2022 | ACCELERATING THE CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION
Day One - 31 March 2022
The 2022 MIT Energy Conference, which took place on March 31st and April 1st, gathered many technology, finance, and policy leaders from across the country and abroad in Cambridge. Close to 600 attendees convened in person while over 300 joined virtually. The impressive speaker lineup was highly knowledgeable, and each speaker contributed an important perspective on how students and professionals could work together on implementing change that would play a role in “Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition” - the theme of the 2022 conference.
Dr. Fatih Birol: Global Action on Clean Energy
Dr. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, opened the conference with comments on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, noting that in the next few months European countries will have to make huge efforts to compensate for reduced oil and gas supply from Russia. The IEA has coordinated action with member countries to release strategic oil stock reserves to reduce global oil supply shocks.
Dr. Birol then discussed the importance of mitigating climate change, and highlighted a few reasons to be optimistic about the energy transition. First, the IEA has a roadmap to Net Zero by 2050. Second, countries have made strong commitments at COP26 at Glasgow and other international forums. And third, new technologies - in particular solar, wind, electric vehicles, and advanced nuclear are becoming increasingly competitive.
Glenn Llewellyn: Zero Emission Aircraft
Following Dr. Birol’s address, Glenn Llewellyn, the VP of Zero Emission Aircraft at Airbus took the stage, sharing his vision for zero-emission aviation. Llewellyn believes that in the 2030s and 2040s, there will be tolerance only for zero climate impact aviation. Hydrogen is an economically interesting fuel for aircraft, albeit presents a number of technical challenges to overcome - such as liquid hydrogen storage onboard an aircraft. Airbus engineers will be collaborating with MIT researchers on non-CO2 emissions analysis, including contrails, to help ensure that the best scientific decisions for aviation are taken moving forward. Finally, for hydrogen aviation to become a reality, Llewellyn emphasized that a Hydrogen ecosystem is needed to achieve economies of scale.
Facilitating a Just Energy Transition
A few panels at the conference zoomed in on how the transition would affect lower-income communities, both locally and abroad. During the “Facilitating a Just Energy Transition” panel, speakers highlighted how high energy bills lead people to cut their levels of comfort, while landlords lack incentives to make homes more energy efficient for tenants. For an equitable transition, there is a need to design energy assistance programs to get to a desirable level for individual people, depending on their disposable income.
Fireside Chat with Audrey Choi and Jason Jay
The final plenary session on the first day was a fireside chat with Audrey Choi, the CEO of Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing, moderated by the Director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, Jason Jay. One of Choi’s key messages was that climate change is a risk factor to business that can no longer be ignored. The new SEC regulations have signaled that emissions are material to business, and “no savvy investor is going to want to make an investment without having transparent data with which to make a judgment”. Finally, Choi underlined the importance of a whole-of-economy approach for solving climate issues: by thinking of a sustainable planet across all sectors, finance has the opportunity to work across the economy.
Breakout Panels (Hydrogen Economy, Sustainable Development, Modernizing the Grid, ClimateTech VC, Personal Mobility, Future of Nuclear)
In the afternoon, the conference moved to a breakaway format, featuring both technology- and financing-focused panels. Among the technology themes was the panel on “Deploying the Hydrogen Economy”. When asked what was different about Hydrogen now, panelists spoke of commitment from customers. Corporations are setting real emissions goals and a lot of new sectors are getting on board - helping to create a network effect. It’s also about money, but policy incentives, like investment tax credits that have worked well for wind and solar, are needed to help drive down costs for hydrogen infrastructure and build up scale.
The “Modernizing the Grid” panel highlighted three spheres of focus for grid expansion: sustainability, economics, and resilience, as well as giving more control to customers. While EVs could become a tremendous resource to the grid, they face the big challenge of integration within the grid’s systems. The FERC Order 2222 was mentioned for its role in supporting wholesale market participation for distributed energy resources, although progress is still very slow. The panel concluded by suggesting that a decarbonized and reliable grid will certainly require demand flexibility as a consequence of high integration of intermittent renewables, but the market mechanisms to incentivize this kind of behavior at scale still lag far behind. On the panel covering the future of personal mobility, panelists mentioned that a change of habits is part of the solution. Panelists questioned whether it made sense to own a vehicle that sits idle most of the time, or to carry around a lot of extra weight in the form of batteries - when most of the time they’re not needed. If communities shifted to shared vehicles, much fewer vehicles would be needed. Cities should really be thinking about urban planning and how reducing the dependence on cars could improve cities. Finally, the “Future of Nuclear Energy” panel discussed the role that advanced nuclear could play in decarbonization. Progress on the policy side, such as the process of approval for new nuclear reactor designs like Terrapower or nuclear batteries will help the industry move forward more quickly.
Two other panels focused on climate financing - one on the role of blended finance for sustainable development and the other on climate tech and venture capital. Speakers at the former talked about the role that blended finance has played in reducing the costs for early-stage climate technology; however, they noted that it’s important to remember that countries with high climate risks will need support for adaptation, and developing countries are not homogeneous entities: e.g., decarbonization is not the same in Chile or Haiti or Jamaica. During the venture capital panel, speakers talked about the differences in climate tech between now and 20 years ago: while the technology risk is the same, the system’s risk is much lower because many more people and capital are committed, and there are more commercialization pathways. In the energy space, as electricity starts to flow in two directions, investors are seeing more business model innovations and companies with a software component.
