Prestigious Council to Advise National Renewable Energy Lab

For more information contact:
George Douglas (303) 275-4096
e:mail: george_douglas@nrel.gov

Golden, Colo., Nov. 19, 1998 — Twenty-two prominent national leaders have accepted invitations to join the National Advisory Council for the U.S.Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The council includes academic and industrial leaders as well as at-large members. The group will play a key role in the future of the laboratory by offering independent advice and counsel to the NREL operating contractor and NREL Director Richard Truly.

The Advisory Council was established as part of a successful bid by Midwest Research Institute, Battelle Memorial Institute and Bechtel National Inc. to manage and operate NREL for the next five years. The partnership officially became NREL's contractor today, following 21 years of management by Midwest Research alone. The partnership and the council are in recognition of NREL's expanding mission.

NREL is the nation's premier facility for research and deployment of such renewable resources as solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy and energy efficiency. The lab employs about 830 full time, and annual funding of around $160 million.

Editors please note: A complete list of participants in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Advisory Council follows.

NR04598 National Renewable Energy Laboratory
National Advisory Council

Mr. Ray C. Anderson
Chairman Interface Corp; Co-chair of President's Council on Sustainable Development

Dr. Richard Balzhiser
President Emeritus, Electric Power Research Institute

Dr. Theodore Bickart
President, Colorado School of Mines

Dr. Scott S. Brown
Dean, William Jewett Tucker Foundation, Dartmouth College

Dr. G. Wayne Clough
President, Georgia Institute of Technology Represented by Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, Dean of Engineering

Mr. Walter Cunningham
Venture Capitalist; former Apollo astronaut

Mr. E. Linn Draper
Chair and CEO, American Electric Power (AEP)

Dr. John H. Gibbons
Former Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy

Mr. Roger Little
President, Spire Corp

Dr. Alexander MacLachlan
Former DOE Under Secretary for Research and Development Management; former DuPont Chief Technology Manager

Dr. Walter E. Massey
President, Morehouse College and former Director of Argonne National Laboratory Represented by Dr. John Hopps, Jr., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Mr. Michal C. Moore
Commissioner, California Energy Commission

Dr. Norine Noonan
Assistant Administrator, Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection Agency; former Vice Provost for Research, Florida Institute of Technology; former OMB Associate Director

Mr. James Pignatelli
Senior Vice President and COO, Tucson Electric Power Company

Dr. Jefferson Seabright
Director, Energy Programs, U.S. Agency for International Development

Mr. Robert Stempel
Chairman, Energy Conversion Devices and former Chairman of General Motors

The Honorable David Skaggs
U.S. House of Representatives, Colorado (retiring)

Mr. Chester Smith
Director, Energy Division, State of Mississippi, Department of Economic and Community Development; former Chairman of National Association of State Energy Officials

Dr. Samuel H. Smith
President, Washington State University

Dr. Charles M. Vest
President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Represented by Dr. Jeff Tester, Professor and Director, MIT Energy Lab

Mr. Mason Willrich
Principal, Nth Power Technologies, Inc.

The Honorable James Woolsey, Esq.
Shea & Gardner; former Navy Under Secretary; former Director CIA