Energy Circle Event: Book Chat with Richard K. Lester, Author of "Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost,

For details about this event, view the description on the MIT Forum Cambridge website.
Come to a book chat with Richard K. Lester, author of “Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy Systemâ€*
Lester’s new book on energy innovation, co-authored with David M. Hart of George Mason University, shows why energy innovation offers us our best chance to solve the three urgent and interrelated problems of climate change, worldwide insecurity over energy supplies,… Show more and rapidly growing energy demand. More about the book. Register
Read the book and be prepared for a lively discussion. Order the book from the MIT Press
Energy innovation offers us our best chance to solve the three urgent and interrelated problems of climate change, worldwide insecurity over energy supplies, and rapidly growing energy demand. But if we are to achieve a timely transition to reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy, the U.S. energy innovation system must be radically overhauled.
Unlocking Energy Innovation outlines an up-to-the-minute plan for remaking America’s energy innovation system by tapping the country’s entrepreneurial strengths and regional diversity in both the public and private spheres. The authors map three waves of energy innovation to show how we can speed up the introduction of new technologies and business models and accelerate their deployment on a massive scale.
“Business as usualâ€* will not fill the energy innovation gap. Nor will wishful thinking–common enough today, with politicians and others talking up some technologies, talking down others, and claiming that if we price it, or if we mandate it, or if we simply say it often and inspiringly enough, the innovations will flow. Only the kind of systemic, transformative changes to our energy innovation system described in this provocative book will help us avert the most dire scenarios and achieve a sustainable and secure energy future.
Unlocking Energy Innovation is based on a three-year research project at MIT’s Industrial Performance Center, sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Richard Lester is Japan Steel Industry Professor and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is also the faculty co-chair and founding Director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center . His research focuses on innovation management and policy, with an emphasis on the energy and manufacturing sectors. He is currently leading the Energy Innovation Project, a major MIT study of strategies for upgrading the U.S. energy innovation system.
Moderating the Chat with Richard Lester will be Jerry O’Connor, Partner, Saul Ewing LLP Jerry O’Connor’ s practice focuses on business matters ranging from mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance to intellectual property. He represents clients in a variety of industries including clean energy technology, renewable energy, software and information technology, manufacturing, venture capital and professional services.

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