ADVANCED ENERGY RESEARCH AND
TECHNOLOGY CENTER’S
Advanced Energy Conference Raises the Bar November 18 & 19

COVER PHOTO CREDIT: CHRISTINE CONNIFF SHEAHAN

 

Only four years in existence, the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC) at Stony Brook University, also known as the Advanced Energy Center, is organizing Long Island’s third Energy Conference, New York’s Premier Conference for Advanced Energy, on November 18-19, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hauppauge. As Networking® magazine went to press, Conference co-chair Dr. Yacov Shamash, Vice President of Economic Development and Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University, said, “The Conference will be very extensive, dealing with numerous issues, not only technology, but also policy on the federal and state level.”

The exhibit showcase will be expanded to include about 75 exhibits, some in a heated outdoor tent. In terms of sponsorships and speakers, “We are way ahead of last year,” adds Shamash, who expects speakers from Japan, Korea, Brazil, France and England, as well as attendees from these countries. “The Conference has taken on an international flavor,” he adds. The 2008 event was a sell-out with nearly 1,000 attendees.

2009 Conference Goals
“The Conference will focus on all aspects of the energy chain from generation and transmission, right down to distribution to the customer,” remarks co-chair Robert Catell, retired chairman of National Grid and chairman of the Advanced Energy Center. “We’ll be looking at where we are today and where we need to go, economically and in an environmentally sensitive manner. The exhibits will demonstrate things that are available right now, and speeches and panel discussions will focus on what people see for future needs.”

Stony Brook University president Samuel Stanley, Jr., MD says, “The high level of leadership Bob Catell and Yacov Shamash have brought together on the Energy Center’s Advisory Board and in the Smart Grid Consortium has been responsible for the very impressive progress the Center has made to date. I look forward to working with these leaders to sustain the Center’s progress, to working with SUNY’s new leadership to ensure the Center has the support necessary to fulfill its mission, and to working with colleagues in SUNY.”

“The Advanced Energy Conference convenes experts to encourage the collaborative approach that is critical to solving energy resource challenges,” said Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president and director of IBM Research, who also serves as co-chair of the Conference. “IBM is working with our clients on creating smart technologies to help reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of electric grids, traffic congestion, data centers and more. We're also helping to accelerate the adoption of smart grids through participation in standards organizations, such as, the GridWise Alliance and the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition.”

State Senator Ken LaValle, who was instrumental in securing $35 million in funding in the 2006 state budget for the creation of the Advanced Energy Center, says, “The 2009 Advanced Energy Conference is a marketplace for the exchange of ideas and how everyone can participate as partners in the many different endeavors. The key in the 21st Century is that we actually start making the changes that we need to make.”

As a conference speaker, LaValle will emphasize that while there is talk about research and development, “We don’t talk enough about the policy we need to make these things a reality…where can windmills be located and how can residential users afford to pay for the installation of solar energy products. We need policies that will create the kinds of incentives to make these things practical. I believe the Advanced Energy Center can be that catalyst and incubator of policy ideas, so we can move at a faster pace.”
Each year the federal labs around the country, including Brookhaven National Laboratory, host a “Department of Energy Day.” This year, the Advanced Energy Center and Brookhaven National Lab are merging this event into the November conference. “Participants not only want to learn about the latest in energy and technology, but also want to know in what direction the DEO is going,” notes Shamash. The United States Energy Department, a major sponsor, is expected to showcase advanced national programs from the Office of Science, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and the Office of Electricity. Topics will include superconductivity and the Smart Grid, climate measurement and modeling, basic science for advanced energy and renewable energy science and programs. Shamash adds that the National Energy Labs at Pacific Northwest, Sandia and Los Alamos are once again participating.
Many 2008 sponsors are returning—including National Grid, IBM, NYPA, NYSERDA, LIPA, Brookhaven National Lab, Farmingdale State College, Computer Associates, Verizon, NYSTAR, NYU-Poly Tech and Con Edison—along with a growing cadre of new sponsors. “Smaller companies, either existing or emerging, as well as community based and environmental organizations will be contributing in this area of alternative energy,” notes Catell. “We need people from all sectors to work together on an agenda, so we can truly come up with a sustainable energy policy going forward.”
The conference is organized in five parallel thematic tracks—Energy Policy, BioEnergy, Smart Networks, Geothermal, and Innovation in Science and Technology—with 35 different sessions hosting 188 presenters representing 38 different research and academic institutions nationwide. In addition, attendees will include leading researchers in alternative fuels, top government officials, legislators, energy policy-makers, environmentalists and leaders from business, academia and the nonprofit sectors, and a diverse set of leaders supporting New York state and federal energy policy. A significant number of graduate and undergraduate students are attending from Stony Brook, other Long Island colleges and universities, and around the state—participation is a “critical part of our educational programs,” adds Shamash.

