Beginning the planning

On May 12, 2006, the Cleveland Foundation and NorTech convened an initial meeting to develop a regional advanced energy strategy. In attendance were more than 50 energy experts from academia, government, economic development, corporate, and nonprofit sectors.

The meeting started with the following context:

• Our region suffers from weak economic prospects and poor environmental quality.
• Intensified advanced energy industry activity can help solve both challenges. Indeed, such a strategy can anchor the region's revival in the coming decades.
• Many advanced energy initiatives are underway in the region, but they are fragmented. There's no coherent strategy.

Advanced energy was defined as a mix of "alternative" or "renewable" energy sources (such as wind, solar, biopower, biofuels, hydrogen, fuel cells, etc.) and innovative approaches to "conventional" energy (including energy-efficient vehicles and buildings, pollution controls, cleaner methods of coal and gas refining, etc.). For a matrix that lays out these concepts, go here.

The meeting had three main objectives:

• Confirm widespread agreement on the need for developing a regional advanced energy strategy, and consider what such an agenda would entail and what level of commitment would be required to follow through.
• Begin to brainstorm a 10-year vision of success, realizing that a comprehensive agenda will involve many changes (social, technological, ecological, political) and take some time to develop.
• Begin designing an approach for developing the agenda, including who might be involved and how a process could be organized so that it will last up to 30 years, persisting as political administrations come and go. 

The 30-year timeframe came from the Peter Garforth talk mentioned above. Garforth described how, starting after the oil price shocks of the 1970s, Copenhagen vowed never again to be totally dependent on imported oil. Over the ensuing 30 years, the Danes focused steadily on reducing their energy footprint. They adopted building efficiency standards so that homes consume only 20 percent the energy of typical U.S. homes. They developed efficient district heating systems to use the waste heat of power plants to heat homes and businesses. And they invested in wind power, now obtaining 20 percent of their electricity from wind.

Thus, after 30 years, Copenhagen is now in a much more secure position. It has a cleaner, more flexible energy system. It's a world leader in the wind industry. And planning for district heating has produced high-density urban villages that offer social benefits and make transit and biking convenient transportation alternatives.

"There is nothing that Copenhagen...[is] doing that [the Cleveland region] could not do if there were the political and community will to do so," said Garforth. "Such an approach would blow away the current Clean Air attainment challenges, revitalize entire neighborhoods, and make the city a magnet for new energy businesses of many types."

Next steps

Participants at the planning meeting brainstormed what will have to happen next if we are to develop an advanced energy agenda for Northeast Ohio. Go here for a summary of key themes from the discussion.

At the end they formed four volunteer teams:

• Goal setting: Propose alternative goals for a regional energy master plan and advanced energy industry cluster.
• Benchmarking: Identify other regions that have made good progress on advanced energy strategies and synthesize lessons learned (accounting for our region’s differences).
• Energy audit: Characterize flows and catalog asset/infrastructure base associated with current regional energy production and use.
• Catalog assets: List names (and contact information) of companies and individuals involved in advanced energy, along with brief description.

The work teams will meet during Summer 2006, and another meeting of the entire group was tentively scheduled for September. The organizers have set a goal of having agreement on the approach to be used in developing our advanced energy strategy by October. That is when the Case Weatherhead School of Management will host a major UN Global Compact forum on sustainability and business, and the forum will be an opportunity to showcase progress in Northeast Ohio.

Watch this page for updates on this essential process to achieve energy sustainability in the region. To get involved, contact Richard Stuebi of The Cleveland Foundation or Chris Varley of NorTech.

September 2006 update

On September 26, 2006, a second workshop about an advanced energy strategy was held at the Cleveland Foundation. Attendees included a diverse mix of energy experts and activists from the business, government, university, and nonprofit sectors. Here are some of the key themes from the discussion:

• The first and foremost aim of our efforts is local economic development through increased advanced energy commercial activity – which will lead to more affordable/secure energy and reduced emissions as beneficial side-effects.
• Neither a top-down directive leadership model nor a model of diverse spontaneous activity will breed success for our efforts to bring forth an advanced energy cluster – we need to find a workable “hybrid” that involves selected elements of both.
• As an attempt to implement a “hybrid” model of both “top-down” and “distributed” leadership for ongoing advanced energy efforts in our region, it continues to make sense to convene meetings of this type on a periodic basis (3-4 times per year), if for no other reason than to share information of recent/current/upcoming events and activities, and for networking. At these meetings, initiatives/projects may be identified that generate sufficient interest for volunteer groups to form, and these groups can produce work products to be reported at subsequent meetings.
• To obtain more participative involvement from the corporate community, we will attempt to convene a group of business leaders in an advisory/steering committee capacity (in a model similar to NorTech’s) to help shape our ongoing efforts in a manner that is more likely to be subsequently endorsed by the private sector.
• Our regional advanced energy meetings and interest group should be increasingly linked to other similar groups that may (or should) exist in Ohio, building up to a statewide level of activity – later perhaps expanding to neighboring states (e.g., PA, WV, MI).
• While we will continue to actively pursue efforts that promote advanced energy business/technology development in the region (“supply side”), the main thrust of our efforts should aim to change policies and regulations so as to be more conducive to advanced energy activity (“demand side”).
• We are already active in shaping energy policy at the local (city/county level), but are likely to increase our efforts at the (probably more important) state level, especially with a new Governor upcoming.

In addition, the following volunteer efforts were identified at the meeting:

• Energy map: characterize energy production/consumption flows in our region to identify largest and most economic improvement opportunities (Holly Harlan, Phil Lane, Pat Kelly)
• Post-corn ethanol: develop a recommended plan for driving Ohio to become a leader in non-corn (e.g., cellulosic, biologic) ethanol technologies and production (Dale Arnold, Vicki Deisner, Phil Lane, Jim Zuber)
• Regional manufacturing: identify NEO regional industrial strengths and propose how to leverage them to build cluster of advanced energy manufacturing (Bob Purgert, others?)
• Technology roadmaps: summarize and synthesize other studies to characterize future technology development pathways (volunteers anyone?)
• Education/outreach: propose new/additional activities to raise awareness and educate stakeholders of advanced energy issues/needs/opportunities (volunteers anyone?)