- Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, Jan 31 to Feb 3, 2017: This meeting brings together the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and participating Oak Ridge National Laboratory staff to move forward with action items listed in their MOU. Colleagues from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) are also participating to foster the working relationship pertaining to the MOU topics. ORNL participants: Virginia Dale and Keith Kline; UT Bredesen Center PhD student: Sarah Eichler-Inwood.
- Rejkjavik, Iceland, October 14-22, 2016: Virginia Dale’s participation in the October 2016 meetings in Iceland provided an opportunity to share with colleagues in Iceland the growing expertise of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in natural disasters. The Iceland symposia was linked to a joint Nordic research effort/network Ecosystem Resilience for Mitigation of Natural Disasters (ERMOD), which is aimed at using ecological restoration for mitigating/minimizing natural disasters (http://ermond.land.is/). ORNL is expanding its expertise in natural disaster management. For example, ORNL will soon launch an extreme events data center (lead by Dale Kaiser) and it’s Climate Change Science Institute already focuses on extreme events under its research theme of “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability Science” (led by Ben Preston). Virginia Dale gave two lectures and participated
- in the October 19 and in discussions with colleagues from ERMOD and the University of Iceland and the Agricultural University of Iceland. Through this visit colleagues in the Nordic countries gained an understanding of the expertise that ORNL can provide in disaster management.
- Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 5-12, 2016: Virginia Dale and Keith Kline participated in the European Biomass Conference (EUBCE) that is supported by European and international organizations such as the European Commission, UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Natural Sciences Sector, EUBIA – the European Biomass Industry Association, WCRE – the World Council for Renewable Energy and further organizations. They also met with IEA Bioenergy T43 that is interested in ORNL’s work on landscape design and appropriate ways to move forward in designing paths toward sustainable bioenergy in particular contexts as well as lessons from the US Bioenergy Study Tour on how DOE’s innovations can enhance progress toward a sustainable bioeconomy.
- Gotenburg, Sweden, March 11-21, 2016: Virginia Dale’s and Keith Kline’s participation in the March 2016 meetings in Sweden contributes to their work for BETO on developing landscape design scenarios for case studies involving Southeastern (SE) US forest products for bioenergy production. Most of the pellets from the SE US are shipped to Europe, and thus hearing the European perspectives on sustainability of this market and production system is critical. ” A draft of the visualization was presented at the “Landscape management and design” workshop in Sweden, and feedback obtained is being incorporated. In addition, Virginia was invited to act as Opponent at Oskar Englund’s public defense of his PhD thesis: “On the sustainability of biomass for energy and the governance thereof.” Her engagement in that defense helped ensure that the perspective of the US (and, in particular, DOE) is fairly and accurately presented in this analysis.
- Berlin, Germany, October 25 to Nov 2, 2015: Virginia Dale and Keith Kline participation in the IEA Bioenergy Conference https://ieabioenergy2015.org/ contributes to ORNL’s work for BETO on developing landscape design scenarios for case studies involving Southeastern (SE) US forest products for bioenergy production, for most of these pellets from the SE US are shipped to Europe, and thus hearing the European perspectives on sustainability of this market and production system is critical. Keith and Virginia also had informal meetings with EU researchers including the Biomass Research Group (Hans Langeveld et al.) on indirect land use change (ILUC) effects.
- Dublin, Ireland, May 18-27, 2015: The purpose of the trip was to speak at and participate in the meeting of International Energy Agency (IEA) Task Force 43, as specified in ORNL’s Task 3 of the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) for BETO WBS 4.2.2.40: Defining Sustainability. As described under Task 3, ORNL will identify incentives and barriers to development of sustainable bioeconomies. Working with IEA Task 43, Virginia Dale and Keith Kline detailed these incentives and barriers for particular contexts and considered how they vary given particulars of the current land use, political and economic situation, feedstock, energy demand, etc. This identification of incentives and barriers to the development of a sustainable bioeconomy helps the research community, certification programs, and bioenergy industry know what information to collect and how to assess it in order to achieve the DOE’s Mulit-year Program Plan (MYPP) goal of encouraging creation of a new domestic bioenergy industry.
- Buenos Aries 9/2016, 2nd RCN Conference on Pan American Biofuels & Bioenergy Sustainability – pdf
- May 2012 – Merida, Mexico workshop on “Pan American Biofuels and Bioenergy Sustainability. Report – Trip report for Keith L. Kline and Virginia H. Dale June 25, 2012 – PDF
- Sustainable Development, Energy, Land-Use Change, Assessment – PDF
- Empirical Measures Of Effects Of Bioenergy Policy On Land-Use Change – PDF
- A Comparison of Empiricial and Theoretical Eucalyptus Yields in Brazil – PDF
- Assessing Effects Of Bioenergy Choices – PDF
- Bioenergy Sustainability – PDF
- Review of USDA Baseline Projects for Planted Acreage Versus Actual Land Use 1996-2011 and Changes in Overall Land Use Trends 1987-2007 – PDF
- Bioenergy Sustainability – PDF