Day Two - 01 April 2022
Dr. Maria Zuber: Decarbonizing the Global Economy
The second day of the conference opened with a keynote address from Dr. Maria Zuber, MIT’s Vice President for Research. Dr. Zuber spoke broadly about four key solutions to decarbonization: fusion energy, agricultural engineering to reduce or eliminate fertilizers, hydrogen infrastructure, and nuclear batteries (nuclear reactors that fit into shipping containers). She then highlighted some of MIT’s recent climate initiatives: the five Climate Grand Challenges project winners to be announced later this month, the Climate & Sustainability Consortium counting 16 industry members, The Engine - MIT’s venture capital fund, and the Future Energy Systems Center at the MIT Energy Initiative.
Gina McCarthy: Federal Climate Change Policy
Gina McCarthy, the National Climate Advisor at the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, then took the stage with a virtual address. She insisted on the necessity to have the full force of the federal government and the significant role that America would play in a clean energy future. Referring to the war in Ukraine, McCarthy stated that our only path to energy security around the world is clean energy. She ended her address on a hopeful note, telling the audience that she was working so that young people would have the future they deserve, and reminding young people of their role in organizing climate action in schools and workplaces, their support in electing a president with a climate platform, and their continued efforts in terms of advocacy, research, and innovation that are needed to achieve a bright future.
Renewable Energy Transition, Global Climate Action, and Energy Storage
The morning program continued with the panel on renewable energy. The speakers commented on required improvements in manufacturing for new technologies, mentioning perovskite solar panels and the US’s potential leading role - which would make them commercially available. In concluding, the panelists agreed that the energy sector in 2050 would be in transition to a highly decentralized system and that consumers would have more influence in deciding how they wanted their power. The next panel, “Global Climate Action: Strategy to 1.5oC” touched on the patience needed for climate technology innovations, and the different timeline and risk profile compared to software or biotech. Furthermore, the panelists emphasized the need for companies to capitalize on efficiency improvements first, before investing in bigger changes. The speakers also highlighted the necessity of tying incentives to sustainability metrics, in order for ESG investing to become effective from a climate perspective. The last plenary panel on energy storage discussed both the market opportunities and limitations of Lithium-ion batteries. The rising prices of both Lithium and Nickel over the last few weeks due to the war in Ukraine have shown how it is the availability of a material at a given time and not its abundance that drives its cost. Such effects could help emerging technologies develop more quickly. Finally, the panelists spoke about the importance of product-market fit and the opportunities for further sectors and types of energy storage - in which new, low-cost chemistries will likely play a role.
Breakout Panels (Carbon Capture, Climate Adaptation, Industrial Decarbonization, My Climate Journey Podcast)
The final four sessions on Friday, split into breakaway panels, addressed both technology and financing - for small countries. The “Carbon Capture and Utilization” panelists agreed that for CCUS to scale, access to capital was required, along with the commercialization of mature technologies. If there was one thing they could change in the industry, the panelists proposed both policy clarity and a global carbon price. The panel on “Decarbonizing the Heavy Industry” cited risk aversion, legacy standards, and financing as reasons why new solutions for cement and steel are not more successful. In addition, these industries have largely evaded climate focus until recently and building owners have strong influence in choosing their materials. Thus, to end the carbon age and bring about the new age of electrons, both pressure from the demand side and supply side are required to make the push.
The panel on “Climate Adaptation in Small Island Developing Nations” underlined the difficulty for small nations, like the Maldives, to access financing from multilateral institutions without better rates. Some efforts have been successful - like those to protect mangroves and shorelines, grow corals, and ensure sustainable fishing - with the assistance of development partners. However, saving such natural resources desperately requires much greater capital, as well as the creative transfer of new technologies. The other final breakaway session was a live recording of the My Climate Journey podcast that zoomed in on so-called “catalytic capital” for nascent climate technologies, where risk-return profiles may not be favorable for conventional capital sources. Nevertheless, catalytic capital doesn’t always have to be concessionary in terms of return, but can also be concessionary on risk or timeline. The speakers called philanthropists to action to engage in catalytic capital.
Climate and Energy Prize (CEP)
The closing event for the MIT Energy Conference featured the finals of the Climate & Energy Prize (CEP) $100K pitch competition, which seeks to empower university students to launch companies that tackle the climate challenge. Katie Rae, CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine, kicked off the company presentations. Five emerging climate and energy start-ups pitched their vision and business model to the panel of judges - Muket, Ivu Biologics, Mesophase, Terratrade, and Ultropia, with Ultropia taking home the grand prize of USD 100,000.
Fifty MIT students participated in the organization of the conference, demonstrating the importance of solving the climate crisis to the MIT community. All the panel themes were developed by students and the wide range of topics covered spoke to the many energy and climate-related interests that students pursue both academically and personally. Students, academia, and industry professionals left the event with new insights, a network of potential new collaborators, and a renewed motivation to continue their important work on accelerating the clean energy transition.