Update 1: Registration to attend in person is now closed. Interested guests are welcome to try their luck and stop by, but we must abide by fire code. – The event will be broadcast live on the Solar Institute website at solar.gwu.edu  or watch via Ustream

Update 2: Bryan Crabb, Director of Federal Government Affairs for First Solar, will now be participating on the 1:30 PM panel, moderated by Washington Post national environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin. 

SOLAR ENERGY: A Path to Energy Significance

April 12 - Register Now!

The Solar Institute at the George Washington University will hold its Fourth Annual Symposium, "SOLAR ENERGY: A Path to Energy Significance," on April 12, 2012.

The event is the largest annual solar energy conference in Washington, DC. As in previous years, the Symposium will feature high-level speakers with globally recognized expertise in solar policy, technology, and industry. Past speakers have included Maja Wessels, Executive VP of Public Affairs for First Solar; Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman of FERC; Hans-Josef Fell, German Member of Parliament and author of the feed-in tariff legislation; Representative Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08); and Ted Turner, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

At a time of global austerity and in the middle of a presidential election, the 2012 Symposium will be an important event for solar energy. Sessions will cover state-level regulatory lessons,  the current and future state of solar deployment and technology,  economic and policy barriers to the development of solar, and the role of the private sector in driving solar deployment. The event will also feature a networking lunch to engage fellow participants. 

If you cannot attend in person, the Symposium

will be broadcast live at:  solar.gwu.edu

Past Sponsors:

Contact for sponsorship opportunities: gwsolar@gwu.edu 

Agenda:

Registration & Breakfast (8:30–9:00 AM)

Welcome (9:00–9:15 AM)

– Steve Lerman, Provost, The George Washington University
– Peg Barrat, Dean, GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences
– Ken Zweibel, Director, GW Solar Institute

Keynote (9:15–10:00 AM)

– Timothy Simon, Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission 

Panel: The State of Solar Power–2012 (10:00–11:45 AM)

Moderator: Ken Zweibel, Director, GW Solar Institute

– Tom Kimbis, VP of Strategy and External Affairs, Solar Energy Industries Association

– Minh Le, Deputy Solar Energy Technologies Program Manager, SunShot, US Deprtment of Energy

– Ranga Pitchumani, CSP Team Lead, SunShot, US Department of Energy

– Joel Link, VP of Development, SolarReserve

– Richard Perez, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, SUNY-Albany

Networking Lunch (12:00–1:15 PM) Marvin Center, 3rd Floor

Panel: Economic and Policy Barriers to the Development of Solar Energy (1:30–2:45 PM)  

Moderator: Juliet Eilperin, National Environmental Reporter, The Washington Post

– Bryan Crabb, Director of Federal Government Affairs, First Solar

– Robert Margolis, Senior Analyst, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

– William Morin, Director of Government Affairs, Applied Materials & Chairman of the Trade Working Group, Solar Energy Industries Association

– Sara Banaszak, VP and Chief Economist, America's Natural Gas Alliance

Panel: Solar–The Private Sector is the Driver (3:00–4:15 PM) 

Moderator: Jerry Bloom, Partner, Winston & Strawn, LLP

– Gaëtan Borgers, Executive Vice President, Solar Division, Soitec

– Andrew Murphy, Executive Vice President of Strategy and M&A , NRG Energy, Inc.

– Daniel Petrucci, Managing Director, Link2 LLC

– Ken Zweibel, Director, GW Solar Institute

Public Reception (4:30–6:00 PM) Media and Public Affairs Building, 2nd Floor 

Learn more:

Sara Banaszak

Sara Banaszak serves as Vice President and Chief Economist for the American Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), guiding ANGA's research and analysis to help the organization develop policies that appropriately reflect the potential newly accessible, abundant natural gas supplies have to change the American energy landscape. In 2011, Banaszak joined ANGA with a strong background in international and domestic policy and energy economics, having spent 15 years working on natural gas issues.  Previously, she spent six years at the American Petroleum Institute as senior economist. There she played a key role in investigating the economic impacts of policies affecting the oil and gas industry.

