In San Francisco this June our theme is TRANSPORTATION and ELECTRIFICATION
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In San Francisco this June our theme is TRANSPORTATION and ELECTRIFICATION 〰️
Programming
Our Transportation Future, by Air: Making Air Travel Greener
Air travel is a significant contributor to atmospheric carbon. A Virgin Atlantic test flight using fuel made from waste fat and plant sugar crossed the Atlantic Ocean recently: a coup from a P.R. point-of-view, but is “sustainable jet fuel” going to change the carbon impact of jet airlines to a significant degree?
The Jet Zero “Blended Wing” is a major redesign of traditional jet design, with half the fuel burn and emissions of older designs.
Joining Jet Zero at the Summit is Joby Aviation (pictured) a major player in a wave of electrically powered “Air Taxis” coming to market.
Our Transporation Future, by Land: Zero Emission Vehicles: America’s Love Affair With the Automobile Has a New Dimension
Some carmakers are phasing out the internal combustion engine. Others have dropped it. Challenges remain, however, including charging infrastructure, charging compatibility, charging station financing and ownership. We welcome perspective from Tyson Eckerle, Senior Advisor for Clean Infrastructure and Mobility, Gov's Office of Business & Economic Development (GO-Biz), from Darnell Grisby, Commissioner at the California Transportation Commission, and from Gabe Klein, Exec. Director, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.
Seamus Murphy of the WETA, Director of San Francisco’s public transit passenger ferry service, reports that advances in battery technology & materials have led to radically revised plans for ferry service in SF. The new fleet will be fast and free of fossil fuels. Seamus is part of A Cleaner and Greener Maritime Industry on Day Three (June 14).
Also participating in this panel are Artemis (their boat is pictured). Artemis uses “digital twins in the design process, new lightweight structures and advanced manufacturing techniques.”
Our Transportation Future, By Sea: Advances in Maritime Technology
Rounding Up: Three Days of Action Oriented Meetings about Funding
Whether you are an entrepreneur, early-stage company, or well advanced in your trajectory, join these sessions to hear from investors with incisive information about what’s getting funded now, and how. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and the “forwards” of carbon credits are just two in a basket of topics we invite experts to address. Moderators include: Henk Both from Anzu Partners. Darren Wolfberg, Founder & CEO of Triangle Digital, and Scott Wu, Exec. Director of IBank.
CONTEXT: 44% of 2023 federal transportation and infrastructure spending was for highway transportation and 23% was for air travel. The rest was for rail and mass transit (22%) and maritime transport ation (10%). Total spending in the combined sectors has been roughly 100 billion, annually. With the inclusion of the additional $36.8 billion in guaranteed advance appropriations provided under BIL, the Department's total budget for FY 2024 is 145.3 billion.
Battery Innovation: Leading the Charge
Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt batteries. Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. Sodium-ion Batteries. Solid State batteries. Aluminum batteries. Aluminum-sulfur batteries.
Batteries are being customized to provide the output and endurance needed for transportation applications thought to be impossible until recently: Ferries, long haul trucks, and commuter flights. We’ll hear from companies improving the familiar lithium-ion batteries that power modern electric vehicles, as well as those developing radically different chemistries.
Geothermal is invaluable as an “always-on” clean technology. The DOE believes the U.S. has potential for 90 gigawatts of geothermal electricity by 2050. Fervo this last year began providing Geothermal power to Google data centers in Nevada.
Meanwhile, the world's largest geothermal field — 30 square miles in Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties in California — is owned by Baseload Clean Energy Partners, a company based in Sweden. Baseload explains where they are in the regulatory process, building out an ambitious plan to contribute a significant piece of our energy mix. Moderator: Kristina Hagström-Ilievska, CMO at Baseload Capital.
Geothermal in N. California Heats Up
To heat and light our cities and homes, for manufacturing, for transportation, we need to get massive amounts of clean energy online while making power distribution safe, resilient and affordable.
Join us for Reinventing Power Distribution: California’s Power Grid, a panel with Kurt Johnson of The Climate Center, David Hochschild, Chair of the California Energy Commission, and Leuwam Tesfai, Deputy Executive Director for Energy and Climate Policy, Public Utilities Commission.
Reimagining Power Distribution
Next Generation Nuclear
There is little debate that part of the energy mix needs to be nuclear if we’re to power our planet and also decarbonize it.
This symposium, moderated by esteemed guest Leslie Dewan, reveals a path to decarbonization impeded by politics more than practicalities. This panel includes Christine King of GAIN and Jeffrey Bohn, Senior Advisor to Anthropocene Institute.
Carbon Sequestration
The Nature Restoration Law is a key element of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, those with the most potential to capture and store carbon.
An example is Hinemoana Halo, a sustainable financing mechanism delivering marine protection and direct benefits to Indigenous Māori Tribes, from jobs to infrastructure.
We take a deep dive into these areas with Natural Systems as an Emerging Market with David Shabazian, Director, California Department of Conservation, and Andreas Merkl, Co-founder of Centigrade, an open-data platform focused on liquid, fair, and efficient carbon markets.
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allocated $8 billion dollars for the development of regional clean hydrogen hubs as part of the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program. California is establishing a public-private hydrogen hub.
Our guests from The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development speak with entrepreneurs and investors, providing insight.
At the same time, exploration of hydrogen as a naturally occurring clean energy source is ramping up.
Hydrogen Rising
Reflective satellite arrays. Cold fusion. Entirely new ways to build homes. We are inviting visionary entrepreneurs at the edge of frontier technology to present and take questions.
Join us for courageous approaches to intransigent problems.
The curator of this series is San Francisco’s Sean Hoge, whose Starship Ventures recently closed 30M in financing.
Energy Frontiers
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) tells us that wave and tidal energy could supply 30 percent of the United States' energy needs. The NREL report also found California's coast has the potential wave energy resources to power 13 million homes in California. We will hear from NREL and from energy innovating companies like CalWave and Ocean Power Technologies.
Ocean Energy
Saleemul Huq, director of a Bangladeshi international center for climate change, makes the point clearly: communities most devastated by climate change "are overwhelmingly poor people of colour." Further, those who will inherit our changing climate are the young.
We have convened a cohort of young changemakers at the Energy Innovation Summit so they are in the mix as vital planning takes place. This cohort is organized in collaboration with Angelou Ezeilo. Angelou was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2016 for her work at the Greening Youth Foundation, where she remains the CEO today.
Climate Justice
Improving Urban Design: a conversation with architects, planners, and SF City rep’s about accelerating change, following the lead of innovating cities like Singapore.
“Buildings last a long time. The ones we build today will likely still be emitting carbon dioxide (CO₂) long after we’re gone. That’s why we need to make them far more energy efficient and electrified.”
— Breakthrough Energy, “State of the Transition, 2023”