The Coming Electric Vehicle Revolution - Driving Sustainability Conference 2008
The President of Iceland, Mr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, will inaugurate Driving Sustainability '08, an exclusive international platform for sustainable energy solutions for transport, at Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, Iceland, on September 18 & 19, 2008.
Invited as special speaker, the world famous aeronaut and psychiatrist Dr. Bertrand Piccard will deliver a keynote on his global vision for sustainable mobility embodied in his Solar Impulse (http://www.solarimpulse.com) project of flying around the world in a solar powered airplane.
This revolutionary project is a leading symbol for the entire transportation sector and beyond of the means of renewable energy use, new high technologies, ultra-lightweight materials, and advanced energy storage and efficiency.
Toyota, Ford, and Mitsubishi will present different paths towards sustainable mobility. Better Place, Dong Energy Denmark, and Vattenfall Energy Sweden will share their vision for green energy in transport, and their immediate plans for charging infrastructure for plug-in and electric cars in co-operation with Volvo, Saab and Renault. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will talk on the role of vehicles in the sustainable energy infrastructure.
"Increasing the share of clean energy globally and making personal mobility more sustainable are two tremendous challenges we face today," says Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland and Patron of Driving Sustainability.
"This will benefit not only our environment but also the economy. The Icelanders who will buy electric cars in the coming years can reload them during the night for a few dollars. Compared to the cost of filling up your cars at the petroleum station today, these will involve enormous savings for ordinary people and the entire nation. I am therefore pleased to be able to give my support to initiatives focusing on energy solutions such as the Driving Sustainability conference," says Mr. Grimsson.
Yet-Ming Chiang, co-founder of A123 Systems and Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at MIT will brief participants of the Reykjavik conference on the most recent developments in automotive batteries and the coming electric vehicle revolution. Joel Swisher, Senior Fellow at the Rocky Mountain Institute gives the audience an insight into the next generation utility: renewable generation, energy efficiency and plug-in cars.