Office of the Chancellor > Speeches, Columns and Letters > Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory Signing Ceremony

Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory Signing Ceremony
February 20, 2007

I, too, would like to pledge my support and that of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s faculty staff and students to this effort.

As a Mechanical Engineer, whose first job was in the design of coal fired steam generated Power Plants, I fully understand the challenges we as a state and nation face with respect to the transition to sustainable and renewable energy sources.

This Collaboratory presents a unique opportunity for the three research universities in Colorado and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to join forces and share resources in a way that will ensure that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

It is an opportunity that can thrust Colorado into a national leadership position in this arena. This is true not only in terms of the external funding opportunities it will present, but also in terms of the technologies that can and will be developed.

The renewable energy technologies that will be studied and developed by the members of this Collaboratory offer tremendous promise in confronting some of today’s most pressing issues: national security, global warming, and economic competitiveness. With our key strengths in the sciences and engineering as well as social-economic policy and business, all of us here at the University of Colorado at Boulder are anxious to work with our Collaboratory partners to address these challenges.

While the Collaboratory is officially forming today, its member institutions have already initiated major research projects in the areas of Biofuels and Biorefining, Revolutionary Solar Photochemistry, and Facilities for Acceleration of Solar Technologies.

Through its Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, CU-Boulder has established a program known as TEAM—Transforming Energy and Markets. The role of TEAM is to facilitate collaborations among our universities and the private sector to streamline the path to market for clean energy innovation.

Yesterday, the Collaboratory had its first official event on the CU Campus. Dr. Herman Scheer, a member of the German Parliament and President of EUROSOLAR (the European Association for Renewable Energy) gave a presentation on the economic, social, and technological case for renewable energy towards securing energy autonomy.

Tomorrow, CU-Boulder's Environmental Center is hosting the 2007 Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit. By sharing success stories, networking, and exploring opportunities for collaboration, the Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit will help students, faculty, staff, administrators, community members and state leaders replicate past successes and innovate new programs to make the region’s colleges and universities national leaders in campus sustainability.

We look forward to working with our partners and moving our state and our nation towards energy independence through the use of renewable and sustainable energy sources.

Thank you and thanks to all of those that helped to make this Collaboratory a reality.