At the kick-off meeting to plan a regional advanced energy strategy, there was broad agreement among the meeting participants on the following points:

• Energy is too big of an issue and opportunity to keep underemphasizing, and thus advanced energy merits a higher priority of attention in our region.
• Energy companies and industry – not government, academia, or non-profits – should lead the advanced energy agenda if it is to have impact in our region.
• There is significant value in convening a sizable and diverse group on a periodic basis to discuss regional advanced energy issues/opportunities.
• Our region can learn from other regions on how best to pursue advanced energy, but solutions developed elsewhere (e.g., Copenhagen) may not work here without significant modification.
• An advanced energy strategy for local energy utilization should be separate from (though consistent with) an advanced energy strategy for regional industry cluster and technology development.
• Because there is so much “inertia” in the incumbent infrastructure, the advanced energy technology/business cluster should precede (not follow) a regional advanced energy master plan.
• The cluster strategy might best be focused around transportation technologies (the region’s historic strength), whereas the energy master plan might best be limited to buildings/utilities (excluding transportation, which is national in scope).
• In our region, economic considerations will have a bigger influence than environmental concerns on what industry sector participants will pursue in advanced energy.
• It is not prudent to define an organization and an approach to developing the two elements of a regional advanced energy strategy until regional goals are clarified and widely shared.
• There are several efforts that are “no regrets” to undertake to make further regional progress in advanced energy, and interested parties should volunteer to complete them in advance of a follow-up meeting of the broader group.