Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Energy Seminar Series: Panel Discussion on Energy Stimulus

Recent editorials by Sue Tierney and Dan Reicher D'78 have presented interesting and important perspectives on opportunities and challenges facing stimulus investments in the energy sector. Join energy experts Tierney, Reicher, Abby Hopper D'93, Tom Kiernan D'81, and Jeff Dagle as they discuss stimulus investments supporting the creation of new energy systems. This event is also co-sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth. Learn more about the panelists.

Dartmouth students, staff, and community members can RSVP here to receive Zoom information.

Alumni Sparks: Norman Bay D’82

Date: July 8, 2020
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time

This week we welcome former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Norman Bay ’82, who will talk about his career path and answer questions about the energy career market today.

Norman C. Bay represents clients on a range of energy issues, including regulatory and policy matters, mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure development, enforcement and compliance, and litigation at Willike Farr & Gallagher LLP. Norman was Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from 2015 to 2017.  Before becoming Chairman, he was the Director of the Office of Enforcement at FERC from 2009 to 2014.  He was previously a federal prosecutor and the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, as well as a Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law.  He is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow with Duke University and a member of the NCAA's Division I Committee on Infractions.  Norman is a member of the Class of 1982 at Dartmouth College and a graduate of Harvard Law School and a member of the Irving Institute Advisory Board.

Dartmouth students, staff, and community members can RSVP here to receive Zoom information.

Conversations with Early-Career Energy Researchers - Parth Vaishnav

Date and Time: July 1, 2020 | 12 PM EDT

The transportation sector is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. The majority of these emissions come from light-duty vehicles. Many energy systems analyses suggest that light vehicle electrification is technically straightforward, and essential to decarbonizing the economy and averting dangerous global warming. In parallel with a rise in the market share of electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles (AVs) are being tested on public roads. Among other benefits, AVs offer the possibility of substantially reducing the 37,000 road deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2018. The first case is a study that asks whether society can have the anticipated safety benefits of automation, while also fully electrifying light vehicle transport. While some commentators have suggested that the power and energy requirements of automation mean that the first automated vehicles will be gas-electric hybrids, our findings suggest that this need not be the case. A second case tests the feasibility of deploying heat pumps, which enable efficient electrification of space heating. Many integrated assessment models suggest that the electrification of space heating is essential to decarbonizing the economy. We find that, in some parts of the U.S., an immediate switch from natural gas to electric heat pumps would increase health and environmental damages from carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants over the lifetime of the heat pump, even if electricity generation were rapidly decarbonized over that lifetime. A shift to heat pumps would increase household annual hourly peak demand for electricity in most parts of the country, potentially requiring an expansion of the electricity distribution system. The study concludes with analyses that suggest that unless carefully designed, policies to promote the adoption of even technologically straightforward interventions can hurt equity and face political hurdles.

Parth Vaishnav is Assistant Research Professor of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research seeks to understand behavioral, economic, and political barriers to the adoption of technologies that reduce the harm from energy production and use, with the goal devising strategies to overcome those barriers. He holds a PhD in EPP ('15) from CMU, and an MPhil in technology policy ('11) from Cambridge University. Parth has published in scientific journals including Energy Policy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Materials, Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Research Letters, Sloan Management Review, and Research Policy. He has also published opinion pieces in Aviation Week and Space Technology, Issues in Science and Technology, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Dartmouth students, staff, and community members can RSVP here to receive Zoom information.

Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Energy Seminar Series: Mobilizing Environmental Voters

Environmentalists aren't voting as much as they ought to, but recent advances in data analytics and behavioral science offer hope for 2020 and beyond. With fresh data from recent elections and mobilization experiments, voter turnout expert Nathaniel Stinnett will discuss how modern political campaigns identify and mobilize voters, and how that impacts environmental policy at the local, state, and federal level.

Nathaniel Stinnett is the Founder and Executive Director of the Environmental Voter Project, a non-partisan nonprofit that uses data analytics and behavioral science to mobilize environmentalists to vote. Named one of five global "climate visionaries" by The New York Times in 2018, and dubbed "The Voting Guru" by Grist magazine, Stinnett is a frequent expert speaker on cutting-edge campaign techniques and the behavioral science behind getting people to vote. He has held a variety of senior leadership and campaign manager positions on U.S. Senate, Congressional, state, and mayoral campaigns, and he sits on the Board of Advisors for MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative. Formerly an attorney at the international law firm DLA Piper, Stinnett holds a BA from Yale University and a JD from Boston College Law School, and he lives in Boston, MA with his wife and two daughters.

Dartmouth students, staff, and community members can RSVP here to receive Zoom information.

Alumni Sparks: Abigail Ross Hopper D’93

Are you interested in exploring a career in the energy sector? Are you a graduating senior worried about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the energy job market? As we weather the coronavirus pandemic as a campus, a nation, and a planet, the Irving Institute for Energy and Society wants to help students interested in pursuing a career in energy gain insight and advice from industry leaders during these challenging times. 

