Pre-Conference Workshops

UNCOVERING THE FULL RENEWABLE ENERGY POTENTIAL
Monday, April 10, 2006
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Room: South Pacific C
$495.00, includes workshop materials, certificate of completion, lunch and coffee breaks
Instructors
Lisa Frantzis, Director; Richard Germain, Associate Director; and Ryan Katofsky, Associate Director, Navigant Consulting
Course Overview and Objectives
Renewable energy technologies have evolved dramatically over the past few years, and are rapidly becoming competitive with traditional forms of electricity generation. Significant improvements in performance, reduced costs, and government incentives are increasing their competitiveness. This course will provide participants with a platform from which they can gauge the "renewable energy potential" for their own organizations. Areas to be covered include: current state of renewable energy technologies and markets and prospects for the next decade, remaining gaps still to be overcome, and best practices in carefully guiding a renewable energy project through the development and implementation process.
The course leaders will use a combination of interactive presentation, case studies, and facilitated discussion to ensure that participants have an opportunity to voice their own experiences, ideas, and questions.
Part I. Renewable Energy Technology, Economics, and Markets—Bringing Renewable Energy into the Mainstream
Overview and Objectives
This session will provide participants with a solid understanding about renewable energy (RE) technology performance, markets, costs, and trends. The technologies covered will include: onshore and offshore wind, customer-sited and central station photovoltaics (PV), landfill gas, biomass co-firing, biomass gasification, biomass direct combustion, parabolic troughs, geothermal power, small hydro, wave and tidal power. Participants will gain experience-based insights into the current state of these technologies and markets, and their prospects for the next ten years. Factors to be discussed include technology drivers and challenges, economic and performance trends, the impact of incentives, and transmission and distribution.
Highlights
  • Current state and ten-year outlook for RE technologies and markets
  • Current and projected cost of electricity from RE technologies (with and without incentives), including comparisons to conventional options
  • Insights into primary drivers and challenges
  • Grid integration issues such as net metering, interconnection standards, and transmission and distribution
Part II. Renewable Energy Project Implementation — Where the Steel Meets the Ground
Overview and Objectives
The growing attractiveness of renewable energy (RE) is focusing attention on how to develop a successful RE project. What are the challenges to getting projects designed and built? Is there a proven approach that will help ensure a project is completed successfully? What are the technology, market, and finance barriers that seem to impede the progress of RE development? What is the profile of a successful project?
This course will provide participants with a comprehensive look at the entire project development cycle. The Navigant Consulting course leader will discuss a series of development phases, including: (i) site-specific resource and technology assessment, (ii) preliminary conceptual design, (iii) project feasibility analysis, (iv) leveraging strategies, (v) development, e.g., engineering, structural, regulatory, commercial, (vi) finance & closing, (vii) construction, and (viii) operations. Participants will explore the iterative activities that comprise each of those stages, such as modeling, permitting, and pro forma development.
Highlights
  • Framework for developing a new RE project from concept to operations
  • Innovative project architectures and partnership approaches
  • Lessons learned in implementing centralized station technologies
  • Successful "formulas" for achieving competitive levelized energy costs
  • Case study illustrating the multi-step development process
Workshop Instructor Biographies
Lisa Frantzis, Director, Renewable & Distributed Energy, Navigant Consulting
Ms. Frantzis has 25 years of consulting experience in technical, market, and economic analyses of renewable energy systems for her clients. She has assessed technology and market potential and cost reduction opportunities for onshore and offshore wind, photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, marine power, and geothermal technologies, and the renewable energy market broadly. A leader of visioning workshops on energy and renewable energy for the U.S. Navy, DOE, and EPA, Ms. Frantzis has provided renewables strategy, development, and integration assistance to a wide range of organizations. Before joining Navigant Consulting in 2002, she led Arthur D. Little's renewables practice. Phone 781.270.8314; lfrantzis@navigantconsulting.com.
Richard Germain, Associate Director, Navigant Consulting
Richard Germain is a commercial transactions specialist engaged in project development, contract negotiations, and project financing, with 20 years of experience in the energy and infrastructure industries. His experience extends to conventional generation, distributed and advanced power generation, renewable energy, industrial cogeneration, and electric transmission projects. He has been involved in developing and negotiating project investments whose value exceeds $5 billion, conducting an RFP and evaluating bid responses for 1000 MW of new generating capacity, and managing the commercial operations of a portfolio of power plant investments with a gross capacity of over 1000 MW. Mr. Germain has been engaged in the development and management of projects and consulting assignments across the U.S. and in more than 20 countries throughout Europe, Latin America, and Asia. His renewable energy experience spans a broad array of technologies, using solar energy, biomass, biogas, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal resources. Phone 415-356-7177; rgermain@navigantconsulting.com.
