Lots at stake at GreenBeat 2010: New speakers, early-bird extended to Friday

Our next GreenBeat 2010 conference is just three weeks away. If you’re an entrepreneur or executive focused on energy or the environment, you should sign up soon. Early-bird tickets, which offer a 30 percent discount, end on Friday.

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Who else should come? Well, we’re debating the billion-dollar opportunities emerging from the build out of what we’re calling the “Super Grid.” The Super Grid is the more efficient electric grid being built across the country — and world — that will help spawn things like new electric vehicle industries, new storage technologies and a more sensible sourcing and transportation of renewable energies. So anyone wanting to stay on top of the business opportunities in green, or meet the players disrupting it the most, this will be an awesome networking event.

The conference, slated for Nov. 3 and 4, is also a great time to discuss the results of the California elections on Nov. 2, the day right before the conference. Will Californians pass Prop. 23, which is designed to overturn California’s progressive emissions law? If it does, it would be a huge setback to the nation’s green agenda. California is considered a leader, and if it fails to lead, it would be devastating. Green entrepreneurs may as well get on the next plane to China. Either way, you’ll want to be there to hear the latest perspective from our experts.

Today we’re announcing the following speakers at our event:

Mark Wyatt (pictured left) is vice president of Smart Energy Systems for Duke Energy, one of the nation’s largest utilities and which has been quickly trying to transform from being one of the biggest polluters.

Wyatt joined Duke in 1980, and has been instrumental in establishing and managing information technology strategy, processes and mechanisms that allow the information technology function at Duke Energy to support both a regulated and non-regulated business model.

California Public Utility Commissioner Dian Grueneich is a nationally recognized expert in energy and environmental issues, with over 30 years experience. She was appointed to the CPUC in 2005 by Governor Schwarzenegger and confirmed unanimously. Commissioner Grueneich serves as lead Commissioner at the Commission on energy efficiency, overseeing energy efficiency programs delivered by California investor-owned utilities. She provided leadership for the development of the California Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan and in August 2008. Commissioner Grueneich is also a leader in the deployment of SmartGrid technologies to optimize the reliability, security and efficiency of the electrical grid and maximize the potential of demand side resources. She has presided over several Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) cases at the CPUC and recently served on the U.S. Department of Energy Smart Grid Advisory Committee.

Kenneth Davies is Program Manager for Energy & Infrastructure at Google, and is also a cleantech advisor for Google Ventures. Kenneth joined Google in the fall of 2008 to help lead Google.org’s energy and cleantech initiatives. In addition to working with Google Ventures, Kenneth is responsible for developing the energy procurement strategy for Google’s global data centers. As part of this initiative Kenneth leads the newly formed entity Google Energy LLC. Immediately prior to Google, Kenneth worked as an energy and economic consultant for Charles River Associates in Houston. His previous energy experience includes employment at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Yi Cui is professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford University. He went to University of Science and Technology of China, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 1998. He attended graduate school from 1998 to 2002 at Harvard University, where he worked under supervision of Professor Charles M. Lieber. His current research at Stanford is focused on nanomaterials synthesis, electronic properties, solar cells, battery, memory and sensor devices. He has received the Technology Review World Top Young Innovator Award in 2004.

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Bill Weihl is the Green Energy Czar at Google. Before joining Google in early 2006, he was CTO at Akamai Technologies, where he led efforts to provide customers with more powerful computing capabilities on edge servers. He has also worked on distributed and parallel computing and on cpu architecture, first as a professor at MIT and then as a researcher at DEC’s Systems Research Center (SRC).

Oh, and remember to check out our GreenBeat Innovation Competition!

See you next month, wearing green!