Energy opportunities seen amid crisis
Conference speakers cite chances for progress
David Chandler, MIT News Office
March 9, 2009
Speakers at MIT's fourth annual student-led Energy Conference on Saturday emphasized the historic opportunity now open to proponents of clean energy: a global economic crisis that can be directly addressed by sweeping changes to the way we produce and use energy. And research universities, they said, could play a major role in helping to bring about such a transformation.
"We need to focus on alternative energy because reviving the economies of the world requires a return to fundamental economic growth," MIT President Susan Hockfield said. "I'm convinced that the next wave of economic growth will rise from the same source that powered the information and biotechnology revolutions: from innovation. And today, by far the most powerful potential for immediate, catalytic innovation is alternative energy."
The sold-out conference, organized by the MIT Energy Club and the MIT Sloan Energy and Environment Club, attracted hundreds of energy professionals, investors, entrepreneurs, policy makers, academics and students. Saturday's gathering was preceded by an Energy Showcase on Friday night that featured more than 60 students' posters about academic research projects on energy as well as displays from dozens of energy companies, many of them spinoffs from MIT research, and a variety of interactive exhibits.
Conference keynote speaker Lars Josefsson, CEO of Swedish energy company Vattenfall, recently announced plans for his company -- which operates in several other European nations -- to achieve complete carbon neutrality in all its power production by 2050, making it the world's first major energy supplier to make such a sweeping commitment.
"If we can do it, anyone can do it," said Josefsson, adding that the global nature of climate problems requires coordinated worldwide action. He emphasized that although the sweeping changes needed will take decades to implement, it is essential to begin the process immediately.
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