One third of the world's carbon emissions are emitted by industry. Most industrial emissions relate to producing materials. Steel, cement, plastic, paper and aluminium are the most important contributors. The industries that make materials are energy-intensive, so they have always been motivated to be efficient and have now reached a fantastic level of performance.

However, the world's demand for materials is growing, and likely to double by 2050. By default, industrial emissions will also double, unless we do something differently. This talk sets out an agenda for making a big difference to global emissions by requiring less new material. Based on a five-year project with eight researchers and a consortium of 20 large industrial partners, we have gathered evidence on six material efficiency options which allow us to provide the same final services (such as housing or transport) with significantly less material. The talk will present a series of case studies to demonstrate how these strategies can be applied in practice, and explore the actions by government, businesses and consumers that would bring them about.

• clean tech
• environment
• sustainable built environment

Grid flexibility is a characteristic that is proposed to help the integration of variable renewable energy resources. However it has proven very difficult to quantify and this has spurred intense research efforts over the past few years. There are many sources, sinks and enablers for flexibility in the grid and these are all subject to numerous research challenges. Flexibility will be introduced, defined and a number of methods to quantify it will be described. This will be followed by an overview of research into unlocking flexibility in the power system e.g. demand side participation and power system operational strategies. There are potential hidden costs of flexibility and some of these will be highlighted, for example thermal plant cycling, and mitigation measures to reduce these will be formulated. Concluding remarks will try to give insights into how a future grid with very high penetrations of variable renewable energy may look like.

• clean tech
• climate change
• coal
• energy policy
• environment
• natural gas
• renewable energy
• smart grid
• solar
• wind

The Renewable Electricity Futures Study is  an initial investigation of the extent to which renewable energy supply can meet the electricity demands of the contiguous United States over the next several decades. This study explores the implications and challenges of very high renewable electricity generation levels--from 30% up to 90%, focusing on 80%, of all U.S. electricity generation from renewable technologies--in 2050.

At such high levels of renewable electricity penetration, the unique characteristics of some renewable resources, specifically geographical distribution and variability and uncertainty in output, pose challenges to the operability of the nation's electric system. The study focuses on key technical implications of this environment from a national perspective, exploring whether the U.S. power system can supply electricity to meet customer demand on an hourly basis with high levels of renewable electricity, including variable wind and solar generation. The study also identifies some of the potential economic, environmental, and social implications of deploying and integrating high levels of renewable electricity in the United States.

• battery storage
• clean tech
• electric vehicles
• energy efficiency
• environment
• green jobs
• renewable energy
• smart grid
• solar
• sustainable built environment
• wind

Chris Edwards	Lynn Orr	Bob Reidy
Joe Stagner	Jim Sweeney	John Weyant

Representatives from Stanford's office of Land, Buildings & Real Estate will introduce the project and provide an overview, followed by a panel discussion with professors Chris Edwards, Lynn Orr, Jim Sweeney and John Weyant.

• clean tech
• climate change
• energy efficiency
• environment
• greenhouse gases
• impacts
• industry expertise
• renewable energy
• sustainable built environment