Lecture audio.
The What’s Next Lecture Series continued with the second of its five-part Innovation program, “Innovations in Energy: New Sources, Crucial Savings, and How We’ll Finance It” on April 28, 2010 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. The panel featured Dr. James L. Sweeney, Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford University, Daniel Shugar, CEO of Solaria Corporation, and JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Energy. Paul Rogers, managing editor of Quest on KQED and the Natural Resources & Environment Writer at the San Jose Mercury News, was the moderator of the panel as they explored current trends and recent innovations in renewable energy production, business and residential efficiency devices and programs, and the investment opportunities and trends driving opportunity and adoption.
The series is a collaboration between UC Santa Cruz, NextSpace Coworking + Innovation, and the City of Santa Cruz. Upcoming topics in the year-long series will include The New Workplace, Breakthroughs in Research & Development, and Gaming & Social Media.
Panelists
James L. Sweeney is Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Economics, and a Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Until September 1999, he served as chairman of the Stanford Department of Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research. He has focused his professional activities on the application of economics methods and mathematical modeling, particularly to natural resource issues, energy economics, environmental economics, competitive analysis, and policy analysis. He has conducted theoretical research on depletable and renewable resource use, environmental economics, gasoline market dynamics, energy tariff policy, and housing market dynamics. He has conducted empirical research on energy demand, electricity demand and financial forecasting, and geothermal energy market behavior. Along with Alan Kneese, he was editor of the three volume Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, part of the North Holland Handbooks in Economics series. (read his full bio)
Daniel Shugar, a pioneer and leader in solar power whose experience in the industry spans 22 years, joined Solaria in January 2010. Prior to joining the Solaria team Shugar served most recently as president of SunPower Systems, a subsidiary of SunPower Corporation. Dan Shugar spent ten years as president of PowerLight Corporation until its acquisition by SunPower. During his tenure at PowerLight and then SunPower, Shugar oversaw revenue growth from less than $1 million to more than $800 million, and he was responsible for the completion of more than 500 photovoltaic (PV) projects serving commercial, industrial and utility clients worldwide. Before PowerLight, Shugar managed the Solar Projects Research Group at Pacific Gas & Electric Co. He has invented various PV system applications, holds multiple U.S. patents and has published more than 50 technical papers. Shugar holds a BS in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in finance from Golden Gate University. (read more)
JoeBen Bevirt, an inveterate entrepreneur born with a passion for engineering that has driven the formation of two successful companies over the past 10 years. Joby Energy is his third venture. In 2000, JoeBen co-founded Velocity11 which developed high-performance laboratory equipment. He served as President & CEO until 2002, as President until 2006, and as a board member until the sale to Agilent Technologies in 2007. Under his leadership, Velocity11 employed 200 people and grew by 50% annually. In 2005, JoeBen founded Joby, Inc. (Joby) to develop, market, and sell useful, unique, and delightful consumer products. Profitable almost immediately, Joby continues to deliver new products and record profits despite the economic downturn. In early 2008, JoeBen turned his focus to renewable energy and founded Joby Energy Inc. to develop groundbreaking airborne wind turbines to harness the power of high-altitude wind. JoeBen holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. JoeBen holds ten U.S. patents.
Paul Rogers is Natural Resources and Environment Writer of the San Jose Mercury News. Rogers has been a reporter for the Mercury News for 21 years, and was part of the Mercury News team that won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Rogers also works as managing editor of “QUEST,” the weekly TV and radio series about Northern California science and environment issues on KQED, the San Francisco PBS and NPR affiliate. At the Mercury News, Rogers covers a broad range of topics, including marine and coastal issues, logging, energy, climate change, air pollution, water policy, endangered species, and state and national parks. He also has taught graduate courses on environmental journalism and science writing at the University of California-Santa Cruz Science Communication Program, and at UC-Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Recognition for Rogers’s writing includes the 2001 David R. Brower Award, the Sierra Club’s highest national award for environmental journalism. Rogers is chairman of the board of the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources, a non-profit group based in Missoula, Montana that over the last 15 years has taken more than 500 reporters on expedition-style programs of learning to improve the depth, quality and balance of America’s environmental news coverage. He lives in Santa Cruz with his wife, Leigh Poitinger, and their son, Owen.
Resources
California’s aging power grid must be fixed to allow renewable energy expansion.
From KQED’s science & environment show, QUEST.
From tidepools to Sierra forests, the impacts of climate change in California.
From KQED’s science & environment show, QUEST.
Joby Energy video shown at lecture by JoeBen Bevirt.
