The Wake

The people of this petroleum-addicted world-gone-to-hell are soon to be faced with an unprecedented number of environmental problems due to rapid resource consumption, pollution, and climate change. The planet’s ecosystems are crumbling before the eyes of the human race and the biggest tragedy about it is that few seem to be aware of just how bad these problems really are, and are not attempting to remedy the situation. Luckily, there is a bright and shining ray of hope beaming down through the carbon dioxide-saturated atmosphere. A group of progressive faculty members, administrators and students at the University of Minnesota have taken it upon themselves to form a vanguard of environmentally-friendly innovation in technology, called the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment, which will work towards solutions to environmental problems, aided by discussion on November 27, at a conference at the U of M.

The IREE, as explained by Todd Reubold the Associate Director for the Initiative, is made up of about 100 faculty members who oversee projects and research, and about 150 to 170 graduate, undergraduate and doctorate students, who work with the faculty.

It started in 2003, when administrators at the University wanted to consolidate research on renewable energy. At the time, Xcel Energy was asking permission from the state legislature to store nuclear materials in Southern Minnesota. The legislature told Xcel that they could store their nuclear waste so long as they gave a portion of their profits to renewable energy research. The money they were to donate came from two funds called the Renewable Development Fund and Conservation Improvement Program, which are two funds included in all of Xcel’s bills, meaning it was ostensibly taxpayer dollars.

“So it wasn’t actually Xcel’s money per say; it’s all of our money,” Reubold said. The funds went to the University of Minnesota and thus the IREE was born.

Saving the world is a fairly ambiguous objective and the IREE does many things in an attempt to stave off the impending man-made apocalypse. The bulk of their efforts are in research projects. The money allocated to the University for renewable energy research is given to faculty members who use it to fund research projects, which are then conducted by the students.

“The students are actually the ones who are doing a lot of the work on these projects,” Reubold said. The initiative takes pride in training these students who are fated to become the saviors of mankind as the leading renewable energy experts of the future. The technologies that come out of these projects are licensed to corporations, commercialized, or used to form partnerships with companies in a position to diffuse them throughout an industry.

“We want to develop these technologies and see them go out into the world and make a difference when it comes to renewable energy,” Ruebold said. “Especially rural areas, which is where a lot of the action is when it comes to renewable energy.”

In addition to research projects, raising awareness about environmental issues and efforts to fix them is another priority for the IREE, and was the focus of the conference at the University. The conference was called E3, which stands for Energy, Economic, and Environmental Conference, and it offered many different figures involved in environmental solutions, as well as a chance to collaborate and be exposed to one another’s research and exchange ideas. Faculty members, business figures, government officials, non-profit leaders, students, and interested citizens formed an environmentalist soup. The idea was to address all aspects of possible solutions to energy problems, from environmental effects to economic.

“If we develop this great renewable energy technology and it messes up the environment, have we really accomplished anything?” Reubold asked. By doing this, the initiative ensures that they do not trade one cancer for another by creating a new problem to fix an old one.

In addition to pooling the collective genius of multiple experts, the conference also helped to highlight many of the IREE’s projects so that they become visible, and to encourage cooperation and partnerships with those who may benefit from the technologies in development.

“For a long time the University has been pretty quiet when it comes to renewable energy and environmental issues,” Reubold said. “And what we’re saying with the E3 conference is we’re a real player.”

Showing off the research done at the University by the IREE also showed the public that their money went towards advancing research and not just into the salary of some figurehead at the University.

Between developing technologies to cure the environmental crisis, training future environmentalism moguls, and networking with figures capable of initiating real change, the IREE is on the top of its game as far as saving the world goes. With events like the E3 conference, the initiative has made some impressive headway in furthering its cause, and contributed immensely to the green alternative industry. Perhaps, if organizations such as the IREE continue to make such progress towards a more environmentally friendly way of life, our blue and green planet can be saved from its supposed brown and gray future.