Renewable energy is on its way to the mainstream. How will it get there?

Originally broadcast November 5, 2008, 1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

Scale,advances in technology, and the rising cost of fossil fuels mean wind turbines and solar panels are no longer novelties. But getting the most out of renewable energy technology involves more than new installations. In this Webinar, we examine the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating peak-load, distributed power sources in our base-load-expectant society with an electrical infrastructure built for centralized generation.We discuss a range of technologies, including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, ocean wave, and others.

Here is what our panelists had to say:


Panelists:

Scott Sklar
Scott Sklar is President of The Stella Group, a strategic marketing and policy firm for clean distributed energy users and companies. He is Chair of the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition and serves on the non-profit Boards of Directors of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and the Renewable Energy Policy Project. For 15 years, Sklar served as the Executive Director of both the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association. He assists governments, federal agencies, and international organizations regarding R&D and program funding criteria, industry outreach, and procurement.

 


 Tom Raftery
Tom Raftery is an industry anlayst specializing in green energy and sustainability for the firm RedMonk. He is co-founder and director of Cork Internet eXchange,  a hyper energy-efficient data center based in Cork, Ireland. Raftery has served as an advisor to Synergy Module, an energy aggregator utilizing energy demand for grid stabilization, as well as co-founder and director or Zenith Solutions Ltd., and now works as a Social Media Consultant. Raftery holds a PhD in Plant Science and blogs at Greenmonk.net.

Henry Gentenaar
Henry Gentenaar is a marketing-communications executive and a founder and managing partner of Reluminati LLC, a renewable energy venture marketing firm in Washington, DC.  Since 2002 he has worked exclusively in the areas of renewable energy and environmental sustainability with organizations that include the American Council on Renewable Energy, SunEdison, and the U. S. Department of Energy, where he has been a communications counselor to the Office of Technology Advancement and Outreach and the Solar, Buildings, Hydrogen, Vehicle Technology and Biomass programs.