On Monday, Sept. 23, industry leaders, scientific experts and UConn students alike convened at the Student Union Theater for the 2024 Sustainable Clean Energy Summit, a discussion on the present challenges and future solutions surrounding the widespread transition to renewable energies.
The summit’s theme, as announced by Eversource Energy’s Executive Vice President of Customer Experience and Energy Strategy Penni McLean-Conner, was, “Decarbonizing our grid, and decarbonizing society.”
Monday’s conference marks the third annual meeting of this sustainability-oriented dialogue, hosted this year by a collective of energy-based sponsors including Eversource, Constellation Energy, and Connecticut-based Fuel Cell Energy.
“The fact is that climate change continues to increase its intensity and its frequency,” stated UConn Tech Park Executive Director Manos Anagnostou, who opened the summit and introduced University President Radenka Maric to the audience of diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
Maric’s speech granted special acknowledgements to notable attendees and UConn partners and asserted UConn’s role as an innovator in the field of sustainable and efficient energy production.
“Our energy consumption for this campus alone is 35 Megawatts,” said Maric, who highlighted a list of recent green energy developments at UConn Storrs and beyond, including the installation of 30 electric vehicle chargers and the near-future implementation of hydrogen power for some campus utilities.
Remarking on a recurrent theme of the summit, Maric announced, “Without the policy that can address to implement more green technologies, we cannot advance.”
Representing the fusion of policy and technological advancement was keynote speaker Gene Rodrigues, the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Electricity for the U.S. Department of Energy. Commanding the audience with the experience of a former attorney, Rodrigues gave commentary on the many challenges that face the green energy transition but offered a prevailing optimism at the solutions on the way.
“The first fuel of American has to be conservation and energy efficiency. There is no excuse for wasteful use of energy,” said Rodrigues, condemning much of the United States’ current consumption practices as “gluttonous.”
Rodrigues additionally noted that the path forward is, “Energy justice, environmental justice, economic justice,” joining members from a vast array of disciplines for the benefit of society as a whole.
The event hosted two separate panels, each composed of knowledgeable individuals of corporate and political origins. The first, regarding grid decarbonization, focused acutely on the tangible impacts of climate change, and how sectors can unite to collectively solve environmental issues and energy shortcomings.
The second panel featured individuals each representing a separate renewable energy, namely nuclear, hydrogen, phosphoric acid and solid oxide fuel cells, offshore wind and geothermal. The eminent discourse throughout the dialogue was the insufficiency of current electric and heating grids, along with a call for a large-scale restructuring to meet the needs of decarbonization and modern consumers.
During the day’s proceedings, four student research groups presented their submissions to the Clean Energy and Sustainability Innovation Program, whose winner was announced near the summit’s conclusion.
“It was very satisfying to overcome this challenge, but nerve-wracking to think of the bigger challenge ahead,” said UConn graduate student Steven Matile. Matile’s team, which studied the use of sustainable energies in wastewater treatment, was awarded a fellowship to continue their research under the guidance and funding of Eversource.
The summit concluded with a crowning photo opportunity, featuring a handshake and contract signing between President Maric and Eversource’s Vice President of Energy Efficiency and Electric Mobility Tilak Subrahmanian.
Following the conference, 23 student poster projects were showcased at the Student Union Ballroom, highlighting many of the renewable energy initiatives being undertaken by UConn students. Voicing opposition among these tables was Fossil Fuel Free UConn (FFFU), who viewed the partnership between Eversource and the university, not as a point of pride, but of admonition.
Per a leaflet distributed by FFFU at the event, “UConn needs to do better by its promises in regards to sustainability, and a good first step towards that would be dissociating from Eversource.”