Energy and Sustainability 2015

The 6th International conference on Energy and Sustainability will be reconvened at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin. The University is named in honour of the South American Liberator Simon Bolivar. The world economy is fuelled by energy. Resources depletion and severe environmental effect resulting from the continuous use of fossil fuels has motivated an increasing amount of interest in renewable energy resources and the search for sustainable energy policies.

The changes required to progress from an economy mainly focused on hydrocarbons to one taking advantage of sustainable energy resources require considerable scientific research as well as new engineering systems. Energy policies and management are of primary importance to achieve the development of sustainability and need to be consistent with recent advances in energy production and distribution.

In many cases, the challenges lie as much in the conversion from renewable energies (wind, solar, etc) to useful forms (electricity, heat, fuel) at an acceptable cost (including damage to the environment), as in the integration of those resources into an existing infrastructure.

The conference will also discuss the energy use of industrial processes and focus in particular in the imbedded energy of materials, including those used in the built environment. The diverse topics covered by the conference involve collaboration between different disciplines in order to arrive at optimum solutions, including materials, energy networks, new energy resources, storage solutions, waste to energy systems, smart grids and many others.