03.05.12

Hoeven: Energy Innovations, Partnerships Key to Buildng North American Energy Security

FARGO, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today brought together leading experts from academia, the national laboratories, and the public and private sectors to advance energy innovation and development. Hoeven said building partnerships between leading energy experts will spur technological innovations to increase energy production and realize North American energy security in the coming years. 

“Together with Canada, we can achieve North American energy security within five to seven years, if we take advantage of opportunities in all our energy sectors and foster technology and innovation,” said Hoeven. “By merging together the best ideas and practices from university, government and industry, we can produce more energy with better environmental stewardship. North Dakota is leading the way in energy production, and research and technology play a key role in our success.”  

North Dakota energy companies are currently employing and developing practices including multi-well oil and gas pads, dynamic wind analysis, smart grid technologies and ethanol cogeneration to improve production and efficiency. In five years, North Dakota oil production increased from 115,000 barrels per day to more than 530,000. North Dakota increased wind generation from one megawatt to more than 1400 in just a few years. The sale of ethanol-blended fuel in North Dakota nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011.  

Today’s energy symposium is bringing together Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and North Dakota State University for the first time. Collaboration between the national lab and NDSU’s supercomputing capabilities could lead to increases in energy production with a smaller environmental footprint. NDSU’s supercomputing system is one of the most powerful between Minneapolis and Seattle. 

“In partnership with industry and academia, the high performance computing, and science and technology expertise resident at national labs such as Lawrence Livermore can stimulate the rapid advancement of U.S. clean energy technologies essential to the nation’s energy security,” says Tomas Diaz de la Rubia, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deputy director for Science & Technology.  

Hoeven was joined at a news conference by leaders from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NDSU, LM Wind Power Blades, Xcel Energy, Siemens Energy and QEP Resources. The senator is the keynote speaker at the conference, which is hosted by NDSU, the Howard Baker Forum and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.