Pennergy & Briar Bush

In early March, I participated in a panel session on “The Future of Energy” at U Penn, on behalf of Pennergy, a group based in the engineering school with a special interest in energy issues. Other panel members included Professor Nathan Lewis of CalTech and Dr. Mark deGrandpre, of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Prof. Lewis is one the world’s most noted researchers in solar energy, and you might want to check out his website, and especially his 2007 paper “Powering the Planet.”

Jonathan Watts cites Lewis’ work in his recent book When a Billion Chinese Jump (described in one of last summer’s postings), and I was invited by the Briar Bush Nature Center to lead a discussion about the book over dinner at – quite fittingly! – the Mandarin Garden restaurant in nearby Willow Grove, PA. They did not warn me that one of their members had lived in China for eleven years – working on environmental issues, no less! – and was fluent in Mandarin. The session nonetheless turned out to be a lot of fun, with lots of questions – and I had a knowledgeable partner so I could pass along the tough ones.