Proceedings - Biomass South 2008
Larry Shirley, Director, State Energy Office
Larry Shirley serves as the Director of the State Energy Office in the NC Department of Administration. In this capacity, he manages the energy efficiency, energy emergency, alternative fuels and renewable energy programs for the State of North Carolina. The State Energy Office funds and oversees more than 50 projects serving the industrial, commercial, local and state government, transportation, and residential sectors. In response to the state’s budget crisis, the State Energy Office began a comprehensive initiative to reduce energy use in state facilities and public universities in 2002, entitled the Utility Savings Initiative for State Facilities. Energy Savings attributable to this program exceeded $122 million in 2007, the year that the State Energy Office was awarded the Regional Innovation Award by the Council of State Governments. Previously, Mr. Shirley served for 13 years as the Executive Director of the NC Solar Center at NC State University, as the Assistant Director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, as the director and founder of the Nonprofit Energy Management Program for the Advanced Energy Corporation, and as the Director of Field Operations for the Center for Renewable Resources in Washington, DC. Mr. Shirley is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Charting A Course for Biomass - North Carolina Perspective
Mr. Shirley will give a vision for the accelerated development of biomass resources in the region. North Carolina's plan and vision will serve as a model for regional development.
Notes:
- Gas shortages, we are very dependent on only a few fuel sources and susceptible to hurricanes
- NC biomass council created resulting in bio roadmap
- NC policy/incentives to push forward
- Greenhouse > methane gas energy exchange
- Mapping state biomass to know resources: animal, wood, ag, landfill
- Identify and deploy what crops will work here in NC
- We need to educate ourselves
- Take advantage of the opportunity
Key Quotes
- "We are the middle east of biomass."
- "But it's economic development, creation of jobs...that is going to sell this."
Thanks to Sarah Ashton, Rachel Cook, Lindsey Hannum, James Jeuck, Liwei Lin, James McCarter, Susan McIntyre, and Mark Megalos for providing notes and summaries for presentations.
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