UNLV Energy Symposium: BioFuel, Solar, Hydrogen, Algae & More

August 20th at UNLV -Public Welcome

This year's Renewable Energy Symposium will have a number of timely talks:

"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. (A megawatt can fuel anywhere from 400 to 1,000 homes depending on their energy consumption)

"New 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 Could Play a Significant Role in Achieving Energy Independence" by Thomas Nartker of UNLV. UNLV could become the center of research and development of this promising, bio-fuel. Algae-biofuels could easily replace oil in the United States.

"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 this million dollar, DOE-funded research to establish 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 Dr. Heske Fuel Storage project. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry at USC in 2002 . In 2002, he moved to Yale University to carry out postdoctoral studies with Professor John F. Hartwig investigating functionalization of C-H bonds in alkanes and polyolefins.

"Saving 35% Electricity by By Improving Efficiency" by Brian Taylor of Power Efficiency Corporation (PEC). Las Vegas-based PEC has a patent pending device that saves up to 35% of the energy of electric motors. PEC has sold three of its units to Las Vegas hotels for their elevators and escalators. Brian Taylor is a Senior VP with PEC