Smart Grid and other projects
With modern power demands and global security challenges, the nation’s electric power infrastructure, known as “the grid,” has begun showing its age. Shamash notes that discussion among some of the speakers at the 2008 Conference inspired New York’s efforts toward a “Smart Grid.” Shamash, Catell, Edward Reinfurt, executive director of NYSTAR (NYS Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation), and Bob Callender, interim president of NYSERDA (NYS Energy Research and Development Authority) invited major utilities and state agencies, the Public Service Commission and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which operates the state’s bulk electricity grid, to a meeting at the Advanced Energy Center in January. “They had never met before in one group,” says Shamash, “and to our surprise, they all came.”

Under the leadership of Catell and with the resources of the Energy Center, the group, which officially incorporated as the New York State Smart Grid Consortium in July 2009, worked to put together the state’s core competencies, including various academic institutions and industrial labs, with an eye toward applying for federal stimulus money. “We wanted to have a strong proposal; the financial requirements of a Smart Grid are going to be large,” says Catell. “We’re now taking on what is needed for implementation of a Smart Grid.”

“The fact that the new Advanced Energy Center is located right next to the Center for Excellence in Wireless and Internet Technology (CEWIT) at Stony Brook’s research park is an advantage we have over other places,” remarks Shamash. “And, we have a good inventory of technical expertise that resides in New York state,” whether it is at the Energy Center, Brookhaven National Lab, Farmingdale State College, NYIT, Columbia, Cornell, Buffalo or Albany universities. “The concept of the Smart Grid demonstrates and illustrates what can happen when we all work together.”
“CEWIT and the Advanced Energy Center are a perfect fit,” adds Catell. “New technologies are going to require communications links whether to the customer, the grid or generating plants.”
New York State facilities submitted about 70 projects, totaling about $500-600 million, for stimulus funding. Two Long Island proposals include a demonstration project with LIPA to make part of Route 110 a “smart” corridor, and developing Farmingdale State College as a “smart” campus.

In another nod to Long Island’s energy expertise, the U.S. Department of Energy named two local facilities as “Energy Frontier Research Centers”—a Stony Brook center to explore batteries and battery storage and a Brookhaven National Lab center for superconductors. “Both of these centers are very relevant to the Smart Grid,” notes Shamash. [Only 46 centers were named nationwide; five are in New York State with two on Long Island.] The DOE has also funded some Advanced Energy Center projects on biofuels.

Right place at the right time
“The timing of the creation of the Energy Center couldn’t have been better,” says Senator LaValle, who has long been interested in the environment. As a toddler, he spent summers at his grandparents’ poultry farm in Coram where his grandfather impressed upon him the needed to leave nature better than when he found it. In the Senate, he made a commitment to concentrate on land preservation, helping pass the Farmland Preservation Act and authoring the historic Pine Barrens legislation. As chair of the Senate Committee on Higher Education, he became active early on with Shamash and Catell in the creation of the Energy Center.
LaValle points to the “synergy” between the Energy Center, CEWIT and the Center for Advanced Technology’s exploration of sensors and the transmission of energy efficiently and cost effectively. “We are no longer talking about solar, wind and tidal energy,” he adds, “they are things we will be achieving in real time. My sense is that energy within five years is going to change in the blink of the eye.” From the economic development viewpoint, LaValle says, “The Energy Center will be investing in businesses that deal with green jobs, green energy, green building and green cars. That’s our future.”
“I see the Energy Center essentially as an accelerator, helping people actually accomplish and commercialize things,” says Shamash. “The partnerships we have established with industry, utilities, government labs, universities and others really bring everybody together. It’s the secret ingredient.” He adds, “We have to appreciate that we have things that other parts of the state will need and vice versa, so it’s a matter of working collaboratively. Not just institutional collaboration, but also regional collaboration. The Smart Grid, for example, is an initiative that we are doing statewide, but certainly Long Island is very much in the middle of it.”

“For the first time in a long time people are really serious about trying to solve some of our energy issues and recognize the connection between energy and environment,” notes Catell. “We have to work hand in hand to come up with a sustainable policy that we can feel good about for the younger people growing up.”