Prior to her time at API, Banaszak enjoyed successful stints at PFC Energy, where she was a director or the Gas Group and Gas Policy Service; at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy; and at the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Banaszak graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in international relations, holds a Masters in Science from the University of Hawaii and is pursuing her PhD in Business Administration at The George Washington University.

Peg Barratt

Dr. Peg Barratt is Dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at the George Washington University, the oldest college at the University. Departments and programs are supported in the arts and humanities; social and behavioral sciences; and natural, mathematical and biomedical sciences. Dr. Barratt served as Deputy Director of the Clinical Research Policy Analysis and Coordination Program at NIH (CRpac) until 2006, and before that as Division Director for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences and Program Director for Developmental and Learning Sciences/Children's Research Initiative at the National Science Foundation.

Prior to her service at NSF, Dr. Barratt directed the Institute for Children, Youth, andFamilies at Michigan State University and was a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin--Madison for 19 years in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and served as department chair. She received the University of Wisconsin – Madison Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998.

She received a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Michigan State University. She also holds a Master of Philosophy in psychology from The George Washington University.

Jerry Bloom

As Department Chair of Winston & Strawn LLP’s Energy, Project Development and Finance Practice Group, Jerry Bloom focuses his practice on the development, finance, and operationof domestic and international independent energy projects, electric-industry restructuring and privatization, and mergers and acquisitions. His expertise in the development and financing of energy infrastructure projects includes renewable, combined heat and power (CHP), and fossil-fuel generation in the United States and abroad. He is active in the development of wind, biomass, and small and utility scale photovoltaic and thermal solar facilities.

Bloom has extensive experience negotiating off-take and power purchase agreements, engineering, procurement, and construction contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, fuel supply agreements, syndication and agency agreements and he appears regularly before various local, state, and federal regulatory bodies with jurisdiction over energy infrastructure projects. 

Bloom is leading efforts in the private and public sectors on the formation and execution of Sustainability, CleanTech strategies, which will be crucial in making energy efficiency and renewable energy development a key factor in achieving energy independence, resource preservation and greenhouse gas reductions. 

Degrees: B.A. in Psychology and M.A. in Counseling from The George Washington University, 1974 and 1976, respectively; JD from University of Miami School of Law, 1980.

Gaëtan Borgers

Gaëtan Borgers was recently appointed to the position of Executive Vice President of the Solar Energy Division at Soitec, a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy industries. Soitec’s CPV technology is currently the most efficient method of generating solar energy for the industrial solar power plant market in sunny regions of the world.

With more than 20 years’ experience in the industry, Borgers oversees the international expansion of Soitec’s concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) activities. Most recently, Borgers established and managed Dow Corning’s Solar Division from 2001 until 2011, beginning initially in the United States initially and later managing from Japan. Among his accomplishments, he oversaw , the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Brazil and coordinated the development of partnerships with prominent technology institutes such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. Before that, he held various management posts with Dow Corning in production, purchasing, quality and customer service.

Borgers, 49, holds a master’s degree in chemical process engineering and an MBA from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. 

Bryan Crabb

Bryan Crabb helps to manage government affairs, policy and market development for First Solar Inc.  Prior to joining First Solar, Bryan directed OptiSolar’s government affairs and policy team until their acquisition in 2008.  His previous experience includes serving as the California Public Utilities Commission’s liaison to the Schwarzenegger Administration and as legislative staff in the California Legislature.  Although he was only one of several key stakeholders, Bryan counts the enactment of California’s 33% RPS as his greatest professional achievement.  Bryan also wrote and staffed SB 1, California’s 10 year, $3.2 billion ‘Million Solar Roofs’ Initiative, that created California’s rooftop PV market.    

