On Friday, Power Day 2, the Opening Address panel on “The Carbon Conundrum” offered the views of James E. Rogers, Chairman, President, and CEO, Duke Energy Corporation; Philippe Joubert, Executive Vice President, Alstom; President, Power Systems Sector, Alstom; and Lawrence J. Makovich, CERA Vice President and Senior Advisor, on the politics, technology, and economics surrounding solutions to a low-carbon global economy. Establishing real costs is essential to winning public support. Using monies from carbon abatement programs to fund carbon solutions is essential. Electricity growth and transportation developments can be decarbonized through carbon capture and storage, which could reach commercialization by 2015. All panelists cautioned that there are real costs associated with this effort, and that if the political and public opinion battles are lost, there could be real consequences for the environment.

Jone-Lin Wang, CERA Managing Director, Global Power Group, chaired Friday’s Industry Forum on nuclear power. David W. Crane, President and Chief Executive Officer, NRG, focused on the business management perspective and highlighted the role of project finance principles in multibillion-dollar nuclear projects. The Hon. Peter B. Lyons, Commissioner, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said the NRC’s focus should be “enabling” the safe and effective use of nuclear energy, but until there is substantial construction, “it is hard to say if we are effectively in the nuclear renaissance.” George Nash Jr., President, URS Power Group, stressed that “more than ever, nuclear power is part of the solution to the many issues facing the energy industry.” Andrew Kadak, Professor of Practice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, emphasized the need for a growing role for nuclear power in carbon-free electricity generation, saying energy at that scale is needed.

CERA Senior Advisor James Rosenfield and CERA Senior Director Robert LaCount chaired a panel about the promise and peril for renewable energy in today’s environment. Takayuki Ueda, Director General, Energy and Environment Policy, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan, discussed Japan’s goals for renewables, with photovoltaics, fuel cells, and electric cars. Dick Williams, President of Shell Wind Energy, elaborated on critical factors for expanding wind energy, including safety, reliability, highly trained workers, and improved transmission. Dita>Bronicki, CEO of Ormat, called geothermal energy “the renewable energy of choice for utilities,” but with its potential limited by geography. Clay Sell, President of Hunt Energy Horizons, focused on the pluses and minuses in today’s environment for renewables. Frank De Rosa, CEO of NextLight, described selling renewable technologies to the utility sector, as the current credit crunch has temporarily halted the convergence between utility willingness to pay for renewables and renewables’ decreasing cost.

Gerard McCloskey, CERA Vice President and Global Advisor, Coal, chaired an Industry Plenary on “Coal in a Carbon-constrained World.” The panel discussed coal’s enduring role in world energy supply (“it’s too soon for the funeral”) and technology’s potential to significantly cut carbon emissions from coal. Jone-Lin Wang, CERA Managing Director, said that the existing coal fleet will remain resilient and new coal builds will face difficulties, with some projects coming through. Anna Belova, Vice-Chief Executive Officer, Strategy and Corporate Development of SUEK, noted the great potential for coal growth in power generation in Russia and assured the audience “coal is still in the game.” Steven Leer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arch Coal, Inc., emphasized the remarkable achievements of clean coal technologies in emission controls and believed “if we serious about stabilizing carbon emissions, the only way is to develop CCS [carbon capture and storage].” Howard Herzog, Principal Research Engineer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, referred to CCS as “a keystone technology” for significant carbon abatement, and said, “In any case, we will almost surely be burning more coal in 2050 than we do today.”

CERAWeek and the day wrapped up with an informal luncheon discussion.