Abstracts Are Due Monday for Renewable Energy Markets 2013

June 25, 2013 /3BL Media/ - The REM 2013 Call for Abstracts ends in 10 days. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a panel or an individual presentation, please review the Call for Abstracts page for guidelines. Please forward this announcement to colleagues and clients that you think would be interested in speaking at the conference.

  We're looking for dynamic, engaging speakers with a compelling story to tell. In order to maximize useful information and informed exchange, we'd like presentations to be 10 to 12 minutes, featuring new data or ideas, considered exposition of important issues, and perhaps most importantly, insights into where renewable energy markets are headed. Abstracts are due no later than Monday, July 1, 2013 at 5:00 pm PT. Here is the current list of topics we're looking for proposals for:   Purchasers What buyers need and how they obtain it.  Case studies of internal/external messaging and how to communicate your environmental commitment to customers of your products and services.   Making the Business Case for Green Power Why green power makes sense for businesses.  What messages work to move the decision to purchase into the right hands.   Green Marketing: Business Perspectives Examples of businesses leveraging their green power purchases to sell more of their own products.  Hear success stories.  Employee engagement and internal marketing; marketing and promoting your purchase within your organization.   Purchaser Spotlight High-level purchasers share their experiences and reasons for purchasing renewable energy.   GHG Accounting for Voluntary Renewable Energy Purchases This session will provide an overview of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting policies and practices for renewable energy and REC purchases as a part of a corporate GHG inventory. The best practices, guidelines, and policies of several prominent organizations and reporting systems will be discussed and compared, in terms of accounting methods and eligibility rules. Participants will leave with an appreciation of the evolution of thought on GHG accounting for voluntary renewable energy purchases and an understanding of how different guidance and reporting systems reflect the GHG benefits of purchasing renewable energy.   On-site Renewable Energy, RECs, or Bundled Electricity Products: What Has the Most Value for Purchasers?   Case studies on companies that choose to install renewable energy on-site versus those that choose to purchase RECs, or buy through a utility or competitive electricity supplier.  An exploration of messaging and customer perceptions.   International Voluntary Renewable Energy Buyers and Markets How to maintain voluntary renewable energy purchase integrity in different markets.  A focus on global corporations that purchase renewable energy, and the claims they make about their purchases.   Innovative Financing Strategies for Renewable Energy Purchasers New ways to fund your renewable energy purchases.  Companies that use an internal carbon tax on departments.  Using energy efficiency savings, green revolving funds, tax issues, and more.   All Hat, No Cattle—The Importance of Substantiating Claims Lessons from a Leader: an in-depth interview with a top green power purchaser, addressing the federal trade commission, 2nd Party certification, self-certification       Electricity Products Focus on case studies of successful marketing efforts for green pricing programs, competitive electricity suppliers, utility outreach and clean resource procurement.  Identifying the interactions between compliance programs (e.g., RPS/efficiency mandates with voluntary programs).   Maintaining and Growing Green Power Programs  How to go beyond the basics to market, build and maintain a successful green power program.      Utility Roundtable: Lessons Learned  Discussion with a panel of experts about different situations utilities face.  Procurement issues and lessons learned.  Using specific renewable resources for both RPS and voluntary programs. Renewables for ratepayers versus green pricing programs.     Commercial and Industrial Opportunities How to use commercial and industrial customer data to increase participation in green power programs.   Designing Utility Programs Considerations and comparisons between program designs.  REC-based programs versus bundled electricity programs.  Co-benefits and costs for sourcing from local projects or investing in less-prevalent resources like solar. Working with commercial customers on long-term contracts and price structures.       Market Growth Opportunities Tapping in to new avenues for renewable energy sales, such as LEED requirements and community initiatives.   Green Buildings and Renewable Energy Updates to LEED’s green power point and green building market growth opportunities.  Motivating tenants and building decision makers.   Federal Purchases of Renewable Energy Market growth opportunities resulting from Executive Order 13514, requiring an increase in federal agency renewable energy use.  Perspectives and guidance from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and the General Services Administration (GSA).   Deepening Market Penetration with Green Power Communities & Strategic Alliances Facilitating strategic partnerships between cities/municipalities, large institutional energy users and multiple green power suppliers. Green Power Communities as a platform for increasing renewables in both large and small communities.   Communities: Building Renewable Energy from the Ground Up Strategies and case studies for communities that are interested in green power. Procurement strategies, community choice aggregation (CCA), crowdfunded programs, partnerships with utilities, and reverse auctions.   Higher Education Roundtable  Hear from public- and private-schools and a variety of solutions; RECs, on-site, long-term contracts, and more.  More than 675 schools have climate-neutrality commitments, but many schools remain reluctant to enter the green power markets.  But as forever institutions, schools are uniquely positioned to make long-term commitments to renewable energy.  How the supply side can better understand schools’ needs in terms of products and procurement, and how schools can better understand the market opportunities and offerings.  This session will highlight best practices and needs gaps and identify opportunities to close gaps and bring new participants into the market.  How the market can more quickly respond to this opportunity of aggregate demand.   Community Solar: Opportunities and Barriers Emerging models for community-based shared solar programs.  Success stories, financing issues, claims, marketing, and innovations.       Policy and Legal Issues Focus on how regulatory policy and pending legislation at state and federal levels will influence direction and growth of markets and investments.  Legal issues impacting markets.   