DESCRIPTION
Our first Fall Roundtable of 2010 focuses on renewable energy's future in New England. Renewable energy installations of all types (wind, biomass, solar, landfill gas) have been proliferating in New England, while Renewable Portfolio Standards continue to ratchet-up. At the same time, recent developments have introduced significant uncertainty into the renewable energy markets in New England. These include the failure to enact federal legislation to price carbon, the uncertain status of future federal renewable tax credits, the TransCanada law suit, the EIPC transmission and renewable planning process, and the biomass study for MA DOER by Manomet.
Our two panels at the September Roundtable will examine the net effect of these and other factors impacting renewable energy development in New England. One will be a high level, cross-cutting panel whose speakers will share their expectations about the future of renewables in New England. At present, this panel is comprised of:
Commissioner Phil Giudice, Division of Energy Efficiency, MA DOER
Bob Grace, President, Sustainable Energy Advantage
Ellen Angley, VP Energy Supply/Supply Chain Management, NSTAR
Michael Hachey, VP and Director, Eastern Commercial, TransCanada
A second panel will dive into the complex world of biomass carbon accounting and sustainable biomass issues. Tom Walker, the lead author of the Manomet biomass study for MA DOER, will start us off. Marco Albani, Expert Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, will discuss the recent McKinsey-led biomass study commissioned for the European Union, which uses a different methodology than the Manomet study. Coincidentally, both studies were released on the same day in the U.S. and Europe, respectively. We will round this panel off with two leading academics/experts, Professors William Moomaw of Tufts University and Steven Hamburg of Brown University (and the Environmental Defense Fund), who will offer their reflections on both studies and discuss the complexities of carbon accounting and sustainable forestry practices.
The Restructuring Roundtables are free and open to the public. Advanced registration is not required.