UNLV's Renewable Energy Symposium Focuses on New Energy Sources

UNLV's Renewable Energy Symposium Focuses on New Energy Sources

UNLV is having its 2nd Annual Energy Symposium on August 20, 2008 hosted by UNLV's Office of Strategic Energy Programs. The Symposium is open to the public but seating is limited. Attendees need to register online.

This year's Renewable Energy Symposium will have presentations on Solar, Bio-Mass, Algae, Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and other areas that are sources of new energy. A few of the presentations are noted below:

"Solar Thermal Power" by John O'Donnell, VP of Ausra. Ausra has built a 130,000-square-foot facility in Las Vegas that opened in July 2008 that will eventually employ 50 people, who will be able to manufacture about four square miles of solar-thermal collectors a year, enough to generate 700 megawatts of electricity.

"Bio-Energy Technologies" by Jay Johnson of Noresco. Noresco is one of the largest U.S. energy services companies specializing in the development, design and operations of energy efficiency projects. Over the past two decades, Noresco has implemented more than $2 billion in energy projects at more than 2,000 sites throughout the United States and abroad.

"Micro-Algae's Role in Achieving Energy Independence" by Dr.Thomas Nartker of UNLV. UNLV could become the center of research and development of Algae-based biofuel. Algae can grow at an exponential rate producing massive quantities of oils. The oils can be used to manufacture biodiesel and jet fuel. The challenge with algae is that it grows too fast. Past research has focused on using ponds; many believe that growing algae needs to be set up as continuous process to make it viable.

"Solar-Thermochemical Hydrogen Production Project - Progress Toward Industrial Scale Water Splitting" by Dr. Roger Rennels of UNLV. Hydrogen production by thermo-chemical water-splitting is a chemical process that accomplishes the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen using only heat or a combination of heat and electrolysis instead of pure electrolysis. It is a goal of clean, renewable energy to create hydrogen production using only water and clean renewable solar energy.

"FCAST - The Fuel Cell and Storage Technology Project at UNLV" by Dr. Clemens Heske of UNLV. Dr Clemens is running a million dollar, DOE-funded research project to develop hydrogen fuel cells and storage. The project includes 12 researchers at UNLV studying fuel cell membranes, nanomaterial fabrication, nanospectroscopy, carbon nanotubes, hydrogen absorption and other areas.

"New Functional Polymers for Alternative Energy Applications" by Dr. Chulsung Bae of UNLV. Dr. Bae is also working on Dr. Heske's Fuel Storage project. Bae received a Ph.D. in chemistry at USC in 2002. He then moved to Yale University to carry out postdoctoral studies with Professor John F. Hartwig, investigating functionalization of C-H bonds in alkanes and polyolefins.

For more information, schedule and free registration, go to http://osep.unlv.edu/Esy2008/index.html