View the UT Energy Week 2024 Program
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Keynotes, Panels & Fireside Chats
The University of Texas at Austin, Robert R. Rowling Hall (RRH), 300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX 78705
Note: UT Energy Week attendees have the opportunity to earn continuing education units (CEUs) for professional engineering (PE) licensing requirements, provided by Texas Engineering Executive Education at UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering. You may indicate your interest in this option when you register for Energy Week.
Quick Navigation
- Registration & Breakfast
- Opening Remarks
- Opening Keynote Address
- Progress Toward Energy Independence: 50 Years Since the Oil Embargo
- HyVelocity: Rapidly Scaling Clean Hydrogen Supply & Demand
- Low-Carbon Aviation Solutions: Is the Sky the Limit?
- Lunch | Career Engagement Mix-&-Mingle
- Campus Energy Tour (Concurrent Event)
- Rethinking Materials: Embodied Carbon & Beyond
- Between Two Cacti with Brian Korgel
- Fireside Chat: Decarbonization Roadmapping
- Free Course: Creative Solutions to Complex Problems (Concurrent Event)
- Got Heat? The Earth as a Versatile Energy Source
- When Community Engagement Works: Success Stories & Best Practices
- Sunshine, Wine, & Wool: Agrivoltaics in Texas’ Energy Transition
- Evening Reception
Registration & Breakfast
Opening Remarks
Opening Keynote Address
Ezra Yacob, Chief Executive Officer and Director, EOG Resources
Progress Toward Energy Independence: 50 Years Since the Oil Embargo
This panel will explore how the U.S. has achieved energy independence due to innovations in oil and gas and greater electrification of the transport sector.
Featured Panelists:
- Buzz Smith, Executive Director, Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance (TXETRA)
- Michael Webber, Professor and John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
HyVelocity: Rapidly Scaling Clean Hydrogen Supply & Demand in Texas & Beyond
Building on decades of public-private partnerships, Texas and the Gulf Coast represent a massive opportunity to build momentum for the clean hydrogen industry, not only in the region, but across the United States and globally. In this panel, we will hear from the U.S. Department of Energy and members of the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub (HyVelocity) on the opportunity to scale the Texas clean hydrogen economy and deliver jobs and economic benefits to communities across the region.
Featured Panelists:
- Brian Korgel, Director, Energy Institute, The University of Texas at Austin
- Crystal Perkins, Senior Regional Advisor, U.S. Department of Energy
- Gaurav Sinha, Vice President, Green Hydrogen Origination, The AES Company
- Charlie Trivette, Business Venture Advisor, ExxonMobil
Low-Carbon Aviation Solutions: Is the Sky the Limit?
Aviation is one of the most difficult end-uses of energy to decarbonize. The high energy-density (per volume and mass) of fuels refined from oil, combined with more efficient jet engines, enables individual aircraft to fly nonstop for over 15 hours. To decarbonize aviation, we must decarbonize the life cycle of the fuels and enable new technologies in aircraft propulsion that can use low-carbon fuels. This panel will discuss progress in the use of sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen, and electric drive trains for personal and commercial aviation.
Featured Speaker:
- Monica Karamagi, NAM Biofuels Business Development Lead, Shell
Lunch | Career Engagement Mix-&-Mingle
Participating Companies:
- AES
- Austin Energy
- ChampionX
- ExxonMobil
- Phillips 66
- Pike Robotics
- The Railroad Commission of Texas
- RWE
- Shell
- Siemens
- Solar Austin
- Sunnova
If your company would like to participate in this event, email nora@energy.utexas.edu.
Students: Find more info and upload your resume here.
Campus Energy Tour (Concurrent Event)
Powered by the Carl J. Eckhardt Combined Heating & Power Complex, the UT Austin campus is one of the nation’s largest microgrids, giving students a unique edge in learning about energy solutions. Join UT’s Ryan Thompson, Director of Utilities Operations; Clay Looney, Assistant Director of Utilities Operations; and Jim Walker, Director of the Office of Sustainability, for a quick Lunch & Learn session at Energy Week headquarters (Rowling Hall Atrium), before taking a guided walk (about 15 minutes) to the power plant, where the group will be treated to a walk-through tour of the plant before returning together to Rowling. This hands-on experience allows students and energy professionals to see firsthand how UT’s power plant generates 100% of the campus’ electricity, heating, and cooling. (Note: The power plant tour can accommodate up to 30 people.)
