First North American Energy Roundtable At UNLV

Attending the North American Energy Roundtable at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, March 27, 2009, I was reminded repeatedly of Nevada's enthusiastic and forward-looking commitment to renewable energy growth.

Nevada recognizes, and is confident in, its ability to establish a long-term and fruitful sustainable energy niche within the vast and robust realms of the oil and gas mega-companies in North America.

Oil pipeline photo by Marc Shandro.

Similar pipelines between Canada and the U.S. will logically endure for many decades.

By Robert L. Candiotti, April 4, 2009

Presented by the UNLV Urban Sustainability Initiative, the UNLV Department of Political Science and the Canadian Consulate - described as the first North American Energy Roundtable - an interesting March 27 event brought together 100 government, business and academic authorities to discuss the present and future of commercial energy in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

At the gathering on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the speakers from major energy companies of both Canada and Mexico emphasized that the petroleum and gas industries will not only be around for many more decades, but will also grow significantly.

Jeff Rush, General Manager of TransCanada U.S. Pipelines West, said at the conference that $5 trillion will be invested in oil and gas between now and 2030. "Oil production has got to grow," he said.

Rush showed graphs and drawings in his PowerPoint presentation that were instructive in their descriptions of the oil and gas pipeline industry that brings essential energy to the U.S.

Oil sands mine site in Alberta, Canada.

Len Webber, an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, said all of the natural gas exports from the prairie province of Alberta go to the U.S. He also said transformation of oil sands will provide an increasing role in North America's petroleum production. He said oil sands mining is positioning Alberta to become one of the world's top five oil producers.

[Wikipedia states, "With the decline of conventional North American crude oil reserves, the focus is turning toward oil sands exploration, development and production."]

Ricardo Samaniego, Director of the Center for Applied Economics and Public Policy at the Instituto Technologico Autonomo de Mexico, also spoke at the roundtable. He said PEMEX, Mexico's state-owned petroleum company Petroleos Mexicanos, is third in crude oil production in the world. "Petroleum consumption is not disappearing," he said. There is no end in sight for the demand for petroleum, according to Samaniego.

Based on what the Canadian and Mexican panelists said, there is not much risk in assuming that gas and oil will be around at least until 2050, and probably for the full length of the 21st Century. Oil and gas will be needed. The energy relationships of Canada and Mexico with the U.S. seem to be essential and beneficial for all of North America. The three countries benefit from the energy business relationships with each other.

Nevada Solar One high aerial view.

This is a 64-megawatt (MW) solar thermal plant near Boulder City, not too far from Las Vegas.

On the other hand, following the images of understandably important pipelines hundreds of miles long and graphs predicting increases in oil production and consumption, from the very beginning of the statements given by the panelists from Nevada, it was obvious the Western states' energy leaders are marching to the beat of a different drummer.

It was evident from the presentations of Canada and Mexico that there is no great focus in those countries on the development of renewable energy.

It was obvious the opposite is true with the energy leaders from Nevada who spoke.

The first thing Dr. Oliver Hemmers - Director, UNLV Office of Strategic Energy Programs and Executive Director of the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Programs - pointed out was that there are ways to get renewables going even when the environment is not highly amenable. He referred to the solar leadership of Germany -which is now the world's leading country in the area of photovoltaic solar power - even though Germany is similar to Alaska with regard to the amount of sunshine available.

Dr. Robert F. Boehm - Director of the Center for Energy Research at UNLV - said that each climate region in the world probably has some possible application for a sustainable energy resource. In Southern Nevada, as in most of the world's desert areas, solar is the most ideally adapted renewable resource. Of course, he noted, solar energy storage is a critical element, and this is an area that needs to be attended to at the University of Nevada.

The President and Chief Executive of NV Energy, Nevada's primary energy provider, Michael W. Yackira, talked about a new solar-thermal project with MAN Ferrostaal, as well as Nevada's expansion of geothermal capacity and the creation of the 235-mile One Nevada (a.k.a. ON Line) energy transmission line that will run from Ely, Nevada, to the Harry Allen sub-station near Las Vegas by 2012. Yackira said there is right now "a tremendous push for renewables in the U.S.," especially in Nevada.

Parabolic trough collector at Nevada Solar One.

It was explained at the North American Energy Roundtable that the impetus for the gathering came from David Stewart, Consulate General of Canada, whose office is in San Francisco. It was his suggestion that put the planning for the meeting into motion.

The full title of the event was North American Energy Roundtable - 2025 Challenge. Perhaps there turned out to be too little focus on the 2025 aspect of discussion. Still, the roundtable provided a worthwhile opportunity to hear and think about the condition of energy production from Canada to Mexico.

The roundtable allowed North American energy providers - and interested parties - to both speak and listen. There is no question that both conventional and renewable energies have roles to play in the future.

And, undeniably, future success for renewables will depend on the creation of transmission systems that will accommodate the transfer of carbon-free power across long distances. There will be no way renewable power can mature without new transmission lines.

Fossil fuel needs pipelines. Renewable energy needs transmission lines. A multi-state system of new transmission/distribution lines will be a real challenge that will ultimately enable renewables to provide a significant percentage of North America's energy.

At the North American Energy Roundtable at UNLV, the strength and importance of the region's oil and gas entities were obvious. Also obvious was the direction toward a renewable future that Nevada seems to be committed to, and capable of, taking.