Summit 2021 – Renewable Thermal Collaborative

On September 29-30, 2021, the Renewable Thermal Collaborative (RTC) hosted its second annual Summit. The Summit had over 280 attendees from industries and sectors including commercial thermal energy buyers; renewable thermal technology developers and suppliers; utilities; federal, state, and local governments; non-profits and universities; market developers; and renewable energy advisors and consultants. Attendees hailed from 32 states and the District of Colombia, as well as 15 countries outside the US.

The Summit successfully engaged this diverse group of stakeholders on a range of topics across technologies, markets, and policies, all with a focus on accelerating renewable thermal solutions and decarbonizing thermal energy use. The conference included a variety of panels featuring top experts and virtual networking opportunities to engage with industry leaders.”

Day 1

Description: Blaine Collison, Executive Director of the RTC, Doug Bloss, President and CEO of Armstrong International, and Randall Lack, Founder and Co-President of Element Markets, opened the Summit. The Summit’s Keynote Speaker, Andrew Winston, shared his perspective on decarbonization, corporate leadership, and his latest book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.

Panelists: Blaine Collison, Executive Director of the RTC, Doug Bloss, President and CEO of Armstrong International; and Randall Lack, Founder and Co-President of Element Markets

Description: RTC Members shared their emissions reduction timelines, how they are approaching their goals, the need for near-term thermal solutions, the challenges they face, and how they are thinking about the path ahead.

Panelists: Winston Chen, Global Renewable Energy Program Manager at Mars Incorporated; Jay Harf, Vice President of Environment, Health, Safety, and Sustainability at L’Oreal; Allie Valenti, Manager, Sustainability and Environmental Affairs at Stanley Black & Decker; Sam Kimmins, Head of RE100 at The Climate Group.

Description: The experts on the Green Hydrogen panel shared their insights around green hydrogen’s economics, technology, deployment models, barriers, opportunities, and where we’re heading.

Panelists: Sheldon Kimber, CEO and Co-Founder of Intersect Power; Janice Lin, Founder and President of the Green Hydrogen Coalition; Emily O’Connell, Director of Energy Markets Policy at the American Gas Association; Meredith Annex, Head of Heating and Hydrogen at BloombergNEF.

Description: The RTC and the Downstream Natural Gas Initiative (DSI) facilitated a conversation between RTC and DSI Members, large energy buyers, and natural gas utilities, respectively, to outline potential actions that these two stakeholders could take to advance RNG.

Panelists: Jay Harf, Vice President of Environment, Health, Safety, and Sustainability at L’Oreal; Winston Chen, Global Renewable Energy Program Manager at Mars Incorporated; Anna Chittum, Director of Renewable Resources at NW Natural; John Hanselman, Founder and CEO at Vanguard Renewables; Erich Evans, Director, Corporate Strategy and Risk at NiSource; Randall Lack, Founder, and Co-President of Element Markets; Rachael Terada, Director of Technical Projects at Center for Resource Solutions.

Description: Beneficial electrification is a core decarbonization strategy for thermal energy in industry and buildings. Ali Hasenbeigi, Founder & CEO of Global Efficiency Intelligence LLC, Kareem Hammoud, Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Climate Alliance, and Steven Holty, Sustainability Leader at Hemlock Semiconductor, dug into some of the opportunities to accelerate electrification

Panelists: Ali Hasenbeigi, Founder & CEO of Global Efficiency Intelligence LLC, Kareem Hammoud, Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Climate Alliance, and Steven Holty, Sustainability Leader at Hemlock Semiconductor.

Description: This session featured Joseph Stekli from EPRI’s Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI) and Eli Levine from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO).

Panelists: Joseph Stekli from EPRI’s Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI) and Eli Levine from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO).

Day 2

Description: The RTC has been running an Innovative Collaborative Projects working group. This panel, featuring Andrew Todd, Director – Corporates at Verco, and Oliver Hurrey, Founder of Galvanised, shared progress and key learnings from the working group and provided a look ahead at the group’s five-year goals.

Panelists: Andrew Todd, Director – Corporates at Verco, and Oliver Hurrey, Founder of Galvanised

Description: Joakim Byström, CEO of Absolicon Solar Collector AB, and Katia Bernal, CEO of Citrus, are two international solar thermal developers. In this panel, they shared their projects, successes, and challenges.

Panelists: Joakim Byström, CEO of Absolicon Solar Collector AB, and Katia Bernal, CEO of Citrus.

Description: Prathamesh Terniker, Senior Utilities System Engineer at Armstrong International, presented a case study describing how Armstrong successfully minimized energy use, optimized efficiency, and decarbonized energy sources.

Panelists: Prathamesh Terniker, Senior Utilities System Engineer at Armstrong International.

Description: In this panel, RTC Members who focus on buildings explained how they are approaching their decarbonization goals, what barriers they have faced, and what is next.

Panelists: Sam Schabacker, Renewable Energy Manager at the University of California; Michael Forrester, Director for the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability; Grant Ervin, Chief Resilience Officer at the City of Pittsburgh; Rame Hemstreet, Vice President of Operations at Kaiser Permanente.

Description: Panelists presented a multi-perspective view on renewable thermal policy with a particular focus on what can be done in the near term.

Panelists: Megan Levy, Resilience Strategist at the Wisconsin Office of Energy Innovation; Rachel Goldstein, North America Public Policy Director at Mars Incorporated; Ken Nelson, President and Co-Founder at Blue Delta Energy; Joe Cresko, Chief Engineer at the Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office.

Description: A discussion on why a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice is important to achieving our decarbonization goals and how the RTC is undertaking a collaborative, multi-stakeholder process to inform and assist Members in better understanding these issues.

Panelists: Geoffrey Connell, Director of Business Development at Stanley Black and Decker; Anne Hampson, Program Manager at the Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office; Jessica Leung, Program Manager at the World Wildlife Fund, and Jason Walsh, Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance.

Description: RTC Members’ reflected on the 2021 RTC Summit and their views on critical issues, questions, and action steps we will pursue together over the coming years.

Panelists: Ryan Spicer, Sustainability Sr. Manager at PepsiCo; Umesh Goswami, Principal Sustainability Manager at Roche; Kevin Rabinovitch, Global VP of Sustainability at Mars Incorporated; Emily Williams, Vice President of Strategy and Sustainability at Edison Energy; Jaafar Rizvi, Director Client Services at CustomerFirst Renewables.