Friday, February 17, 2012: 8:30 AM-11:30 AM
Room 118 (VCC West Building)Some of the most promising forms of renewable energy require extracting that energy from the environment: wind, solar, hydrokinetic, and thermal. Current efforts are expensive, but with proper cross-disciplinary science, costs are decreasing, in some cases rapidly. Key to the economic success of using these new forms of energy is understanding the environment well enough to know where to build systems, how to build them, and what the impact on the environment will be. Environmental scientists, working together with engineers and electricity providers, are finding ways to maximize output while minimizing impacts. Innovative research is at the core of these recent advancements, with scientists asking questions they have never asked before and learning to work across disciplines to find world solutions. The efficiency and placement of different types of renewable energy must meet the available energy demands. Electricity providers require as complete an understanding of how much energy will be available and at what times. The impacts of wind turbines, solar panels, and most important, ocean-derived energy forms must be examined in a cross-disciplinary manner. Speakers will address these issues, summarize recent breakthroughs, and provide road maps for how these critical issues are being addressed by scientists internationally.
Elizabeth C. Weatherhead, University of Colorado
Suzanne Van Drunick, University of Colorado