Science and solutions for the energy future

In Fall 2024, Mines brought together global energy thought leaders, decision makers and Mines faculty, alumni and students for the inaugural Global Energy Leaders Summit. The event explored ideas, solutions and actions while connecting the university’s science, engineering and data expertise with global conversations on the future of energy. 

We selected a few highlights from the Global Energy Leaders presentations:

Jared Polis
Colorado Governor

Polis outlined Colorado’s ambitious journey toward achieving 80 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent clean energy by 2040. He highlighted innovations in geothermal energy, carbon capture and hydrogen technologies, as well as Colorado’s leadership in clean tech employment and electric vehicle adoption.

“We’re proud to be one of the leading clean energy technology states. We’re fourth nationally in clean tech employment. Right now, we’re third in electric vehicle sales. Our utilities are going to be 80 percent emission-free by 2030. And, of course, we’re also leading the way from the policy side on the next iteration of the regulatory structures to empower and bring about that future.

“I know that our energy future is bright, powered, of course, in part by the critical work here at Colorado School of Mines, as well as by Colorado School of Mines alumni that are across the sector, both here in Colorado and nationally and internationally.”

Alice Jackson
Senior Vice President of Systems Strategy and Chief Planning Officer, Xcel Energy

Jackson shared insights on transforming the energy industry with a discussion on modernizing infrastructure, breaking down organizational silos and fostering a culture of innovation to achieve a zero-carbon energy system by 2050.

“My team inside Xcel Energy is known as integrated system planning. The reason we pulled it together was exactly because of infrastructure and the questions we have outstanding. Our world as a utility was simpler 20 years ago. […] But then about 20 years ago, some things started happening. Technology evolved. Things came forward. Customers started putting rooftop solar on, having batteries in their homes, having demand controllers in their homes, changing the way that they were consuming energy. Now we had people pushing things onto the system from the opposite direction that changed the dynamic in which our systems were operating, the loadings of our load curves, what those feeders were looking like, the power that needed to move through it, the integrity of it, how it was impacting volatility on the system. […] This industry, what we have built over all this time, is incredible. And what we are evolving to and figuring out and how to integrate is amazing.

“We have a remarkable opportunity to change the way that energy is not only consumed by people around the world, but to do it in a way that offers us the outcomes of prosperity and health. That is what we are tackling as our challenge. I am more than thrilled to work with every single person that I have on my team in order to help them see the path forward, solve the problems and find a solution that’s going to make a difference.

Timothy Coors ’01
Co-CEO, CoorsTek

Coors sat down with Mines President Paul C. Johnson to discuss CoorsTek’s leading advancements in material science and its critical role in energy innovation and Mines’ collaborative efforts in driving sustainable solutions for the future.

“There are things that traditional metals and plastics can’t do, so we’ve been really thinking about how do we get ceramics as a more common material that people are talking about? And you see it in industry as we’re iterating and developing, but it’s usually engineers who come to us and say, ‘We have this drawing, and we’ve been doing this in metals or plastics and it’s not working.’ So we have to work with them on redesigning, reiterating. Part of it is we’ve had more influx of people that understand ceramics and what ceramics can do from a material science side that they start off designing things with ceramics in mind. It’s not the right solution for everything, but if you at least have that as a tool in your tool belt, we feel that we can get faster to solving some of the very large, complex problems we’re having. We’ve worked with Mines over a number of years, and this is the second year that you have had a ceramics engineering program, but you have other courses built around materials science and ceramics is a key portion in that. We thank you for that and have enjoyed that partnership.”

Martin Keller
Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Keller discussed innovative strategies for achieving a clean, resilient and affordable energy future, including equitable energy transitions, and collaborations with Mines and global partners to address the pressing challenges of our time.

“As an applied laboratory, our goal really is to accelerate the energy transition and specifically do this in partnerships with universities like Mines but also with a lot of industrial partners in moving this forward. In 2023, we had more than 1,100 active partnerships from industry to universities to other federal agencies. This problem is bigger than one lab, bigger even than one state, bigger than one country.

“A very exciting opportunity we have in our country is the equitable energy transition. How do you do this so you bring everybody along in this transition? If you’re living in Beverly Hills in Hollywood, you probably have the money to buy a test line and a battery storage for your garage. But how do you do this in other areas? How do you do this in rural America? How do you make sure that our core communities are making this transition?

“And how can we do this so that everybody benefits from this transition? If not everybody profits from this transition, we will not be successful. […] The problem that we’ve seen is that a lot of people right now want to make this transition, but they don’t have the resources and the knowledge to do this. The don’t have the expert inside their environment to help guide them through this transition. This is why equitable projects are so important.”

*Quotes have been edited for length and clarity

Learn more about the Global Energy Leaders Summit and watch the recorded presentations at mines.edu/global-energy-leaders.