PANEL SESSION

Clean Energy Development in Alberta

Dr. David Wood
University of Calgary, Canada
dhwood@ucalgary.ca

Duration

60 minutes

Abstract

Alberta has the most greenhouse gas-intensive electricity in Canada despite having the country's best wind and solar resources. The panel will discuss the pathways to a greener future by substantially increasing the generation of renewable electricity and reducing our reliance on coal. It will cover some of the main technological and policy issues that must be addressed.
Several examples of questions or issues that will be addressed by the panel:
* How green is Alberta's current energy generation?
* What are the pathways to a greener future?
* What green generation technologies will be used in 20 years time?
* What is Alberta's Regulatory and Policy approach to Clean Energy development in the province?
* What is the role of research and technology partnerships in transitioning to a cleaner energy future?
* What is the Government of Alberta doing today in encourage Alternative and Renewable energy development?
* What is Alberta doing to solve the Tailings Pond challenge?
* What is Alberta's approach to reclamation in the oil sands?
* Impact of bitumen recovery on water resources.
* Novel recovery/upgrading methods
* Renewables & Nuclear

Panelists

• Dr. David Wood – University of Calgary, Canada
• Dr. Maen Husein – University of Calgary, Canada
• Mr. Roger Ramcharita – Clean Energy Branch- Alberta Environment, Canada
• Asst. Prof. Joule A. Bergerson – University of Calgary, Canada

Biography of the Organizer

Maen M. Husein is an associate professor at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. He received his B.Sc. in chemical engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Irbed, Jordan, in 1995, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, in 1996 and 2000; respectively. He worked as a software engineer in the Power System Group at CAE Inc., Montreal, Quebec, from 2000 to 2002. His tasks included simulating different units of the power generation cycle of a nuclear power plant. Dr. Husein’s research interest employs (w/o) microemulsion methods to form nanoparticle catalyst and sorbents for heavy oil upgrading. In addition, Dr. Husein is interested in remediating produced water from organic contaminants to enable effective produced water recycling.

Roger Ramcharita is Director, Clean Energy Policy Branch, with the Environmental Policy Division in Alberta Environment. Roger's 10 year career with the Government of Alberta includes holding key positions as the Executive Assistant to the Minister of Environment, Regional Environmental Manager, Management of Environmental Assessment Team and as a Wildlife Biologist. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Joule A. Bergerson is Assistant Professor, ISEEE Energy and Environmental Systems Group, Centre for Environmental Engineering Research and Education, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary. Her primary research interests are systems-level analysis for policy and decision making of energy system investment and management. The focus of her work is developing frameworks for the assessment of prospective technology options and their policy implications from a life cycle perspective. To date, her work has addressed fossil fuel derived electricity (PhD Thesis), oil sands development (Project Website) and carbon capture and storage (ecoEnergy CCS Task Force Report). Dr. Bergerson received her Ph.D. in a joint program of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. The title of her dissertation was "Future Electricity Generation: An Economic and Environmental Life Cycle Perspective on Technology Options and Policy Implications" under the direction of Professors Lester Lave and Chris Hendrickson. She has a Masters of Engineering Degree in Chemical Engineering with a collaborative program in Environmental Engineering from the University of Toronto and an undergraduate degree in chemistry and environmental science from the University of Western Ontario. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program at Carnegie Mellon University, she worked as a technical systems analyst and a project manager for R&D projects at the Royal Bank of Canada in the Information Technology division.

David Wood holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engine from Sydney University and a PhD in Aeronautics from Imperial College, London. He taught at Newcastle University in Australia for many years before resigning in 2004 to start Aerogenesis Australia, a small company that develops and builds small wind turbines. He has been at the University of Calgary since February, 2010 and currently holds the NSERC/RNMAX Research Chair in Renewable Energy. He is the author or co-author of over 100 refereed journal and conference publications in renewable energy, four book chapters, and a has book on small wind turbines due to be published by Springer in July.