​We invite all interested students to join us for our new online “Alumni Sparks” program. Each week, we’ll introduce you to a Dartmouth energy alum who will share their career journey, discuss how the pandemic has affected their area, and answer your questions about energy careers in the midst of this major upheaval. You’ll meet leaders in renewables, legacy systems, finance, and more in this informal, up-close-and-personal Zoom-based series. Connect with other Dartmouth energy students and hear from seasoned professionals whose unique perspective can help inform your next steps. ​

Alumni Sparks is open to everyone, even if you're new to energy and not sure if it's the right path for you! Our conversations will be accessible for a general audience. Whether or not they electrify* you with interest in the energy sector, they’ll open up new ways of thinking that we hope are helpful for all!!

This week’s Alumni Sparks will be with Abigail Ross Hopper D’93, President & CEO, Solar Energy Industries Association on Wednesday, May 27th at 8 PM EST. For more information and to sign up here.

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Abigail Ross Hopper is the President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the national trade organization for America's solar energy industries. She oversees all of SEIA's activities, including government affairs, research, communications, and industry leadership, and is focused on creating a marketplace where solar will constitute a significant percentage of America's energy generation.

Before joining SEIA, Abby served as Director of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Director of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), Energy Advisor to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, and Deputy General Counsel with the Maryland Public Service Commission. Before embarking on a career in public service, Abby spent nine years in private practice.

Abby graduated Cum Laude from the University of Maryland School of Law and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Dartmouth College. She is the very proud mom of three children and loves to read and run.

For more information and to sign up here.

Revers Center Energy Project Forum

The Revers Center for Energy will host its second annual Energy Project Forum at Tuck. The annual aim of the forum is to give current Center fellows an opportunity to present their projects in an interactive way to the broader Dartmouth energy community. However this year, Center Fellows will present their independent projects internally to their peers for feedback and to share their findings.

Fellows’ independent projects are selected to prepare a presentation that will frame the study, question, and a follow-up discussion. Check back on the website for recordings and more details of the projects from this forum!

Last year’s projects included:

• The current state of YieldCo’s
• Validating Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting
• Dartmouth Transport Fleet EV Transition Study

For any questions regarding this year Energy Project Forum, please reach out to tuck.energy@dartmouth.edu.

Research with Impact —  Dartmouth’s Role in Advancing New Hampshire’s Clean Energy Future

As academics in the energy field, we are often publishing our research on how to best transform our energy systems to meet the challenge of global climate change. We develop new technologies, design new market mechanisms, and propose new policy measures. But publishing our research is one thing and making meaningful change is another.  

Fortunately, in 2019, the State of New Hampshire passed Senate Bills 284 and 286.  The former establishes a statewide, multi-use online energy data platform. The latter allows municipalities and counties to establish community power aggregators that can entirely transform retail electricity markets.  This presentation summarizes' the speakers' role in in making New Hampshire's clean energy future a reality.  We will describe our contributions to Clean Power New Hampshire as a nascent community power program.  Furthermore, Salas and Farid have recognized that the success of such programs relies on timely and accurate data.  To that end, Salas will describe her Irving Institute-funded NH energy dashboard project. Farid will go on to describe his systems engineering efforts to architect NH's energy data platform as part of the NH PUC "Data Docket". The establishment of data-rich community power programs creates the potential for new transactive energy retail electricity markets that can accommodate large quantities of variable renewable energy resources.  To conclude the presentation, Farid will describe his Irving Institute-funded "LEBTEC" project that develops a transactive energy blockchain prototype for the City of Lebanon.

Dartmouth students, staff, and community members can RSVP here to receive Zoom information.

Shell New Energies: Smart Cities and an Integrated Lower-Carbon Power Business

Date: May 14, 2014
Time: 12:00-1:00pm​
 

Shell New Energies: Building an Integrated Lower-Carbon Power Business: The world’s energy system is changing. Shell is investing in more lower-carbon technology. This includes renewables such as wind and solar, new mobility options such as electric vehicle charging and hydrogen and an interconnected power business that will provide electricity to millions of homes, companies and businesses. Shell plans to invest $2 to $3 billion a year on its power and low-carbon business compared with an overall spending budget of $30 billion per year between 2021 and 2025.

Join the Revers Center for Energy in a discussion with Travis Sheehan, Lead for City Solutions North America, Shell New Energies to provide us an overview of Shell New Energies, discuss current initiatives for the City Solutions business line, and Travis' background prior to Shell as a sustainable cities consultant and infrastructure advisor at the City of Boston.  

Travis leads Shell’s partnership development with infrastructure operators, C&I customers, and local governments for cross-business opportunities in power, mobility, and environment. Prior to joining Shell, Travis founded Gridling Global, where he advised governments, corporate clients, and investors on resiliency and sustainability strategies for urban developments in the US and Asia. He is the former Senior Infrastructure Advisor at the Boston Planning and Development Agency where he directed infrastructure programs focusing on energy, fiber, water and transit pilot projects in new-development districts and municipal assets. He received a dual master’s degree from MIT in City Planning and Architecture.​

Tuck students and staff can sign up here to receive Zoom information.

Dartmouth students, staff, and community members can RSVP here to receive Zoom information.