Green Buildings and Eco-cities

Theme: "Green Building Standards, Practices and Healthier Cities"

Our conference brings experts in measurement, design, building, operation and performance monitoring with managers from multiple levels of business and government to collaborate on the redesign, building and management of healthy, enjoyable, regenerative communities. We shall examine what has been accomplished in the city and province where we are meeting and compare it with developments in the Sino-Singapore Sustainable Industrial Park Tianjin Eco-city, the Canton retrofit for the Asian Games and with other comparable projects. We will explore the roles of standards, measurement and certification in different contexts and the roles of innovation where different ecosystems require different practices.

Session Chair:

• Dr. James Caldwell: President, E3 Regenesis Solutions Inc.

Moderator:

• Wang, Kris, Mayor of Cupertino, California

Panelists:

• Dr. James Caldwell, President, E3 Regenesis Solutions Inc
  A brief overview of standards in the US and China and their evolution to meet the needs of sustainable and regenerative development
  Co-author, Tim Xu, Scientist, International Energy Studies Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorie 

• Heller, Jeffrey, FAIA, President, Heller Manus Architects.
  Incorporating regionally relevant and green building practices into building and urban design. Selected projects in China and California will be compared.

• Wei, Qingpeng, PhD, Associate Professor, Building Energy Research Center (BERC), Tsinghua University, Beijing
  Can there be a truly Green Building or Eco-city without a Data-based approach?

• Lam, Khee Poh, PhD, Director, Energy Foundation, Professor Carnegie Mellon University
  The Art and Science of Eco-Design: Lessons from the Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-City

• Qiang Xu, Shanghai Research Institute of Building Science (Group) Co. LTD
  The Application and Development of Green Building in China.
  The current challenges for construction in China and case studies of the benefits of green building and evaluation standards. 

• Xu, Peng, PhD, Principal Berkeley Research and Technologies Inc.
  Low carbon buildings in China, how low are they? The science and results of measuring emissions in rural and urban settings.

Smart Grid

Theme: "Smarter Grid, Better Cities"

Exhibiting different strengths of China and US Smart Grid City strategies, exploring win-win cooperation opportunities, and seeking solutions to municipal energy and environmental challenges.

The smart grid panel will focus on these opportunities and challenges, and make projections and recommendations about the future developments of the Smart Grid City, including:

• Efficient integration of the new energy resources -- solar, wind, battery, etc. 
• Demand response deployment with Smart meters 
• Distribution network optimization for planning and operation with microgrid 
• Reliability improvement and outage management for municipal power grid

Session Chairman:

• Dr. Robert Larson, President US-China Green Energy Council, Woodside Fund Founder

Moderator:

• Xiaofeng Zhang, Stephen Lee, US-China Green Energy Council

Panelists:

• Yixin Yu, Professor, Tianjin University, China, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering
  An Investigation into the drivers of smart City Grids in China
   
• Dr. Edward Cazalet, Vice President and Founder, Megawatt Storage Farms, Inc.
  Dynamic Pricing and Grid Storage for Integration of Renewables
   
• Dr. Chuck Wells, Chief Innovation Officer, Center of Excellence, OSI-soft Inc
  Citywide Solar Microgrids in China
   
• Dr. Zhaoguang Hu, Vice president, State Grid Energy Research Institute (SGERI)
  Low-Carbon Electricity and Demand Side Management in Smart Grids
   
• Dr. Stephen Lee, US-China Green Energy Council board member
  Benefits of Distribution Grid Monitoring in a Smart Grid Architecture
   
• Dr. Oliver Yu, President and CEO, The STARS Group; US-China Green Energy Council
  Smart Grid, a Taiwan Perspective
   
• Xiaofeng Zhang, Vice President, US-China Green Energy Council
  The Utility of the Future: Smart Grid City Development

An Eco-Smart City - Langfang

The Langfang Eco-Smart City is a team effort led by the CW Group and HOK, with support from Woods Bagot.

• The CW Group, led by Carolina Woo, is a consulting firm focused on sustainable strategies for urban real estate development, planning, and design. Ms. Woo has a breadth of experience leading successful large-scale planning and design projects, including London's Canary Wharf, Shanghai's Xintiandi and Jinmao Tower, and San Francisco Airport's International Terminal.
• HOK is one of the world's largest architectural practices, with a comprehensive set of core competencies, including master planning and urban design. HOK's global community of design thinkers has been galvanized by the increasingly urgent need to envision a sustainable planet while satisfying a diverse spectrum of human activities.
• Woods Bagot's global studio draws on its experience and research to create unique sustainable design responses in the areas of architecture, consulting, interior design, and urban design.  Woods Bagot's work and clients benefit from both its international expertise and support by local studios that understand the regional cultural context.

