In the era of accelerating climate change and the clear reality that we are at a critical stage of the energy transition globally, the development and deployment of sustainable low carbon energy solutions is front and center. This energy transition will demand affordable, reliable and sustainable energy to address global energy poverty and fuel economic growth. This emerging energy transition therefore demands a lower carbon future, and underpinning the transition is the reality that affordable and cost competitive options are essential to sustainability.

The convergence of advancing science and engineering focusing on issues of energy and sustainability including carbon management, renewable energy including alternate fuels such as hydrogen and energy storage are crucial to drive the energy transition. Moreover, developing the capabilities and competencies of the workforce and the tools that will enable this transition. These include big data analytics, the integration of real-time artificial intelligence and machine learning with virtual and augmented reality to advance decision-making, and advanced technologies that offer significant opportunity that address the decarbonization of the energy resources and improve the air, water and land environment. These technological and workforce assets must be complemented by aligning regulatory policy, public policy and business policy to improve and enhance the rapid adoption of such a sustainable energy paradigm.

1. National Petroleum Council: Meeting the Dual Challenge A Roadmap to At-Scale Deployment of Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage, (2019)
2. Deployment of Deep Decarbonization Technologies: Proceeding of a Workshop, (2019)
3. National Research Council. 2015. Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press
4. The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, (2017)
5. The New Plastics Economy: Catalysing Action, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, (2017)
6. The Future of Hydrogen, IEA, Paris, (2019)
7. The Role of Hydrogen in the De-carbonization of the Energy Industry, UH Energy White Paper Series, (2019)
8. Managing the Carbon Challenge for the Energy Sector, UH Energy White Paper Series, (2018)

The key deliverables Advancement of roadmaps and guiding documents for the engagement and rapid deployment of socially conscious and commercially viable, affordable, reliable and sustainable energy across commercial and consumer spheres.

An active and engaged innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem for a low carbon energy paradigm that will serve as a model for nationwide deployment is envisaged. The engagement with a broad group of engaged and active stakeholders across the value chain in the sustainable energy development sphere will result in the advancement of road-maps for the engagement and rapid deployment and advancement of such paradigms in the energy capital of the world. Specifically, we anticipate the development of roadmaps as well as guiding documents such as best practices for the rapid but socially and commercially conscious advancement of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy across both commercial and consumer spheres. Further, the development of an active and engaged innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem finely tuned to the advancements in science, technology, policy and commercialization of a low carbon energy paradigm that will serve as a model for nationwide deployment is envisaged. These roadmaps and ecosystem creation should lead to technology advancement that can be brought to market through various mechanisms including startup development, funding and scale.

We propose to bring leaders from the UH Law Center, specifically faculty associated with the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources center, to provide regulatory insights that can be key enablers to the advancement of sustainable solutions. Additionally, UH has a recently formed Hobby School for Public Policy, where under the leadership of Dean Kirk Watson, the school has a significant strength in the area of energy and environment focused public policy.

Advancing business and economic approaches to energy and sustainability solutions is crucial and UH has a leading effort through the Gutierrez Energy Management Institute. Moreover, UH is also uniquely placed regarding the integration and advancement of student-based entrepreneurship with the nation’s top ranked undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship.

Lastly the convergence of advancing technological solutions and their interface with people drives or stalls much of the innovation in the areas of energy and sustainability. UH has an outstanding group of experts in the area of industrial psychology and their focus has been centered on the human – machine interface.

The meeting program is likely to be organized through a three-part facilitated interaction with industry, NGO and academic leaders in the areas of low carbon energy innovation with a focus on understanding the opportunities, barriers and possible breakthrough issues to advance convergence acceleration of research in the areas of sustainable low carbon energy solutions. The process will follow the design – thinking approach and be structured to ensure maximum value addition with an outstanding group of subject matter experts.

The first step will identify common baseline understanding and development of scenarios to provide a common understanding of the challenges, the opportunity and challenge space and the possible pathways as identified by subject matter experts and with challenge and validation by stakeholders. As a second step, the experts will be asked to take on alternate personas and reasonably dissect the conclusions developed in the first phase, identify key gaps, group thinking and challenge based on tail-ends of scenarios identified in the first phase. A revised set of opportunities and challenges will be developed and reverted to subject matter experts to contest and design new methods / approaches to advance the field.

The output will be a short white paper outlining the opportunity, challenges and key gaps that must be addressed through an activation and acceleration phase of converged scientific and technological solutions across a broad spectrum of sustainable, decarbonized energy solutions.