Summit Archive

The ET Summit will take a comprehensive view of energy efficiency and demand response in order to accelerate innovation and adoption of emerging technologies. Topics such as behavior, customer engagement strategies and policy are relevant regardless of the lens through which participants look at this industry, however illustrated below is a more technology-based lens by which you can plan your ET Summit experience!

CEC Informal Session: California's Energy Efficiency Research - What's Possible?

Monday, October 20th
4:00PM - 5:00PM
Parc 55 Hotel - Balboa

This informal session will highlight new technologies and insights developed in the California Energy Commission's research program. Learn about funding opportunities for your innovative ideas. Find out how to sign up for upcoming events, workshops, notices and more...

The 2014 ET Summit is thrilled to host its Opening Night Reception at San Francisco’s Exploratorium on Monday, October 20th. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to network with industry and thought leaders while admiring stunning views of the Bay and interacting with light, sound and living materials exhibits via our exclusive access to the East and Central Galleries.

About the Exploratorium

When San Francisco’s Exploratorium opened its new home at Pier 15 in April 2013, it did so with the ambitious goal to eventually become the largest net-zero energy use museum in the U.S., if not the world. Now, just a year later, the world’s most experimental museum is well on its way toward that goal. In January 2014, the Exploratorium was awarded LEED® Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, another key step on the museum’s path toward net-zero.

True to the experimental spirit of the Exploratorium–and the nature of net-zero – achieving such an ambitious degree of energy-efficiency will require continued monitoring and tinkering over time. Visitors to the museum can view live energy use and photovoltaic production on public display in a real-time educational exhibit in the museum’s lobby.

“This project combines an effort to both innovate and think critically about the impact science can have on the world. Our net-zero goal is, in part, a way to reduce our global footprint and help improve the community we’ve been a part of for more than 40 years,” says Dennis Bartels, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Exploratorium. “Net-zero is a process – and an opportunity for the public to learn with us.”

5,874 high-efficiency solar panels on the Exploratorium’s roof offset 33,150 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the 30-year life of the system. The solar panel system has the capacity to generate enough power to provide energy to more than 1,000 average American homes each year and is equivalent to removing 5,910 cars from California’s highways.

Water conservation was built into the very bones of the Exploratorium, both in its facilities and in its day-to-day practices. A rainwater-harvesting system captures rainwater and then stores, filters, and uses it for flushing toilets. Water-efficient plumbing includes sinks with low-flow, sensor-operated faucets; waterless urinals in the men’s bathrooms; and toilets equipped with dual-flush handles. Together, these innovations are designed to reduce the Exploratorium’s water usage by 60% in a year of average rainfall.

The building’s bay water heating and cooling system eliminates the need for a cooling tower, which saves 2,000,000 gallons of water that would otherwise be lost to evaporation every year. The Exploratorium’s beautiful waterfront campus also has no landscaping, and thus no lawns or outdoor plants to water.