United States, including oil sands and shale gas production; Canadian hydrocarbon transport to the U.S.; foreign national resource ownership; and the water, air and cultural impacts of resource extraction. Speakers: Marvin Romanow, former CEO, Nexen Inc.; Dale Eisler, Assistant Deputy Minister, Natural Resources Canada, Task Force on Energy Security, Prosperity and Sustainability; and Simon Dyer, policy director, Pembina Institute. Moderator: Duke visiting professor Stephen Kelly, former deputy chief of the U.S. Mission to Canada.
Thursday, Feb. 28: Power Lunch with Pete Curtice: Opower – Energy Efficiency through Behavioral Science and Technology
Opower partners with utility providers around the world to promote energy efficiency with targeted information. Opower's software creates individualized Energy Reports for utility customers that analyze their energy usage and offer recommendations on how to save energy and money by making small changes to their energy consumption. Pete Curtice explained how Opower "pushes" this information through existing communications channels including the web, email and mail, helping customers save 2 percent to 4 percent in energy use.
Wednesday, March 20: Power Lunch with Travis Bradford: Redefining Utilities in the Distributed Era
Co-sponsored by the Duke University Energy Initiative and Fuqua School MBA Energy Club
Electric utilities and their regulatory structures were built for the previous generation of large generators that pushed that energy to grid customers. It’s increasingly obvious that this structure is inadequate to incorporate emerging value-creating options in energy efficiency, demand response and distributed generation - collectively known as Distributed Energy (“DE”). These solutions create both costs and benefits to the utilities and their ratepayers. Defining what these are is creating new battlegrounds over net-metering, payment mechanisms for demand response, and rate cases. Travis Bradford, president and founder of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, examined how we must redefine this social contract between utilities and DE providers in a way that is fair to all parties and allows for capturing the value of these DE interventions, where available.
Wednesday, March 20: A Conversation with Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft
Co-sponsored by the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy, the Duke University Energy Initiative, the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, and the Duke Office of Global Strategy and Programs.
The Duke Program in American Grand Strategy hosted Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft (USAF, Ret.) as part of the Von der Heyden Fellows Program Endowment Fund lecture series.
Thursday, March 21: Energy Mix
Wednesday, March 27: Power Lunch with Rehan Rashid: U.S. Energy Investing: The Shale Era
Co-sponsored by the Duke University Energy Initiative and the Drilling, Environment and Economics Network
U.S. conventional natural gas production since 1950 has totaled approximately 1,000 Tcf and conventional liquids production from the "Lower 48" roughly 160 billion barrels. The industry is now projected to extract similar amounts in the future via new E&P technologies from the shales. Rehan Rashid, managing director and co-head of energy and natural resources research at FBR Capital Markets & Co., discussed the impact on investing in the U.S. energy sector as well as the broader U.S. economy.
Wednesday, April 3: Propelling Investment Across the US Energy Economy: Meeting the Technology, Policy and Financial Challenge. With Michael H. Schwartz, CEO, New Wave Energy Capital Partners
Part of the Energy Finance Series, co-sponsored by the Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment; the Energy Initiative; and the Fuqua MBA Energy Club
Though development of clean energy technologies is increasingly drawing attention from investors, decision-makers, researchers and others, the United States will need decades, not years, to transition from its existing reliance on fossil fuels. In the meantime, significant capital commitments will be made in fossil energy including oil/natural gas production, midstream infrastructure such as pipelines, natural gas electric generation, environmental compliance in coal generation, and commercial renewable energy technologies such as wind and PV solar. Strategies to guide these investments must integrate technology, public policy and commercial structuring, including project financing. Dr. Schwartz provided an overview of the supply/demand dynamics across the major sectors that comprise the US energy industry, identify key market drivers, and discuss how investment strategies and decisions are developed in response to the challenges posed by shifts in public policy and financial markets.
Tuesday, April 9: ACC Clean Energy Challenge Finals and Awards Ceremony
The ACC Clean Energy Challenge is a business plan competition encouraging students from all universities throughout the southeastern United States to develop business plans for new clean energy companies. Grand prize is $100,000. Activities included a Clean Energy Expo and a panel discussion on "Entrepreneurship: From Seed to Start-Up to Seasoned Enterprise."
Wednesday, April 10: Renewable Energy Transactions: Using Structural Innovation and Government Incentives to Finance Clean Energy. With Frank Pereiro, Managing Director, JPMorgan Chase
Part of the Energy Finance Series, co-sponsored by the Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment; the Energy Initiative; and the Fuqua MBA Energy Club
Frank Pereiro discussed the mechanics of renewable energy transactions and lead students through cases that will model, value and structure deals. Session takeaways included understanding of project finance vehicles, fixed energy asset valuation, government incentives, and the commercial renewable energy industry.
Thursday, April 11: Duke Start-Up Challenge Grand Finale
The Duke Start-Up Challenge is an entrepreneurship competition organized by the Duke Global Entrepreneurship Network. The competition spans the academic year with the Elevator Pitch Competition each fall and the Grand Prize Competition each spring. The Energy Initiative co-sponsored a Clean Energy Track that carries a $10,000 prize. At the grand finale, three teams gave a final pitch and one won the grand prize of $50,000.
Monday-Wednesday, April 15-17: N.C. Sustainable Energy Conference: Embracing an Intelligent Energy Future: How Will North Carolina Integrate Economics, Behavior, Supply and Delivery Strategies to Shape our Energy Landscape?
Cosponsored by the Duke University Energy Initiative
The 10th Annual Sustainable Energy Conference features keynote and invited speakers from Duke Energy; Cree, Inc.; Nissan, Leaf Division; Tennessee Valley Authority; and Sierra Nevada Brewing. Session subjects include the third NC Smart Grid Forum; Energy Efficiency; Utility Savings Initiative; Renewables; Solar and Wind Energy; Policy and Finance; and Sustainable Tourism, Agriculture, and BioFuels.
Tuesday, April 16: Energy Mix at the NC Sustainable Energy Conference
Monday, April 22: Power Lunch sponsored by Clean Energy America: Nuclear Energy’s Future
With Desiree Wolfgramm, Staff Engineer, Mechanical Systems Energy Northwest, and James Haldeman, Mechanical Engineer, Bechtel Power.
About 20 percent of the electricity in the U.S. comes from nuclear energy – avoiding 650 million metric tons of carbon pollution that would have been emitted by coal and natural gas plants producing the same amount of power. As the price of oil skyrockets and natural gas fluctuates, the U.S. must include nuclear power in its exploration of affordable, reliable energy alternatives. Clean Energy America is a national speakers program designed to establish a dialogue with American citizens about the benefits of nuclear energy as a clean, reliable and affordable source of energy.
Tuesday, April 23: Energy Speaker Series with Thomas Heller – Climate Policy: Out of the Clouds and Down-to-Earth?
Climate change stands a reasonable chance of becoming the most studied, prescribed and negotiated public policy problem we have collectively undertaken. But what has been achieved in more than 20 years of such attention, and what have we learned empirically about what has worked and not worked in this extensive exercise in normative analysis? Tom Heller shared reflections on the global policy landscape with particular attention to policy experience in renewable energies and REDD+ in the land use sectors. Heller is executive director of Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit institution that analyzes the effectiveness of climate and energy policies around the world.
Tuesday, May 7: Duke University Energy Research Collaboration Workshop
Duke University faculty and researchers presented their current findings on a variety of energy-related research topics in this daylong workshop. Work was presented in panels, paper presentations, sketches and poster sessions. Please visit the workshop webpage, where videos, presentations and other media from this event will be posted.
Tuesday, May 7: Energy Mix
