CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS June 2017 UNC CLEAN TECH SUMMIT CSE06201701 I NSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT These proceedings were produced through a generous grant from Wells Fargo INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................1 CLEAN ENERGY .........................................................................................5 WHAT IS ON THE HORIZON FOR ENERGY STORAGE? ............................................................................................................ 5 CHALLENGES IN COMMERCIAL SOLAR .................................................................................................................................. 8 A LOOK AT SOLAR FARMS AND AGRICULTURAL LANDS ..................................................................................................... 9 OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH IN THE BIOENERGY SECTOR ................................................................................................. 9 FOOD......................................................................................................12 HOW THE REVOLUTION IN GENOMICS IS IMPROVING OUR FOOD SECURITY ...................................................................12 THE ENTIRE VALUE CHAIN FOR CRAFT BEERS .....................................................................................................................14 CAN BIOLOGICALS MEANINGFULLY INCREASE FOOD PRODUCTION WHILE PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT? .............16 INNOVATION ..........................................................................................17 PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR ........................................................17 VENTURE CAPITAL IN AG TECH ............................................................................................................................................20 ANALYTICS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD ............................................................................................................................20 UNIVERSITIES CREATING THE NEXT GREAT COMPANIES .....................................................................................................21 WATER & ENERGY ..................................................................................23 WATER RESEARCH AT UNC: ASSISTING COMMUNITIES ACROSS NORTH CAROLINA ........................................................23 INNOVATIVE WAYS TO DELIVER ENERGY AND WATER TO THE DEVELOPING WORLD.......................................................28 TRENDS IN ENERGY AND CLIMATE POLICY ..........................................................................................................................28 UNC CLEAN TECH SUMMIT • KENAN INSTITUTE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS INTRODUCTION On March 1-2, approximately 1,000 people convened at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill for the fourth annual UNC Clean Tech Summit. This was the largest crowd to gather for the event, and, as emcee Rye Barcott, co- founder and managing partner of Double Time Capital, noted, about a third of those in attendance were students. Barcott acknowledged the objectives of the summit: to network and – with a nod to the TED Talks theme – share ideas worth spreading. Kevin Guskiewicz, UNC-Chapel Hill’s dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, took to the podium to welcome the audience. He said this occasion to assemble students, business leaders, scholars, policymakers and others for brainstorming sessions and relationship building was very much “what a leading global public research university is about.” “The organizers of this year’s event have put together a fascinating program focusing on themes of great urgency,” Guskiewicz said. The agenda included four primary themes: Clean Energy, Food, Innovation, and Water & Energy. “Among the topics we will be exploring over these two days,” Guskiewicz continued, “are rural development, solar energy challenges, genomics and food security, oyster restoration, climate policy, more efficient energy delivery and how universities are creating the next generation of great companies – all of which are of great interest to us here in North Carolina and have ramifications for the rest of the country and the world.” UNC Chancellor Carol Folt followed Guskiewicz, noting the appropriateness of the UNC-Chapel Hill Clean Tech Summit taking place at the UNC Friday Center. “During Bill Friday’s 30-year tenure as president of the UNC system,” Folt said, “he made, as we all know, so many significant contributions to our state and our higher education that led to many game-changing improvements to North Carolina.” She spoke of Friday’s vision as a pioneer in the development of Research Triangle Park, which the founders saw as holding great potential as an engine for “collaboration and innovation among business, government and universities – and it couldn’t be more relevant today than it was when they first dreamed it up.” 1 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS • UNC CLEAN TECH SUMMIT “They imagined a home in North Carolina where research communities would come together to invent the future,” Folt affirmed. Such was the focus of this summit, she said, bringing together the “best and brightest” from across the state and the region to hold “important discussions that can lead to improving our leadership and growth in the clean tech industry.” Folt referenced Barcott’s observation on the great turnout of students and the extent to which it boded well for the future of the clean technology industry. “We know who the future is,” Folt asserted. “It’s sitting out in this audience.” Data really is transforming “Clean tech is the quintessential example of that saying that ‘green everything. is green,’” she said in closing. “That means that clean technologies and Everything is efficient energy use are not only good for the environment but also good becoming digitized. for business.” Fran O’Sullivan We live in a time of “certain uncertainty,” Folt said. “It’s a time when every General Manager town, every state, every nation needs to act now to create a future where IBM GBS Global Operations their people can thrive and where our planet can flourish. “I think there’s no better way to get going on the business of doing just that right now than being here at this summit, working on the development of clean technologies here in our own backyard.” Newly elected Gov. Roy Cooper, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, concluded the opening proceedings by expressing pride in his state, praising its “visionary leaders of the past,” among them RTP’s founders, who were at “the forefront of folding environmental sustainability into our business practices.” Now is the time As for the present and future, Cooper lauded public/private partnerships, for innovation. such as the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster. Between 2002 and 2015, Now is the time for 39 clean energy patents were issued to RTP companies or inventers. Since entrepreneurship. 2009, clean tech projects have created more than 10,000 jobs. And RTP It will help us grow has the highest concentration of clean tech employees in the country. a more robust economy. “Now is the time for innovation,” Cooper concluded. “Now is the time for entrepreneurship. It will help us grow a more robust economy.” Gov. Roy Cooper 2 UNCA CLEAN NEW TECH SUMMIT • CONFERENCEWORLD PROCEEDINGS Fran O’Sullivan, general manager of equivalent of approximately 300 million IBM GBS Global Operations, presented books of data will be collected about their a Thursday keynote address titled “The health. Cognitive Era: How Technology Is O’Sullivan discussed some examples of Accelerating Disruption,” in which she how the proliferation of data is being put to offered some food-for-thought about the excellent use. For example: rapidly evolving world of commerce. Dade County in Florida used IBM’s Watson The world’s largest taxi company, Uber, Analytics to conserve 20 percent of their owns no vehicles, O’Sullivan observed. water supply, and then used the savings to The world’s largest company for invest $1 million in parks and recreation accommodations, Airbnb, owns no real and to teach kids to swim. estate. The world’s largest retailer, Alibaba, O’Sullivan spoke of artificial intelligence in China, owns no inventory. Facebook, the augmenting human potential. IBM is world’s largest media company, owns no advancing what it has coined “new collar” content. workers: the right skills to match new “Data really is transforming everything,” she demands. said. “Everything is becoming digitized.” “We need more STEM students entering However, O’Sullivan noted that only 20 the workforce,” she affirmed, and more percent of enterprises say they are able to diversity among those students. Not enough gain insight from their data. Eighty percent women are considering STEM jobs; they of the data is “dark”, meaning; it cannot be need mentors, and IBM is now working searched to gain a competitive edge. with UNC and Duke to make North Carolina – and, specifically, the Triangle – a “How much data is out there?” O’Sullivan destination for STEM jobs for women and asked. She offered the following insights: underrepresented minorities. • There are 680 million smart meters in the energy industry today. “We’re very excited about this,” O’Sullivan • In a single day, New York City generates said. “Think about a young person who about 520 terabytes of public safety-related you can make a difference for, and tell them data. how they can help change the world if they • In the