Ryan Katofsky, Associate Director, Navigant Consulting
Mr. Katofsky has more than ten years of consulting experience, focused on the assessment and commercialization of advanced energy technologies, such as fuel cells, gas turbines, and renewable energy systems. He has particular expertise in biomass energy. He has worked on a variety of renewable energy projects, including partner screening and identification for strategic investment in renewable energy businesses; renewable energy strategies for electric utilities and energy companies; technology, emissions, economic and market assessment; and proposal and program review for Federal and State renewable energy programs. He has also worked extensively in the field of alternative transportation fuels. Phone 781.270.8317; rkatofsky@navigantconsulting.com.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE IMPACTS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS: FROM SUCCESSFUL SITE ASSESSMENTS TO COST EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS
Monday, April 10, 2006
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Room: South Pacific D
$295.00, includes workshop materials, certificate of completion and coffee break
Instructor
Kenneth Westrick, Chief Executive Officer, and Bart Nijssen, PhD, Director, Research & Development 3TIER Environmental Forecast Group, Inc.
Who Should Attend
Senior and junior level executives, project managers, financial officers, lawyers, senior and mid-level engineers, and mid to senior level personnel who are involved in large-scale renewable energy generation projects from a due diligence, strategic level planning, tactical operations, and system integration perspective. The course will be taught using basic scientific principles, and anyone with a basic understanding of science (not necessarily a science degree) should gain appreciably from this course.
Course Overview and Objectives
Over 90 percent of the renewable energies used for electricity generation are weather-driven; in other words, they are completely dependent on the weather/climate system – and the inherent uncertainties in this system - for their fuel. So while these sources of renewable energy have the capability to liberate us from our dependence on fossil fuels, they introduce another complicating dependency: the weather. This dependency affects all aspects of weather-driven renewable energy projects: from proper placement to ongoing operation and integration. For example, unlike traditional fuels like natural gas and coal, the "fuel" for renewable energy projects can not be transported to the project site, underscoring the criticality of a comprehensive understanding of the resource – whether it is wind, solar, or hydro - before the project is built. This initial assessment is critical: even a four percent underestimation in the anticipated capacity factor of a wind project – certainly within the range of climate variability - can lead to up to $50 million loss in revenue over the lifetime of a single 100MW wind project. After a renewable energy project becomes operational the intermittency in the power produced from these projects becomes of central concern, especially as we look at significantly more renewable energy projects in the future. The intermittency in the power affects all aspects of operations, from load following (minutes to hours ahead) to asset allocation and financial hedging strategies (days to months ahead). The costs associated with integrating intermittent energy into the grid can run into the millions of dollars. In addition to site assessment and project operations, climate change will become more of an issue in the future. Climate change, which is different than climate variability, can significantly affect the long-term generation characteristics of renewable energy project, and some of these changes could dramatically affect both the amount and timing of the power produced.
Highlights
  • Basics of weather and climate and the relevance to renewable energy generation
    • Mechanisms responsible for the "fuel": wind, solar, and precipitation
    • Weather and climate: what is the difference and how it affects operations and assessment
    • Spatial variability of weather and climate phenomena and the effect on generation
  • Site assessment: From exploratory analysis to due diligence, a comprehensive understanding of the resource-related risk
  • Forecasting: from minutes to months into the future: accuracy, sources of errors, and the ultimate effect on ongoing operations
  • The future is not the past: Climate change and assessing the effect on future renewable energy generation characteristics
Workshop Instructor Biographies
Kenneth Westrick, Chief Executive Officer, 3TIER Group, Inc
Ken is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of 3TIER Environmental Forecast Group, a meteorological forecasting and consulting company that provides renewable energy forecasting and assessment services to the renewable energy sector. Prior to forming 3TIER Ken worked as a Research Scientist at the University of Washington where he specialized in weather and weather forecasting, computer modeling strategies, hydrometeorological forecasting and assessment, and weather forecasting verification. He also served as an integral member of the University of Washington’s PRISM project where he led the hydro meteorological modeling effort. Ken also had a distinguished career in the United States Army, excelling in some of the most demanding military units in the world. Ken holds both a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington. Born and raised in St. Clair, Michigan, Ken currently divides his time fairly equally between 3TIER’s North American Office in Seattle, Washington, and the Latin American Office in Medellin, Colombia, where he lives with his wife Anna and young son Anton.
Bart Nijssen, PhD, Director, Research & Development, 3TIER Group, Inc
Bart joined 3TIER Environmental Forecast Group in Fall 2005 to lead 3TIER’s research and development activities. Prior to joining 3TIER, Bart was an Assistant Professor in Hydrology and Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona, where he conducted research and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in surface water hydrology. He has co-authored over 25 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters on hydrology, hydrological modeling, and the impacts of climate change on surface water hydrology. Bart holds a doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a degree in Tropical Land and Water Management from Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands, where he was born and raised. He currently spends his time at 3TIER’s North American Office in Seattle, Washington.