Progress toward renewable energy goals focus of symposium
On Oct. 3, Colorado native Michael Bowman, a fifth-generation Colorado farm owner from Wray, spoke at CU as part of the day-long Energy Symposium sponsored by CU and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He focused on America’s progress toward relying on renewable energy sources in the future.
The movement, 25×25, is a Colorado-based initiative calling for America to obtain 25 percent of its energy from renewable resources like wind, solar and biofuels by the year 2025.
“The energy choices we make today will determine where we are 20 years from now,” Bowman said.
Bowman stressed the importance of the 25×25 initiative by presenting symposium attendees and participants with a powerpoint presention explaining its goals.
According to Bowman, the campaign has the potential to reduce America’s dependency on foreign energy sources, improve National Security, improve the environment and strengthen rural America by turning to the agriculture industry for feed, fuel and fiber.
This initiative began in Colorado and has now been embraced in over 25 states.
The objective to make 25×25 a national goal and a federal initiative. This summer the goal was introduced to Congress and is now ready to be voted on by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
While federal policy and initiative are close at hand, Bowman pointed out that 25×25 still depends on the local grassroots level.
“Federal initiative will only be successful from the bottom up,” Bowman said. “It all boils down to the individual level and the choices each one of us makes, but we have the capacity to do this.”
After the presentation Bowman answered questions from the audience. When asked what CU as a research facility can do to help reach the 25×25 goal, he responded that CU is already a leader in the field of sustainable energy and is making commitments to renewable energy.
“The stage for this movement was set in Colorado and Colorado fingerprints are all over this and it’s really exciting,” Bowman said.
Bowman’s audience consisted of mostly participants of the symposium’s poster session that took place prior to the presentation.
The participants were CU system faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and NREL researchers. The poster session presented research and work from the different fields each participant represented and how it related to Renewable Energy. Topics included science and engineering, business opportunities, policy and legislation issues and the social and economic aspects of energy initiatives.
Lars Kalnajs, a fourth-year atmospheric and oceanic sciences PhD student, explained that a lot of the symposium participants were trying to apply their previous research and knowledge to renewable energy and technology but were being too specific to their different subjects and not looking at the broader scope.
“I am here because my research with air pollution is relevant to renewable energies,” said Kalnajs.