The Intersection of Renewable Fuel Credits and RECs Discussions on how renewable generators might be eligible to receive RINs under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Impacts in the renewable energy industry. Lessons learned in the RECs market that can be applied to the emerging market for RINs.   Long-term Commitments to Renewables How can the industry shift to a more sustainable model of long-term contracts and commitments?   Green Power Policy Updates and Developments Policy updates that affect the voluntary renewable energy market. Learn the latest on GHG Accounting guidelines, biomass eligibility for green power, the Dodd Frank act, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).   The Outlook for Biomass in Electricity Generation New studies on the carbon impact of biomass generation and changes to state RPS eligibility present an uncertain outlook for biomass as a fuel source.  The role of sustainability, life cycle analysis, carbon balancing and new technologies in waste-to-energy generation.   New Legal and Financing Issues Tax incentives and exemptions.  Master limited partnerships and real estate investment trusts as sources of financing for new projects.   Influencing Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Changes Evolving rules impact compliance and voluntary markets.  What happens when a state RPS changes? How to get involved and influence decision makers. What strategies work for engaging PUCs?                         Marketing New information about market trends, customer perceptions of clean energy, sustainability and climate change strategies.  Best practices for marketing and messaging to increase sales.   Green Marketing: Customer Trends and Profiles An overview of today's green power customers.  Trends on consumer perceptions of renewable energy and climate change.   Behavior, Environmental Decision-making, and Communicating Climate Change How to talk to consumers about renewable energy and climate change.  Consumer perceptions of climate change.  How to message, who our target audiences are and how they think about some of these issues. The impact of social norms and neighbor comparisons to motivate change in consumer behavior and purchasing power. Behavioral science and research on influencing change and sustainability.   Marketing Renewable Energy to Mainstream Americans  How green power marketing can scale up to entice consumers.  Messaging that works when engaging the traditional consumer.  Best practices for bringing renewable energy to consumers through the products they purchase and activities they participate in with leaders in the green marketing space.   Marketing Energy Efficiency with Renewable Energy Overlaps, connections, and challenges in marketing energy efficiency with renewable energy.  Opportunities and messaging strategies.   Marketing Utility Programs and Electricity Products: What works? Best practices for marketing.  How often should you contact potential customers?  What messages work for different demographics and regions?   Outside the Environmental Box: Messaging and Partnerships Messaging and partnerships related to renewable energy and public health, energy security, jobs, social justice, and more.       Markets and Trading Regional market spotlights. New platforms and practices, exchanges, auctions, brokerages and tracking systems.   Regional Market Spotlight: Texas Policy, pricing, and financing issues.  An overview of market trends, drivers, barriers, and impacts.  Case studies on sourcing and supply, competitive electricity suppliers, as well as wholesale and broker issues.   Regional Market Spotlight: West Coast California is leading the country with AB32 and an aggressive RPS. Markets for carbon and renewables in California and the west coast.  Linking California’s cap and trade program with Quebec.  Emerging feed-in tariff programs.   Natural Gas vs. Renewables: Competition and Synergies Impacts of natural gas pricing on renewables.  Competing resources and pricing on the grid, strategies for the future, and hedging.   Tracking System Forum The use of certificate tracking systems has greatly increased in recent years as compliance markets ramp up and as more RECs are transacted in voluntary markets.  A discussion on current hot topics for tracking systems.   Compliance Market Outlook Compliance markets are an important driver of renewable energy, and many companies participate in more than one market. An overview of state, regional, federal, and global markets for renewable energy.   Market Outlook Across Technologies The rate of development and deployment for different renewable resources varies widely. Hear from experts on the current state and outlook for wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, biomass across North America.  Opportunities, barriers, and projections.    Conference Highlights   Join Our Group Let everyone know you're going to REM 2013 by joining the Renewable Energy Markets Conference LinkedIn group. It's also a good way to stay current with program updates and new events that are being added all the time to the agenda. REM 2013: always in motion.   Sponsorship Opportunities Position yourself as a renewable energy leader while promoting your corporate social and environmental initiatives by becoming a Renewable Energy Markets sponsor. Download the REM 2013 Sponsorship Guide for details.   Early Bird Ends July 29th. With just over a month left to take advantage of Early Bird rates, time is running out to save nearly 40% off the day-of rate. Visit renewableenergymarkets.com/register to register today.    Keynote Speaker Jon Wellinghoff. We are pleased to announce that Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), will be our keynote speaker on Monday, September 23, 2013. First appointed as a Commissioner to FERC in 2006, Chairman Wellinghoff is an energy law attorney with 37 years experience in regulatory, consumer and commercial law. Since being appointed Chairman, he created FERC's Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, which is responsible for investigating and promoting new energy-efficiency technologies and practices.    For additional information on Renewable Energy Markets 2013 see www.renewableenergymarkets.com.       Conference Contact please contact Beatriz Gómez at 415-561-2103 or beatriz@resource-solutions.org with questions about the conference or sponsorship information.   About Renewable Energy Markets 2013 For nearly 20 years, the annual Renewable Energy Markets (REM) conference has been the leading forum for the clean energy and carbon marketplace. Attracting participants from around the globe who share an interest in and commitment to promoting clean energy, REM remains the only conference of its kind focusing on national and international markets for renewable energy. Organized by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions and co-sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this annual meeting of clean energy and carbon-market stakeholders, including generators, marketers, utility representatives, purchasers, policymakers, and regional stakeholders, sets the agenda for the year to come. This year's conference will be held in Austin, TX from September 22–24, 2013