For those interested in UT’s other activities supporting energy and climate innovation, UT Sustainability Director Jim Walker will guide a separate group on a campus trek to visit and learn about these initiatives.
Tour Schedule:
- 11:45 AM – Lunch & Learn (Rowling Hall Atrium)
- 12:15 PM – Depart Rowling Hall
- 12:30 PM – Tour Carl J. Eckhardt Combined Heating & Power Complex
- 1:15 PM – Arrive back at Rowling Hall
Rethinking Materials: Embodied Carbon & Beyond
Over half of a new high performance building’s total lifetime emissions come from the materials themselves. This “embodied carbon” represents greenhouse gas emissions resulting from sourcing, manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal of construction materials. This panel will share views on opportunities to decarbonize the material sector from academic, research, and practitioner perspectives, and the intersection with material health and ethical sourcing.
Featured Panelists:
- Juliana Felkner, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin
- Dirk Kestner, Principal, Director of Sustainable Design, Walter P. Moore
- Jennifer Wong, Director, Materials Lab, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin
Additional panelists TBA
Between Two Cacti with Brian Korgel
Ira Ehrenpreis (Founder and Managing Partner, DBL; Independent Director, Tesla Board), in conversation with Brian Korgel (Director, Energy Institute, The University of Texas at Austin)
Fireside Chat: Decarbonization Roadmapping
Ryan Macaluso (Manager of New Energies & Carbon, Motiva Enterprise) and Jerry Price (Managing Director, Green Star BCS), in conversation with Drew Higgins (Board Chair, Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance [TXETRA])
Free Course: Creative Solutions to Complex Problems (Concurrent Event)
Elegant solutions may appear obvious in hindsight but are difficult to identify in the moment. Learn very practical strategies for discovering creative solutions. Explore individual problem-solving methods and tactics, along with ways to overcome barriers to innovative thinking. Go beyond brainstorming to harness the creative energy of the group while avoiding “analysis paralysis” and the dreaded “groupthink.”
Got Heat? The Earth as a Versatile Energy Source
This panel will explore the fast-evolving landscape of geothermal energy use beyond straight electricity generation. The panelists will discuss agricultural/industrial heat use as well as companies working in the distinct sectors of large-scale heating and cooling (Bedrock Energy) and subsurface energy storage (Sage Geosystems). They will also address the economic advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
Featured Panelists:
- Silviu Livescu, Co-Founder, CTO, Bedrock Energy • View PDF
- Malcolm Ross, Strategic Advisor, Eavor Technologies • View PDF
- Cindy Taff, CEO, Sage Geosystems Inc. • View PDF
When Community Engagement Works: Success Stories & Best Practices
Featured Panelists:
- Dorian Cockrell, Vice President, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- Nagruk Harcharek, President, The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat
- Juliet Stipeche, Executive Director, Gulf Coast Workforce Board
Sunshine, Wine, & Wool: Agrivoltaics in Texas’ Energy Transition
Achieving Texas’ renewable energy goals while maintaining land for agriculture requires strategic cross-sector collaboration. In this session, researchers, ranchers, and developers discuss opportunities and challenges at the energy-agriculture nexus — specifically, emerging trends in agrivoltaics, Texas-relevant considerations, R&D opportunities, and the potential role of agrivoltaics in Texas’ energy transition.
Featured Panelists:
- JR Howard, CEO, Texas Solar Sheep
- Blake Mendez, Board President, CleanCo Energie
- Alexis Pascaris, Agrivoltaic Researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Evening Reception
Student-Led Energy Research Poster Competition – Hosted by the Longhorn Energy Club (LEC), Switch Energy Club, and UT American Nuclear Society
Student Club Showcase & Mixer – Connect with UT student organizations in energy, environment, and entrepreneurship.
Participating Clubs:
- American Nuclear Society
- American Conservation Coalition Longhorns
- Citizens’ Climate Lobby
- Energy Resources Group
- The Negative Emissions Technology (NET) Project
- Switch Energy Club Longhorn Chapter
- Longhorn Energy Club
- Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E)
- TexPIRG Students
- Vanderbilt Fusion
Students: You can sign up your club here to participate.