Juliet Eilperin

Juliet Eilperin has been a National Environmental Reporter with the Washington Post since since April 2004. In this position Eilperin covers the science, policy and politics relating to climate change, oceans and air quality. She launched the newspaper's "Post Carbon" blog in December 2009. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010, she wrote several investigative pieces exposing the lack of federal oversight of offshore drilling. Eilperin previously served six years as the House of Representatives Reporter for the Washington Post, where she covered the impeachment of Bill Clinton, lobbying, legislation, and five national congressional campaigns.

Eilperin has written two books, "Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives," published in 2006, and "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks," published in 2011. In the spring of 2005 she served as the youngest-ever McGraw Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, teaching political reporting to a group of undergraduate and graduate students.

Eilperin graduated in magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she received a bachelor's in Politics with a certificate in Latin American Studies.

Tom Kimbis

As Vice President of Strategy and External Affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Tom Kimbis leads the development of long-term policies promoting solar energy and oversees expansion of SEIA’s market research efforts.  He also provides legal services to SEIA as General Counsel.

Kimbis has been working in renewable energy since 2000. He most recently served as Executive Director for The Solar Foundation, a nonprofit promoting the increased use of solar energy through education and research. From 2005-2009, he served as Director of Market Transformation for the Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He also served as Acting Program Manager of SETP, managing a $170 million portfolio.

While at DOE, Kimbis led efforts to maximize opportunities for solar energy commercialization. He was a founder of the Solar America Initiative, a billion-dollar effort to accelerate solar commercialization. He also helped to create the Solar America Cities program, a DOE partnership with 25 cities and more than 180 organizations designed to develop innovative methods for the adoption of solar energy technologies. 

Minh Le

Minh Le is the Deputy Program Manager and Chief Engineer of the Solar Energy Technologies Program within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the US Department of Energy. The Solar Energy Technologies Program represents and provides the national programmatic expertise in solar energy to support the formulation and execution of national energy policies. The program supports the SunShot Initiative, a recent effort aimed at helping make solar energy competitive with fossil fuels without subsidies by the end of the decade.  Le helps manage and balance the portfolio of Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment programs in achieving our national goals.

Prior to his current role at the DOE, Le spent his career in industry developing technologies and scaling new technologies to high volume manufacturing. Most recently, he was at Evergreen Solar where he managed the team that developed the Quad String Ribbon Silicon wafer technology. He served on the Board of Directors of a Design For Manufacturing startup and has advised a number of other high technology startups. Le earned his SB and SM degrees from MIT where he held fellowships by the DoD, DoE, and the Bose Foundation.

Steven Lerman

Steven Lerman became provost of The George Washington University on July 1, 2010. Dr. Lerman joined The George Washington University from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he served as vice chancellor and dean for graduate education, acting as the chancellor's chief deputy and working to develop strategic initiatives across the units of the Office of the Dean of Graduate Education, Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education and the Division for Student Life.

Dr. Lerman brings to GW more than 35 years of experience as a leader and scholar at one of the nation's most prestigious research universities. He began at MIT as a student, earning a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. in Transportation Systems Analysis. He joined the faculty in 1975 as assistant professor of civil engineering and rose through the ranks, serving twice as chair of the faculty and then as dean of graduate education since 2007 and as vice chancellor since 2008. His awards and honors have included the Advisor of the Year Award from the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, the Maseeh Teaching Award for best departmental teacher and the Class of 1922 Distinguished Professorship. 

Joel Link 

Joel Link is Vice President of Development at SolarReserve, a large-scale solar energy project development company with breakthrough molten salt power tower technology to provide fully dispatchable energy at utility scale. In his role, Link leads SolarReserve’s photovoltaic (PV) development efforts to build large-scale solar energy projects throughout the Americas. Link is responsible for business development and power marketing efforts for SolarReserve’s extensive near-term PV project pipeline of 1,000 megawatts and growing. 

