Principles for Clean Energy Investments (Summary) – 2014 Annual Conference

The following is a summary of the breakout session “Principles for Clean Energy Investments” at the 2014 U.S.-Japan Council Annual Conference on October 10, 2014.

Speakers:

  • Ms. Dawn Lippert, Director, Energy Excelerator, Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR) (moderator)
  • RADM David M. Boone, USN (Ret.), Vice President, Business Development, Chicago Bridge and Iron Federal Services
  • Ms. Constance H. Lau, President and CEO, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.
  • RDML Bret J. Muilenburg, Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific & Pacific Fleet Civil Engineer, United States Navy
  • Mr. Katsuzo Suzuki, CEO, Bell Energy

The goal for this panel was to share energy-related case studies that explore the nexus of economics, technology, and political/strategic communications. The case studies from each of the panelists illuminated learnings from Hawaii, the Asia-Pacific region and Japan.

Ms. Lau introduced Hawaii’s clean energy success story attributable to abundant renewable resources such as geothermal, wind and solar. Since the successful launch of the 2008 Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, Hawaii now aims to increase its renewable energy generation rate to 65%, triple distributed solar and reduce energy bills by 20% by year 2030. RDML Muilenburg focused on the Navy’s shore energy strategy, which is to achieve energy goals at Navy installations across the Pacific, including the Navy’s partnership with Japan, to reduce energy consumption by 50% ashore, obtain 50% of energy through alternative resources, and to reduce commercial vehicle annual petroleum consumption by 50% by 2020. While there is an influx of energy investors, the Navy uses the Energy-Return on Investment (eROI) Tool to prioritize investment. Lastly, Mr. Suzuki spoke of renewable energy business opportunities in Japan. Japan’s energy usage composition shows only 2% renewable energy. In July 2012, the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) System was implemented, and in a mere 20 months, the total Certified Renewal Energy (GW) reached 41.2 GW. He foresees the further relaxation of energy regulations to boost the production of stable renewable energy (like geothermal), since Japan is in great need of renewable energy.

Click here to learn more about the 2014 Annual Conference.