Nearly 300 people from 24 states and three countries attended the Biomass-South2008 Conference, held September 21-23 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Attendees included two state legislators from Maryland and Georgia and US Congressman Bob Etheridge of North Carolina who addressed landowners at a breakfast and them spoke to the entire conference as a keynote speaker. The conference was held at the new Raleigh Convention Center located in downtown Raleigh.
Biomass South 2008 started with a combined vision of the two principal sponsors, the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) and the National Association of State Energy Officials, who provided funding to the North Carolina State Energy Office to host a south-wide conference on biomass-based energy, products, and fuels by the end of FY 2008. Larry Shirley, Director of the State Energy Office, met with partners at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in the College of Natural Resources (CNR), College of Engineering, and NC Solar Center to develop this regional conference. The goal of the conference was promoting sustainable biomass feedstocks within the Southeast. The specific conference objectives were to:
The Extension Forestry group in the College of Natural Resources and the NC Solar Center facilitated the conference and the CNR Forestry and Environmental Outreach Program agreed to handle logistics, advertising, registration, and post-conference proceedings within the timeframe mandated by the funding entities. The conference steering committee was expanded to include the Southern Growth Policies Board (SGPB), Southeast Agriculture and Forestry Energy Alliance (SAFER), Mississippi State University, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and faculty in the NCSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to develop an agenda, recruit speakers, enlist exhibitors, and solicit input from industry leaders. The Biomass Roadmap meeting was coordinated and hosted by SGPB and SAFER. Southern Bioenergy Working Group meetings for germplasm development, transportation and logistics, and bioenergy pilot plants were coordinated and hosted by the Southern Technology Council of SGPB. A landowner breakfast was funded and hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Supplemental funding and support was received from the Southern Forestry Research Partnership, Southern Regional Extension Forestry, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Fibrowatt, Memphis Bioworks, the 25 X ’25 Alliance, and the USDA Cooperative States Research, Education, and Extension Service. The conference spawned related meetings held during the conference including a Dean’s Briefing on Biomass Research by the office of the NCSU Dean of the College of Natural Resources.
The conference was kicked off and wrapped up by Larry Shirley, Director of the North Carolina State Energy Office who energetically gave optimistic views of the potential for biomass-based industries and challenged all attendees to partner for success. The conference was well attended, discussion was rich, new alliances were formed, and most attendees left feeling their time was well spent. The steering committee is appreciative of all who took their time to attend and participate during one of the most troubling economic times in recent years. The steering committee is tentatively planning a follow-on meeting in 2010 – Biomass South 2010.
Thanks to Sarah Ashton, Rachel Cook, Lindsey Hannum, James Jeuck, Liwei Lin, Dr. James McCarter, Susan McIntyre, and Dr. Mark Megalos for providing notes and summaries for presentations. Note takers were instructed to capture elements of the presentations that were not obvious from the slides presented, including comments and quotes from the speakers. Where necessary notes from multiple sources have been combined.
Special thanks to Dr. Kim Tungate of the NC Solar Center for coordinating steering committee activities, Kelley McCarter and Susan Moore for handling logistics and registration, and to Dr. James McCarter for assembling proceedings. John Bonitz of the Southern Allicnce for Clean Energy worked closely with Kim and other members of the steering committee to arrange for speakers, coordinate agenda development, and arrange field tours and did an outstanding job. Additional thanks to Charity Pennock for organizing and coordinating the Roadmap exercise, Scott Doron for organizing and coordinating the Southern Bioenergy Working Groups, Ben Larson and John Bonitz for organizing and hosting the landowner breakfast. They were assisted by Stephen Whitfield and Rick Hamilton of NCWoodlands – a landowner organization. Thanks to Dr. Liam Leightley of Mississippi State University for working from a distance as part of the steering committee.
Dennis Hazel (dennis_hazel@ncsu.edu)
Mark Megalos (mark.megalos@ncsu.edu)
Extension Forestry
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources
College of Natural Resources
North Carolina State University
The Southeast Biomass State & Regional Partnership (SEBRSP) is administered by the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) for the U.S. Department of Energy. Funding from SEBRSP for this project was provided to North Carolina State University Forestry and Environmental Outreach Program under subgrant number SEBSRP-SSEB-2008-NCSU-FEOP-001.
The digital proceedings of the Biomass-South2008 Conference include general and technical presentations. Submission of presentations is at the discretion of the presenters. Presentations are included as submitted; they are neither reviewed nor edited. Any unauthorized alteration, reprint, or other use of presentation files, beyond reference to Biomass-South2008 Conference is considered a copyright violation.
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