Moderator:

• Carolina Woo, CEO, CW Group

Panelists:

• Shuangsheng Xiao, Vice Mayor of Langfang City, Hebei Province
• Steven Townsend, Senior Vice President and Asia Pacific Regional Director, HOK
• Janine Benyus, Principal, Biomimicry Guild
• Shihong Zhao, Party Secretary of Langfang City, Hebei Province
• Patrick Daly, Asia Design Director, Woods Bagot

Transportation Panel

Theme: "Electric Vehicles — Electric Vehicles"

This panel will examine whether culturally-different EV use models will result in adoption of similar or different EV technologies between the US and China, It will also explore the subsequent impacts on the development and evolution of key EV components in each market.

The contrast between electric vehicle (EV) use and early adoption in the US and China shows that these consumers are very different. In the US, purchases of hybrid electric cars are growing at double digit rates; in China, early hybrid car adoption was rejected but the conversions from fossil-fueled motor scooters and “mopeds” are now in the tens of millions. Chinese municipalities are eager to adopt low emission buses, electric or hybrid, for their commuter transit fleets.

In 2009. China’s central government put emphasis on developing electric vehicle technologies and assigned a production quota. This resulted in a ground swell of development activity in the commercial sector -- from low speed all electric cargo trucks and vans to sleek hybrid sedans. Municipal and provincial governments in China are keenly interested in hosting profitable EV enterprises, and many have established incentives.

In February of the same year, the Obama administration successfully led Congress in the passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan, including nearly US$800 billion to incentivize clean technologies (including electric vehicle technologies). This was immediately followed by the 11th US Congress introducing the American Clean Energy & Security Act” (also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill). It was sent to the Senate by a very, very small (7 votes) margin, and has languished there since.

These contrasting differences in leadership between the two countries partly reflect past consumer preferences and partly reflect government leadership differences. Thus we see these contrasts in consumer behavior:

• U.S. suburban commuters want a car with 300 mile range, and 5 minute re-fueling.
• Chinese city dwellers want to ride comfortably in low noise, low emission public transportation.
• What are the implications on system-level design? On supporting infrastructure?
• What will the electric vehicle landscape look like in China and the USA in three years?

Moderators:

• Cliff Nakayama, Mostwell, CEO
• Jin Yi, Keystone Venture Capital

Panelists:

• Rich Cantwell, Board of Director, Design Line
   
• Michael Wang, CEO, Global Super Power
  Advantages of Single cell large-capacity solid Lithium polymer batteries in the Commercialization of Electric Vehicles (EV)
   
• Michael F. Donoughe, CEO, SinoEV Technologies Corp
   
• Zicong Xie, Potevio-CNOOC New Energy Dynamic Corp
  Intro to the Business Model for Chinese Electric Vehicles: Infrastructure and Strategic Plan

Solar Panel

Theme: "The Value Chain of the Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Industry"

Solar is a cornerstone of renewable energy. The value chain of the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry covers the R&D, manufacturing, sales, and service of silicon materials, wafers, cells, modules, and systems. We invite different players in this value chain to discuss, together, how we can drive down the cost and thus improve the accessibility of renewable energy.

Moderator:

• Dr. Mike Zhang, Corporate VP, Tianwei New Energy

Panelists:

• Simon Zhang, VP of Alliance, BP Solar
• Scott Paul, President & CEO, Hoku Corporation
• David Fann, CEO, Solar Energy Initiatives
• Jue Wang, Insurer, Sinosure

Investment Panel

Theme: "How do Top VCs Position their Next Home Runs?"

The purpose of this panel is to present how top VCs look at the investment landscape and their lessons learned investing in this area. Each speaker will focus on a specific area of expertise (smart grid, solar, biomass/renewables, green IT, transportation, etc) and share their insights on how they position their next home runs.

Moderators:

• Chuck Ng, Managing Director, Suma Ventures
• Dr. Hing Wong, Managing Director, Walden International

Panelists:

• Dr. James Zhang, Entrepreneur in Residence, Khosla Ventures
• Sandy Chau, Managing Director Acorn Campus, Founder Suma Venture
• Gordon Cheng, Partner, ON Capital
• Shelley Zhuang, Vice President for Investments, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, China
• Shirley Chen, CEO and Managing Director, CICC Private Equity
• Yimin Zimmerer, Managing director of Walden International