Session Type: Convention
Location
Location: DCCCRoom Number: 207
Available Dates & Times
Description
The 2013 NECA Energy Forum features opportunities to discover new products and services, learn about best practices, network with your peers, boost your company’s productivity, and explore new markets. Learn more >
Customers are demanding energy efficiency, onsite power generation, energy security, and the deployment of new technologies. The future has never looked so bright for electrical contractors. Where do you go to learn more about these emerging technologies? How do you decide which ones are right for your business and tap into the market?
The Energy Forum on Saturday, October 12, 2013 is an information-packed day for CEO’s, presidents, key executives and employees responsible for deciding what opportunities to pursue and how best to capture those opportunities.
As the nation pushes towards energy independence, new opportunities abound for electrical contractors. Contractors can seize these opportunities and find independence from the uncertainties of the bid world. How will the advances in emerging technologies, energy efficiency, renewables, energy storage, combined heat and power and the projected abundance of natural gas impact our businesses?
Washington, DC is the perfect place to come and learn from many of the people most directly shaping this new energy world. Come to the third annual Energy Forum, listen to keynotes from policy makers, hear from owners and project developers, and learn from a panel of your NECA peers already working on these types of projects.
In 2011, energy produced in the United States provided about 80% of the nation’s energy needs. The remainder of our energy was supplied mainly by imports of petroleum. In 2011, natural gas production exceeded coal production for the first time since 1981, and in December 2012 economists with UBS bank tallied some $65 billion in announced construction of new plants related to cheaper natural gas and said another 11 plants had been announced worth billions more.
In 2011, total renewable energy consumption and production reached all-time highs of 9 quadrillion Btu each; biofuels production was about 9 times greater than in 2000, and wind generation was about 20 times greater than in 2000. Energy efficiency is a low cost way to save money, support job growth, reduce pollution, and improve the competitiveness of our businesses. We spend more than $400 billion each year to power our homes and commercial buildings, consuming more than 70% of all electricity used in the United States, about 40% of our nation’s total energy bill. And much of this energy and money is wasted—20% or more on average. If we cut the energy use of U.S. buildings by 20%, we could save approximately $80 billion annually on energy bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create jobs.
For most of these technologies, firm employees already have the knowledge and training to do the job safely, productively, and within cost and time constraints. Unfortunately, those skills are not always utilized by firm management due to the disconnect that exist between winning the work and doing the work. The hundreds of contractors and their employees that have attended the NECA Energy Forum over the past couple of years have left armed with actionable information on identifying the opportunity, selling their firms’ services and winning new work, thereby giving them a competitive advantage over both their non-union and union peers.
As in years past, the Energy Forum will wrap up just in time for the NECA Green Energy Challenge, the annual NECA Student Chapter competition. And remember that energy solutions education at NECA 2013 Washington DC will complemented by related management workshops and technical workshops offered throughout the Convention and the NECA Show. See you at the Energy Forum!
Saturday, October 12 12:00 pm–4:00 pm
- $145 for NECA members
- $75 with full Convention registration
- Lunch is included with registration
Speakers
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Karen Alderman Harbert
Karen Alderman Harbert, President and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy
As President and CEO for the U.S. Chapter of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, Karen Alderman Harbert leads the Institute’s efforts to build support for meaningful energy action nationally and internationally through policy development, education, and advocacy.
The Institute’s mission is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind a common sense energy strategy to help keep our country secure, prosperous and clean.
Under Harbert’s leadership, the Energy Institute has evolved into a premier national and increasingly international organization truly dedicated to advancing a constructive energy agenda and transforming the energy and environmental debate into a widely supported plan of action. Harbert frequently testifies in front of Congress and provides analysis to the media, policymakers and industry leaders.
Harbert is the former assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). She was the primary policy advisor to the Secretary and to the department on domestic and international energy issues, including climate change, fossil, nuclear, and renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Harbert was also a member of DOE’s Executive Board as well as the Credit Review Board. She negotiated and managed bilateral and multilateral agreements with other countries and international agencies to further the nation’s energy security and research and development objectives.
In the private sector, Harbert worked for a developer of international infrastructure and power projects valued at more than $9 billion in countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Harbert gained experience on issues associated with economic reform and privatization through earlier positions at the USAID, the Organization of American States, and the International Republican Institute.
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David Riley
Dr. David Riley is an Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering at Penn State. Dr. Riley currently serves as a Resident Scholar at the Sustainability Institute at Penn State where his focus is the University-wide engagement of students in sustainability challenges. His fields of expertise include integrated design-build delivery methods, sustainable building techniques, renewable energy systems, and smart, affordable, and sustainable housing strategies.
Dr. Riley is also leading the development of multiple initiatives at Penn State funded by the U.S. Department of Energy that are focused upon the integration of commercialization, workforce development, and education programs in the fields of energy efficiency, solar, wind, and smart grid technologies. These efforts include three DOE centers: The Northern Mid-Atlantic Solar Education and Resource Center, the GridStar Center, and the National Energy Leadership Corps.