Link has more than sixteen years of experience in the power generation and high voltage transmission fields. Prior to joining SolarReserve, Link was Vice President of Business Development Central Region at both Element Power US LLC, and Invenergy LLC.  While at Invenergy, he initiated and led the development of over 1,200 MW of wind and solar projects with total capital costs in excess of $2.5 billion that are now in operation, under construction, or under long-term contract.  Link also led the creation of a combined development pipeline of over 6,000 MW in these prior roles.  

Link received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Robert Margolis

Robert M. Margolis is a senior analyst in the Washington, D.C. office of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Since joining NREL in 2003, Dr. Margolis has served as the lead analyst for the Solar Energy Technologies Program.  In this role he has helped to define and carry out a broad analytical agenda focused on examining the potential for and challenges related to wide-spread adoption of solar energy.  He has worked on issues such as; energy-economic-environmental modeling, including national and global-scale models; economic and market analysis of renewable energy technologies; R&D planning and evaluation; and long-term scenario development. Prior to working at NREL, Dr. Margolis was a member of the research faculty in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

Dr. Margolis earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester, a M.S. in technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in science, technology, and environmental policy from Princeton University.

William Morin

William G. Morin is senior director of government affairs for Applied Materials, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based global high-tech company. Applied Materials provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the worldwide semiconductor, flat panel display, solar photovoltaic and related industries. With 87 locations in 20 countries, Applied has a global presence and is a technology and market leader.

As head of the Applied Materials’ Washington, DC, office, Morin helps develop and is responsible for day-to-day implementation and management of the company’s global public policy concerns.

Prior to joining Applied Materials in October 2002, Morin was managing director of the Intelligent Manufacturing System’s Inter-Regional Secretariat (an international framework for collaborative manufacturing research and development projects). He also served as vice president of R. Wayne Sayer and Associates, a Washington-based consulting firm that represented a number of high-tech clients. Mr. Morin began his Washington career with the National Association of Manufacturers, where he was director of technology and intellectual property policy.

Morin also serves as Chairman of the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Trade Working Group. He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and a U.S. Army veteran.

Andrew Murphy

J. Andrew Murphy, serves as Executive Vice President, Strategy and M&A—spearheading NRG’s corporate strategy development and implementation and leading the Company’s evaluation of acquisitions and business alliances. Previously, Murphy served at NRG as Regional President, Northeast, overseeing regional commercial and operating activities and business development including leading efforts to repower the Northeast fleet, reduce emissions from the region’s fossil-fueled plants and build new clean energy resources. Murphy also served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel from December 2006 to February 2009.

Prior to joining NRG, Murphy was a partner at the law firm of Hunton & Williams, where he led the energy practice and represented issuers, developers, investors and lenders in a wide variety of U.S. and cross-border energy projects and structured financings. 

Murphy has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard College and a Juris Doctor from the George Washington University.

Daniel Petrucci

Daniel P. Petrucci serves as Managing Director and is the Co-Founder of Link2 LLC, which assists government entities and leading companies with low carbon energy objectives implement strategies to achieve these objectives while bringing clarity to market opportunities, enabling accelerated decision making, and improving revenue potential.

Most recently, Mr. Petrucci provided services to an international manufacturing company to aid it in selecting cost effective low carbon energy solutions for one of its major production facilities as a part of its global carbon management program.  He has also provided advisory services pertaining to 900 MWs of utility scale renewable energy facilities for a major privately owned independent power producer.

Prior to Link2, Petrucci focused his 24-year career in the areas of investment banking, business strategy, fund management, due diligence, asset origination, asset acquisition and financing for the renewable energy and real estate sectors. He served as Managing Director of a US$12 billion boutique investment bank specializing investing institutional capital in of tax-advantaged multi-asset portfolios. Petrucci was responsible for establishing and directing the origination and investment strategies of the bank’s entrance into the U.S. wind energy market.

