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IEEE GREENTECH 2013
message from conference
chair
WELCOME MESSAGE
The Need for Green Technology in the Energy Section
The energy ecosystem is in the midst of unprecedented
change driven by exploding global energy demand,
technology, sustainability concerns, and the need for energy
security. The past decade has seen rapid development of
technologies for energy production, generation, distribution,
storage and utilization.  However, there is no one “silver
bullet” technology or approach to address the challenges
of integrating technological change, economics, geopolitics
and environmental concerns into a coherent vision. This
conference brings together multi-disciplinary experts from
industry, academia and government, to rethink, reimagine and
recreate the energy ecosystem for the 21st century.
Colorado – A Leader in the Renewable Energy Industry
Colorado with abundant sunshine and vast wind resources has
been home to green technologies research and development
for over three decades. Colorado has set a target of producing
30%
of its energy from renewable resources by 2020.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the only
national laboratory solely dedicated to advancing renewable
energy and energy efficiency technologies from concept to
commercial application. For 35 years, NREL innovations,
analysis, and expertise have enabled the emergence of a
U.S. clean energy industry and led to numerous success
stories from across the laboratory. NREL’s 327-acre main
campus in Golden, Colorado, is a living model of sustainable
energy. The laboratory also operates the National Wind
Technology Center on 305 acres located 13 miles north of its
main campus.
Colorado has over 300 sunny days. For example, Denver
receives over 3000 hours of sunshine per year and ranks in
sixth place of major US cities; Phoenix, the top ranked major
city, receives 3800 hours of sunshine.  Colorado has two large
solar installations that generate 30 and 19 MW of electricity
respectively.  It is estimated that Colorado has the potential to
generate 83 million MWh/year of electricity from solar.
On behalf of the local IEEE Denver Section it is my great
pleasure to welcome you to the IEEE Green Technologies
Conference, to be held in Denver, Colorado, April 4-5, 2013.
We hope you enjoy your stay and that you will find this year’s
Green Technologies Conference informative, productive, and
most of all enjoyable.
Tim Weil
General Conference Chair