What has the Energy Club been up to lately? With a record 230 members in 2009/2010 (up 53 percent), the year has been a busy one. If you’re having trouble keeping up, visit this page often and stay updated on the club’s latest exploits from the 2010 school year.
Bay Area Trek
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Six Wharton MBA second-year students, two first-year Wharton MBA students, one exchange student from London Business School, one Wharton West EMBA student (total = 10) headed to the Bay Area over the school’s winter break to learn a bit about the energy sector and the future of renewables. The group visited Pacific Gas & Electricity, NextLight Renewable Power, BP Wind, Recurrent Energy, Chevron Energy Solutions, Virgin Green Fund, Nanosolar, Applied Materials, and SunPower.
Topics discussed ran the gamut: electric vehicles, thin-film solar technology, and business models for manufacturing and developing solar power, plus the latest in what the Great Recession has wrought for the solar energy industry. Turns out, the economic downturn hasn’t been all bad: it has driven down the the cost of solar panels for both manufacturers and developers.
Lastly, the trip capped off in true Wharton style: Thursday night Pub, co-hosted with Wharton West.
– Russell Sprole
NYC Energy Trek
The Wharton Energy Conference
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — An undeniable success, this year’s Oct. 30 conference featured speakers and panelists from nearly every industry and functional role. And whether the topic was project development, the electric grid, or energy investing, the role of government was not far behind — a perfect forum for former Secretary of Energy Federico F. Peña. Michael Allman, CEO of Sempra Generation, and H. Jeffrey Leonard, president of Global Environment Fund, were also featured speakers.
The conference hosted more than 400 participants total, twice as many as last year. Sixty percent of those who attended were professionals, and the students traveled from all across North America, representing HEC Montreal, the University of Alberta, Yale, Cornell, Georgetown, George Washington University, NYU, Columbia, John Hopkins, the University of Maryland, Dartmouth, and the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.
Smita Jain, Noah Kaye, and Ghazal Badiozamani, (above) were conference chairs, and had the help of a team of 27 first and second year Wharton students.
Houston Energy Trek
HOUSTON, TEXAS — Seven Wharton students made their way down to Houston, Texas, to visit the home of big oil over the Nov. 13 weekend. The team met with Conoco Phillips’s chief economist Marianne Kah, who dove deep into the dynamics of oil/gas supply and demand, and gave her prediction for the economy (a potential dip in the second half of 2010 after stimulus funds run dry). The trek also visited Royal Dutch Shell, Cameron, and National Oilwell Varco, where they discussed the shortage of MBAs and young talent in the energy sector. And, don’t forget, no trip to Texas is complete without country dancing (sorry, no pictures included).
Photo from Cameron manufacturing plant.
Trading Floor Visit to Exelon and PJM Interconnection
KENNETT SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA — On Friday, Nov. 6, several members of the Energy Club visited the Power Marketing division of Exelon at Exelon’s office in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The visit included an interactive tour of the Exelon trading floor — reminiscent of a traditional trading floor, but instead of stock indices, these screens reflected energy production in real time. Several traders discussed their specialities: One traded coal, while another who specialized in eliminating risk spoke about the potential of renewable energy like wind. Exelon’s strategy is to establish a broad portfolio of power production, and its current portfolio includes America’s largest commercial nuclear fleet, and it is combined with fossil, hydro, wind, and renewable energy resources. Lastly, the club met with the senior leaders of the Power Team for an informal overview of their positions, followed by a Q&A.
After the visit to Exelon, the club drove to Valley Forge to meet with PJM Interconnection. PJM Interconnection is responsible for electricity transmission in 13 states and Washington, D.C. The PJM representatives explained how the PJM system works, and discussed transmission, problems with renewable generation assets, and energy politics. – Laura Moss, 2011
Industry Information Sessions
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — The energy club introduced an ambitious new education series at the beginning of the year, which included five lunchtime sessions, each featuring second-year experts from the solar, wind, nuclear, oil, biofuel, geothermal, and smart grid industries. A small sampling of industry knowledge:
Oil and Gas
* Oil production is growing fastest in the Middle East, and reserves are increasingly concentrated there
* Asia has overtaken America as the largest oil consumer
* Gas production growth is primarily driven by Europe/Russia; Iran and Qatar also have sizeable reserves which are beginning to be exploited
* Oil prices have been very volatile recently on the back of changing fundamentals, though geopolitics and speculation are important
* Gas prices and price drivers are highly variable between regions, but overall tend to track global oil prices
– Matias Fernandez Barrio, 2010
Geothermal
Geothermal is low-hanging fruit in the renewable energy space, and in some regions, it is economically feasible without subsidies.
There are two main ways to use geothermal:
* Geothermal loop for heating purposes: A fluid circulates through a closed loop below the surface. This loop extracts heat from earth. This heat can be used for heating purposes.
* Geothermal power generation: At places with geological abnormalities, the earth can be very hot near the surface. Underground water is heated by the earth and can be pumped to the surface. This water is warm enough to be used in a steam turbine cycle to generate power. An emerging technology aims to artificially engineer such a system, which would enable a wider use of geothermal energy.
Unused potential:
Identified traditional resources: 2,675 MWe
Unidentified traditional resources: 7,917 MWe
Resources accessible through enhanced geothermal systems: 345,100 MWe
Career opportunities:
Most career opportunities exist with Oil & Gas companies that are involved in geothermal energy. Other opportunities are present in dedicated developers, investors, and equipment manufacturers.
– Raphael Speck, 2010
Newsletter produced by Alison Go, 2011. Special thanks to Ghazal Badiozamani, Zachary Fenton, Matias Fernandez Barrio, Laura Moss, Jordan Roberts, Andrew Hines, Elle Seybold, and Raphael Speck.
