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MIT Energy Finance Forum: Spotlighting the trade-off between risk and reward

Cambridge, Mass., October 19, 2011 — The necessity to go deeper and further for oil, the controversies surrounding shale gas extraction, the future of nuclear power in a post-Fukushima world, and the fate of renewable energy in the face of political uncertainty—this year’s MIT Energy Finance Forum will explore these and other tensions in the energy space on Friday, November 18 at the MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street in Cambridge, MA: http://mitenergyfinanceforum.org

Now in its second year, this student-organized forum will gather industry professionals, senior business executives, academics, and graduate students from the area’s leading business schools for panel discussions and networking opportunities.

Slated keynote speaker is Ray A. Rothrock, managing general partner of pioneering venture capital firm Venrock. Panelists and moderators will include:

• Rob Day, Partner, Black Coral Capital
• Tyler Ellis, Nuclear Project Manager, TerraPower
• Michael Granoff, head of oil independence policies for Better Place; founder of Maniv Energy Capital
• Bob Inglis, former U.S. Congressman
• Paul Lorenzini, Chief Executive Officer, NuScale Power
• Harvey Michaels, Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative
• Christopher Noble, Energy Technology Licensing Officer, MIT
• Matthew Nordan, Vice President, Venrock
• John Parsons, Executive Director, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research; Financial Economist at MIT Sloan specializing in risk management, corporate finance and valuation
• Bob Percopo, Executive Vice President, Project Finance Advisory Services
• Elise Zoli, Partner, Goodwin Proctor

Panel discussions will explore the following:

• Energy efficiency: Can new financing structures scale-up energy efficiency?
• Electric vehicles versus biofuels: What’s the fuel of the future?
• Oil and gas: Regulation versus investment
• Nuclear energy: What is the future for nuclear power in a post-Fukushima era?
• The buck starts here: Venture capital’s role in scaling energy innovation
• The role of DR and renewable power in electricity markets
• Tech commercialization: Surviving the valley of death
• Renewables: Exploring the underlying factors driving investment decisions and key policy mechanisms that will direct capital into renewables sectors

“The MIT Energy Finance Forum puts President Susan Hockfield’s vision of the MIT energy initiative into action by uniting leaders in energy from both industry and academia to discuss pressing issues and emerging opportunities,” says Bernhard Stohr, MIT Sloan MBA ’12 and an Energy Forum organizer.

For more information or to register for the conference, please visit: http://mitenergyfinanceforum.org

Founded in 2004, the MIT Energy Club is a student-run organization deeply grounded into MIT’s tradition of interdisciplinary work in order to create and integrate a well-educated MIT energy community across campus through events and initiatives focused on fact-based energy analysis.