UNC public forum on renewable energy

UNC press release via Sierra Club mailing list:

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Solar Energy Research Center is holding a public forum and information session on renewable energy issues and needs. 

The free event, "Putting Solar Energy in [Its] Place," will be Jan. 14 at the William and Ida Friday Center in Chapel Hill. 

The event begins at 5 p.m. with interactive displays, videos and posters from university, government, non-profit and business representatives. 

From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., an open discussion with a panel of experts will consider the promise, problems and alternatives for solving the world's energy and climate problems. 

The forum will address the science, policy and economics of renewable energy. Both the displays and the discussion session offer attendees opportunities to learn and talk informally with experts about different forms of solar energy and other alternative power sources, such as wind, nuclear, natural gas, biofuels and clean coal. Other topics include public policy issues, investment, storage and smart grid technologies, conservation and energy efficiency.

Scheduled panel speakers include Thomas J. Meyer, center director and Arey Professor of Chemistry in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences; U.S. Rep. David Price, D-Chapel Hill; and Olee Joel Olsen, founder and managing director of O2 Energies, a North Carolina-based solar power plant development and consulting company.

This is a free event, and no registration is required. Refreshments will be provided. For more details, seehttp://www.serc.unc.edu/forum/index.html.

The public forum is part of the center's third annual scientific conference, "Solar Fuels: Catalysis and Photoconversion," which takes place Thursday, Jan. 13 and Friday, Jan. 14. The symposium is sponsored and organized by the UNC Energy Frontier Research Center, a U.S. Department of Energy-funded center that focuses on solar fuels and next generation photovoltaics. The conference's principal co-sponsor is the Research Triangle Solar Fuels Institute, with additional support provided by the UNC Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology the UNC Institute for the Environment, Progress Energy, Duke Energy and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

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