Richard Perez

Dr. Richard Perez is a Research Professor at the University at Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, where he directs applied research and teaches in the fields of solar radiation, and solar energy applications, and daylighting. He holds a Master and a Doctorate in Atmospheric Sciences (University of Paris and SUNY-Albany) and an Undergraduate Degree in Electrotechnics (University of Nice, France).  Noted contributions to the field of solar energy include; identifying the potential of photovoltaic power generation to meet the electrical power demand of large cities in nontraditional solar regions such as the northeastern United States; and, the development solar radiation models which have been incorporated in standard solar energy and daylighting calculation practice around the world.

Dr. Perez has produced over 200 journal articles, conference papers and technical reports and holds two US patents on methods of load management using photovoltaics. He has received several international awards including a Certificate for Outstanding Research from the USDOE, Best Published Article from the International Solar Energy Society, and the American Solar Energy Society’s highest award, the Charles Greeley Abbot Award. He recently received the 2008 Solar Industry Professional of the Year Award from the New York Solar Energy Industries Association.

Ranga Pitchumani

In addition to his role as Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Team Lead for the SunShot Initiative within the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. Pitchumani is the John R. Jones III Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. Dr. Pitchumani's research interests are in the areas of thermal/fluid sciences, fuel cells and alternative energy conversion technologies, advanced materials processing, micro- and nanoscale processes, microfabrication, and transport phenomena. Dr. Pitchumani is the author of 140 articles in archival journals and refereed conference proceedings, 7 edited book volumes, and 6 book chapters. He has been an Associate Technical Editor for the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer (2004-2007), serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials (1998-), and has been a guest editor for Polymer Composites.

He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992, and was with the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials (1992-1994), and the University of Connecticut (1995-2008) prior to joining Virginia Tech. At the University of Connecticut, Dr. Pitchumani has served as the Director of Graduate Studies (1998-2004) and as the Department Head (2004-2006) in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Timothy Simon

Timothy Alan Simon was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on February 15, 2007.  As a former securities and banking industry attorney involved in financial products and services, Commissioner Simon firmly supports investment in California’s utility infrastructure as being critical to California’s economic future, and encourages a balanced public policy in areas of utility regulation.  He actively promotes and encourages diversity in utility procurement, educational opportunities, and the workplace.

On the national level, Commissioner Simon is Chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Natural Gas.  He also is a member of NARUC's Board of Directors, Critical Infrastructure Committee, Consumer Affairs Committee, Utility Market Access Partnership Sub-committee, Gas Speculation Task Force, and Wireless Task Force.  In his role as NARUC Gas Committee Chair, Commissioner Simon also sits on the National Petroleum Council, an oil and gas advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy.  

Commissioner Simon received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of San Francisco, and a Juris Doctor from Hastings College of the Law, University of California.  He currently is an adjunct professor of Securities Regulations at the Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco.

Ken Zweibel

Ken Zweibel has almost 30 years experience in solar photovoltaics. During his 26 years at the National renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Zweibel led the development of thin film PV, serving as program leader for the Thin Film PV Partnership Program until 2006. The Partnership worked with most U.S. stakeholders in thin film PV (companies, universities, scientists) and is often credited with being important to the success of thin film PV in the U.S. Zweibel subsequently cofounded and became Chairman and President of a thin film CdTe PV start-up, PrimeStar Solar, which was later purchased by General Electric. Zweibel authored the “Solar Grand Plan,” an article appearing in Scientific American (January 2008).

Since July 2008, Zweibel has been Director of the Solar Institute at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Institute conducts research into the economic, technical, and public policy issues associated with the development and deployment of solar energy to meet global energy and environmental challenges. Zweibel was on the original Steering Committee of the recently released “SunShot Vision Study,” a DOE-led effort to develop a deployment plan for solar through 2050. Zweibel is also known for his blog on solar energy, thesolarreview.org.