The primary focus for the Arctic Energy Summit is technology transfer on issues related to the Arctic as an energy province. The summit will create a network and community in which ideas, knowledge, suggestions, and solutions can be exchanged among a wide range of participants including students, researchers, government officials and their colleagues in commerce. The core of the summit will be a technology conference to be held in Anchorage, Alaska during the week of October 14, 2007. The focus of this conference will be in three areas: 1) Extractive energy development (oil, gas, coal bed methane, methane gas hydrates, coal); 2) Rural and renewable power, especially in extreme remote areas; 3) Environmental, socio-economic and sustainability impacts of energy projects in the Arctic.
Leading up to the technology conference and following the summit to its completion will be an education and outreach effort with the goal of capturing the interest of the public and decision-makers and attracting and developing the next generation of scientists, engineers and leaders. This portion of the summit will include web-based outreach, the development of academic curriculum, contests and scholarships and, as a key tool for decision makers, an Arctic energy atlas. Special attention will be focused on the rural and bush areas of the Arctic.
The third area of the energy summit will begin at the technology conference and will be the organization and deployment of an Arctic energy task force to develop a practical way forward on the implementation of key Arctic energy technology. It is envisioned that this group will follow two areas: a roadmap for the development of an extractive energy source (such as the development of Arctic coal) and the implementation of a solution to a rural energy problem (such as transportation fuels).
