Howdy!

Happy New Year! Welcome to the January 2012 issue of News Briefs, the Texas A&M Energy Institute's e-newsletter.  News Briefs is intended to keep you informed about all the good things going on in energy research at EI and Texas A&M University as well as state, national and international energy-related news that affects all of us. 

If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future issues, please contact Lisa Groce at 979.458.1644 or tamuenergy@pe.tamu.edu.

Thank you and Gig 'em!

Steve Holditch

Director, EI

EI Director's Chronicle Opinion Article Results in Editorial

PRI's "To the Point" Panel Includes EI Director

The January 6, 2012 broadcast of Public Radio International's (PRI) "To the Point" featured a guest line-up that included EI Director 

Stephen Holditch. The topic of discussion was "US Hydraulic Fracturing, 'Fracking,' Sparks Overseas Interest."

Brief excerpt from that broadcast: In the past ten years, gas trapped in shale rock deep under Earth's surface has leaped from two percent to 30 percent of America's natural gas production. The reason is development of hydraulic fracturing, a horizontal drilling technique that allows rock to be broken up so the gas can be extracted. Advocates of "fracking" claim it could make the US energy independent in five or ten years. American technology is so advanced that foreign companies are investing in US projects in order to learn it. Small landholders have become instant millionaires. But there are tradeoffs: water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and even earthquakes. We hear what it's like to live near a "fracking" project. How does it work? Is it time for Congress to weigh the risks and the benefits of a technology so new that it's almost unregulated?

In addition to Holditch, panel guests included Ed Crooks, U.S. industry and energy editor at the Financial Times, Robert Howarth, professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University, Janice Crompton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Steve Clemons, Washington editor at The Atlantic.

The complete broadcast is available at http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp120106us_hydraulic_fractur.

Texas A&M Plays Key Role in Ninth Annual Meeting of Members

Texas A&M University figured prominently at The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas' ninth annual meeting of members held on Thursday and Friday (Jan. 12-13) at the Omni Houston Hotel in Houston. Stephen Holditch, professor, director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute, and former head of Texas A&M's Petroleum Engineering Department, serves as this year's TAMEST president, while George Mitchell, a 1940 graduate of the university, was honored at the conference for his contribution to energy development and philanthropy.

The conference theme, Energy for Life: from Human Metabolism to Powering the Planet, explored innovations in energy - from the challenges of meeting global energy needs to research advancements in human energy metabolism.

To read more about the conference, click here.

Holditch Warns Smart Grids Vulnerable to Hackers

By Emily Pickrell, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 10:51 p.m., Friday, January 13, 2012

Smart electric grids will need even smarter cybersecurity to keep them safe from would-be hackers, an energy expert said at a scientific conference Friday.

"A smart grid, by connecting the power industry to the Internet, opens the door for anyone who wants to mess with the power system in the U.S.," said Dr. Stephen Holditch, a professor at the Texas A&M Energy Engineering Institute.

CenterPoint Energy, which distributes electricity to Houston-area customers regardless of retail provider, has installed more than 100,000 smart meters, and other Texas utilities are installing them as well.

The meters are a component of smart grids that use the Internet and other information technology to monitor and control generation, delivery and consumption of electricity - allowing customers to better track their power use and improving utilities' ability to identify and fix outages.

While smart grids are heralded as potentially saving the U.S. $130 billion over the next decade, the linking of the power grid with communications systems provides potential openings for hackers, Holditch said at the annual conference of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas.

The need for a secure grid was among several topics raised as Holditch presented findings of last April's Texas Energy Summit.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Energy Club Begins 2012 with Full Schedule of Activities

The Texas A&M Energy Club is off and running with a full schedule of activities for the spring semester. February through April will feature a theme for the month including February: Natural Gas Month, March: Nuclear Month, and April: Grid Month. Meetings and activities will be planned around each of these themes.

The club also has a team entered to compete in the Department of Energy's Better Buildings Case Competition which is part of the Better Buildings Challenge. Students in university energy clubs will tackle cases that focus on a number of the most common, most stubborn barriers to energy efficiency in both the private sector and in state and local settings. The competition will take place the first week of March.

A spring event is still in the planning stages and more information will be forthcoming as soon as a date and location have been determined.

If you have ideas for field trips or industry speakers, please submit those to club president, Taylor Morrison, at Morrison.taylor@gmail.com.

To become a member of the Energy Club, please visit their web site at http://tamuenergyclub.com/.

The Energy Institute (EI) is addressing the world's energy challenges through research, development and deployment. The Institute matches researchers and world-class facilities with internal and external partners to define and solve energy problems and turn those solutions into useful global products.

Quick Links

Energy Club