DoE creates renewables, efficiency advisory panel

Energy Secretary Steven Chu may be a Nobel prize-winning physicist, but he doesn’t believe he has all the answers.

The Energy Department (DoE) on Friday announced the creation of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advisory Committee, a group of 19 outside experts from academia, industry and other sectors.

The panel will review the department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which houses programs to research, develop and deploy a range of cutting-edge technologies.

The new body will weigh in on issues including “completion of long-range plans, priorities and strategies; program funding; and any issues of specific concern expressed by the secretary of Energy or the assistant secretary for EERE,” according to the department.

Members include Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera professor of ceramics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Mark Stoering, the vice president for portfolio strategy and business development at Xcel Energy; and Philip Giudice, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.

Earlier this year, Chu also re-established the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, which had been dismantled under the Bush administration.

Also, under White House orders, the Energy Department launched the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future this year to advise the agency on long-term nuclear waste solutions. The Obama administration has walked away from the proposed Yucca Mountain waste dump.