Summer of 2010

2010 Green Energy Conference in Aruba

Website for this conference is www.greenaruba.org

At the invitation of the Prime Minister of Aruba,
I was asked to speak at the conference.

The official announcement was made during a video conference
between Aruba, Netherlands and NASA GSFC on August 11, 2010.
24ora.com article. Archived.

Here, Mike de Meza, the Minister of Finances introduced the participants.
The Netherlands University TU Delft showed their electric cars.
Above and below photo:Rosalie Klein.

Audio of kickoff introduction (Quicktime plug-in).

The Prime Minister, Mike Eman, was the emcee for the kickoff.
He has always been a big endorser of alternative energy.
Aruba, with its high energy costs, steady sunshine,
constant wind, and big waves is a good site.
Article #1 on 24ora.com.
Article #2 on 24ora.com.

Front page of The Morning News. Archived.

Aruba.com article.

Media Advisory on the Kingdom of Netherlands site.

Arrival in Aruba (24ora.com)

The conference opened on the 29th of September 2010 by Minister Mike deMesa and Prime Minister Mike Eman. Former Vice-President Al Gore gave the keynote address that evening. His movie and book "An inconvenient truth" was a good way to understand one of the impacts of carbon unfettered release of carbon into the atmosphere.

Fmr Vice President Al Gore gave the keynote
address (photo credit diario.aw).

I met the Vice-President and he signed our copy of his book for me.
Photo by Paul van Driel.

Three minute excerpt from Mr. Gore's speech. Note that the
research center he mentioned in his speech became a reality
in 2011.

I spoke on the next day during the technical sessions.

The talk was well attended with about 200 persons. I was glad to hear
afterwards it was well received.

9/30 Morning News article on the conference (archived).

10/2 Morning News article (archived).

Article on www.ttkn.com

Unfortunately, I could only stay two days due to WPI awarding me the Robert Goddard Award. However, I did enjoy the technical sessions, and two technologies that I found noteworthy were the Deep Sea Air Conditioning, and the Wave Turbine. The former uses cold sea water to greatly reduce the power needed for cooling buildings, and the latter can use current or tide to generate power.

I left the conference optimistic that we could form the vision that the Prime Minister expressed of making Aruba known as the regional or world-wide leader in green energy. The ten wind mills at Vader Piet already produce 20% of the island's power, and he announced plans to double that in the coming years.

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