For Immediate Release: March 16, 2009
DBEDT News Release 09-07

HONOLULU--Hawai‘i will host the Second Bilateral Meeting of the U.S.-China Cooperation on Electricity from Renewables from March 15 to 21 at the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism offices in Honolulu and at the University of Hawai‘i - Hilo.

These official bilateral meetings involve the National Academies of the United States (comprised of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) of the People's Republic of China.

"Hawai‘i‘s clean energy efforts were instrumental in attracting this Second Bilateral Meeting to our state," said Governor Lingle. "The meeting offers Hawai‘i an opportunity to showcase our significant accomplishments in the area of clean energy to top national and international scientists in this field, and to highlight the cross-sector partnerships that have fueled these successes."

"As the number one and two energy consumers in the world, the U.S. and China have a tremendous opportunity to shift the world's reliance on fossil fuels to a more sustainable infrastructure based on renewable energy," said Theodore E. Liu, Director of Hawai‘i's Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. "Wind, solar, and biomass are three abundant resources with the potential to form the basis for not only the electricity industry, but also to power transportation systems and create new clean fuels such as hydrogen."

The U.S. National Academies in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering are conducting a joint study to assist their countries in developing strategies to meet renewable energy goals, to identify prospects and recommend priorities for research and technology cooperation between countries, and to identify related areas, such as storage and systems strategies.

The U.S.-China Cooperation on Electricity from Renewable Resources was launched as part of the U.S.-China Strategic Dialogue entered into by the countries' Presidents in 2006 and supports the ongoing bilateral effort to strengthen U.S.-China relationships. The First Bilateral Meeting was held in Beijing, China in December 2008.

U.S. and Chinese scientists and technicians will look for ways the two countries can cooperate in developing and utilizing electricity from renewable energy. As major technology exporters, the U.S. and China are also poised to jointly lead the way in fostering a worldwide transition to renewable energy-based economies.

The study will pursue three separate but related goals:

• Comparatively assessing the resource potential in China and the U.S. for grid-scale electricity generation;
• Exploring near-term market opportunities for mature technologies; and
• Recommending priorities for enhanced collaboration, with a focus on cost reduction, improved efficiency and grid connectivity, and storage.

In a task force review of U.S.-China relations, the Council on Foreign Relations noted that the importance of U.S.-Chinese cooperation on clean energy development cannot be overstated. It singled this out as one of the key areas in which the U.S. ought to "significantly enhance" its cooperation with China.

The Second Bilateral Meeting of the U.S. - China Cooperation on Electricity from Renewables follows several similar international gatherings in Hawai‘i on issues of critical importance to the global economy. In January, 2008, the Major Economies Meetings, a U.S. government-led meeting of the world's largest economies, met in Hawai‘i to discuss global climate change issues. In May, 2007, Hawai‘i hosted the patent and trademark offices of the United States, China, Korea, Japan, the European Union and others in a meeting to discuss intellectual property protection.

For more information, contact:
Dave Young, DBEDT Communications
Phone: (808) 587-1212
Email: dyoung@dbedt.hawaii.gov