Tag Archives: John Imlay

live blogging at Ga Technology Summit pt4 – John Imlay, Wayne Clough, Dan Heintzelman

What can you say about John Imlay?  He’s hilarious, a fabulous speaker,  and the granddaddy of tech in Atlanta.  He’s warming up the crowd right now before introducing G. Wayne Clough, this year’s Technology Hall of Fame Inductee.

Wayne Clough is a dynamic and visionary leader in the Atlanta technology community.  New job as Secretary for the Smithsonian Institution.

Video shown of interview with Wayne Clough.

Wayne Clough takes the podium – standing ovation.

WC – teases Imlay about football since Imlay did the same. Falcons vs. Ga Tech anybody?

WC- talking about coming back to his alma mater, Ga Tech, as president of the university. Expressing gratitude for opportunites and recognition.

2nd video saying thank you for the award.

Final speaker on deck is Dan Heintzelman (DH) from GE Energy

DH – business nightmare – lack of standards for 21st century energy marketplace.   What is GE doing to make energy technology a reality.  Will talk about driving innovation and the smart grid. It won’t be a single invention tat solves the energy and climate problems it will be  a multitude.  they will need to be well-funded and well-deployed.  Global focus – growth in energy consumption will come from China and India – new innovation needs to be brought where the growth will  be.  Companies need to be fully engaged at an international level for these regions.  Dehli and Shanghai, not NY or Washington.   GE has doubled the number of wind turbines shipped to these areas.  Need to build greater capacity for innovation.  US still leads the world in engineer and science grads, but China and India are catching up.

DH – Tax credits helped get the progress so far.  GE member of US Climate Action Partnership – 30 global companies  working to help set direction and  goals with government.  Pleased to see stimulus plan to help support research.

DH – installed base – carbon base systems – need to update – can reduce carbon emissions 5% in old coal plants

DH – automotive industry interested in plug-in hybrid technology from GE.

DH – oil field technology – drilling deeper in sub sea range – geo equipment and services – Russia and Norway

DH – need to accelerate innovation in renewable energy – renewables – Wind is competitive, solar is still expensive per kilowatt hour.   Existing technology  in coal and nuclear need to be revived.   Coal “gasification” has significant potential – break down coal into basic chemicals instead of burning directly.

DH – last point – the smart grid – not much change in the power grid since the days of Edison.  No intelligence in the grid.  Consumers not empowered to make granular consumption choices.   Smart Grid is marrying energy with IT – power management, smart homes, smart appliances, smart grid metering, smart charge interface for hybrid electric vehicles – balancing peak demand and using off-peak more efficiently.

DH – variable renewables – wind and solar, could be helped by smart grid – to better manage times of surplus or undersupply of variable renewable energy.  It is in the long term national interest to look at totality of smart grid solution – holistic , not just infrastructure.

That’s all folks, oh wait, closing remarks from Dan Darling from Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc.   and Board of Directors for TAG.  Thanking TAG for supporting, thanking sponsors and the peeps.  Special thanks for Todd Bell for his leadership in pulling off TAG’s largest event to date.

That’s all folks, for real this time.

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