WED: Solutions: Getting More Done at Once - Pollinator Power Party 2023

The electric energy system is going through a massive transition toward renewable and sustainable energy, including wind and solar power. With over 50 million acres of large-scale solar PV systems are projected to be installed globally by 2050, it is important to consider the environmental aspects of these projects, particularly the interaction with habitat and biodiversity. As a renewable energy source, solar PV is generally considered to have low adverse environmental impacts, but there may be opportunities for additional environmental stewardship through site selection, land use, and vegetation choices. Can we really lower our carbon footprint and improve habitat at the same time? Is pollinator-friendly solar a reality? What are the business, equity, and ecological considerations of a “getting-more-done-at-once” approach?

Robert Bonnie is the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation at USDA. Prior to joining USDA, Bonnie was at Duke University first as a Rubenstein Fellow and later as an Executive in Residence at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions working on conservation and environmental issues in rural America. In 2020, Bonnie also worked with the Bipartisan Policy Center on its Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Initiative. Bonnie was Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA from 2013 to 2017, and a senior advisor to Secretary Tom Vilsack from 2009 to 2013. Prior to joining USDA, Robert was vice president for land conservation at Environmental Defense Fund where he focused on developing incentives to reward stewardship on private lands. Robert has master’s degrees from Duke in forestry and environmental management.

Dr. Arshad Mansoor is president and chief executive officer of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), responsible for the institute’s operation and its global portfolio of R&D and demonstration programs, spanning all sources of generation, power delivery and utilization, and the environment.Mr. Mansoor joined EPRI in 1999. Prior to being appointed president in January 2020 and CEO in January 2021, he served as senior vice president, Research and Development, responsible for leading the development of the R&D portfolio. Prior to that, as vice president of EPRI’s Power Delivery and Utilization sector, he led research, development, demonstration, and application of transmission and distribution and energy utilization technologies.

Dr. Mansoor holds five U.S. patents in power electronics and distributed energy resources. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, previously served as vice president of the U.S. National Committee of CIGRE, the international council on large electric systems, and as a member of the board for the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has published numerous papers in journals and conference proceedings and has given talks and participated in panels at leading technical forums worldwide.

Dr. Rebecca Hernandez is the Faculty Founder and Director of the Wild Energy Initiative at UC Davis. The Wild Energy Initiative is focused on ensuring a just transition to renewable energy, including impacts to Earth and ecosystems, minimizing impacts from climate change, and balancing trade-offs for sustainability.

Dr. Hernandez’s work on energy ecology has been published in Nature Sustainability, Nature Climate Change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Science and Technology and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews and has been featured in the Washington Post, National Geographic, NPR, Forbes, and Scientific American. In 2016, she was the recipient of the E.O. Wilson Award.

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