Annual Meeting

2021 Andlinger Center Annual Meeting: Corporations and Industry in the Race to Net-Zero

Sponsored by Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership

The importance of businesses’ role in thwarting climate change was the central theme at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment’s 2021 Annual Meeting on October 27.

Driving home that point was Thomas Thune Andersen, chair of Denmark’s largest energy company, Ørsted, who gave the keynote in which he highlighted how his firm, formerly known as oil and gas company DONG Energy, made a landmark shift from selling petrochemicals to wind and other renewable electricity. Now Ørsted is among the world’s largest offshore wind developers and is moving to be carbon neutral by 2025. Andersen said that moving the company to clean energy not only was good for the planet but also good for business.

In conversation with Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo, former Andlinger Center director and current chief executive officer of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, Andersen spoke to the challenges involved in divesting from oil and gas but said that it created value in the long term. He added that their shareholders and leadership team were on board with the shift, which was critical to bringing it to fruition. Following the keynote, a panel session brought together academics and industry leaders about traditional hydrocarbon industries, featuring ExxonMobil, Dow Inc., and Occidental Petroleum. Senior executives discussed how their firms are investing in low-carbon technologies and their work in reducing emissions. On a panel about technology disruptors, CEOs from three clean energy and electrification companies spoke about big batteries, climate science, and U.S.-based solar manufacturing.

In a panel on facilitators of energy transition, executives discussed how to enable industry towards the clean energy transition. Scott Corwin, the U.S. lead for sustainability and climate change at Deloitte, emphasized that collaboration within industries was critical and traditional competitors will need to work together and faster on projects aligned with climate goals.

Claire Gmachl, interim director of the Andlinger Center, noted that companies must play a substantive role in delivering a clean energy transition. Gmachl, also the Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering, emphasized that the center’s initiatives are ways to bring stakeholders together to develop and implement clean energy solutions.

Thomas Thune Andersen (Image courtesy of Ørsted)

2021 Annual Meeting Poster Awards

Worley Postdoctoral Researcher Poster Award

Bastien Wild / “Optimizing net-zero emission technologies: Insights from fluid-mineral interfaces” – Advised by Claire White, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and Ian Bourg, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute

Siemens Undergraduate Poster Award

Evan Dogariu, Class of 2024 / “Machine learning-based magnetic core loss modeling platform” – Advised by Minjie Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

NEC Labs Undergraduate Poster Award

Callie Zheng, Class of 2024 / “Using polymers to clean up contaminated groundwater sources” – Advised by Sujit Datta, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering

American Tower Graduate Poster Award

Karina Alventosa / “Non-destructive analysis of temperature-induced microstructural changes in sustainable cements and impact of fiber and particle reinforcement” – Advised by Claire White

Community Energy Graduate Poster Award

Zhaojian Xu / “Voltage-induced halide segregation in perovskite materials and devices” – Advised by Barry Rand, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Deloitte Graduate Poster Award

Aaron Leininger / “Doubling down on food waste: co-use as codigestion substrate and biochar feedstock enhances food-energy-water circularity” – Advised by Z. Jason Ren, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

ExxonMobil Postdoctoral Researcher Poster Award

Xi Chen / “Sustainable off-grid desalination of hypersaline waters using Janus wood evaporators” – Advised by Z. Jason Ren