At the Council on Competitiveness,we work towards increasing the competitiveness in the United States through our initiatives. Earlier this year, the Council launched one such initiative – the American Energy & Manufacturing Competitiveness (AEMC) Partnership. This 3-year effort is a partnership with the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) through its Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI), to support leverage points in the innovation ecosystem by creating a public-private partnership (PPP) to achieve two goals: increase U.S. competitiveness in clean energy products and increase U.S. competitiveness in the manufacturing sector overall by increasing energy productivity.
Similar to the goal of the HPC4Energy incubator, where energy companies worked in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to use high performance computing, modeling and simulation to solve industry problems, EERE is working with the Council through the AEMC Partnership to determine exciting and profitable ways the public and private sector can work together. The Council convened leaders in industry, academia, national laboratories, labor, non-profit organizations and the government during four dialogues in 2013 to determine relevant PPP concepts where organizations across the innovation ecosystem can synergistically work together and amplify achievements. Following an extensive literature review and release of the Power of Partnerships by the Council of Competiveness, the first AEMC Partnership dialogue convened over 100 leaders with interest and expertise in clean energy and manufacturing on April 11-12, 2013 in Washington, D.C. to kick off the collection of ideas on PPPs. The second dialogue followed on June 20, 2013, hosted by President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio, focusing on broad PPP concepts including the power of advanced materials in achieving the two AEMC Partnership goals.
The third dialogue was co-hosted by Dr. Mark Little, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of General Electric in Niskayuna, New York on August 12-13, 2013. At this dialogue, the Council presented 5 PPP concepts to participants for their evaluation, in preparation to down-select to two concepts for the fourth dialogue. The fourth dialogue was co-hosted by Michael Splinter, Chairman of the Board of Applied Materials in Santa Clara, California on October 17, 2013. The Council presented the two PPP concepts for participants to evaluate and provide comments: Facilitating the Transition from Prototypes to Commercially Deployable Products and a Clean Energy Materials Accelerator. The Council collected perspectives and insights from dialogue participants to better understand industry needs and interest in preparation for an upcoming first-of-its-kind inaugural American Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness Summit, which will be held on December 12, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
The inaugural AEMC Summit provides a venue for energy and manufacturing leaders to discuss innovations and future directions in the energy and manufacturing sectors. At this Summit, the Council will present two PPP concepts to Dr. Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy cultivated during the AEMC Partnership dialogue series, in addition to convening panel discussions on the creating a resurgence in energy and manufacturing in the United States and increasing energy productivity and creating innovative energy products in an age of low-cost energy. Confirmed speakers for the inaugural AEMC Summit include the Honorable Ernest Moniz, United States Secretary of Energy, Mr. Michael Mansuetti, President of Robert Bosch, LLC, Ms. Amy Ericson, U.S. Country President, Alstom, and Mr. Norman R. Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin.
