MICHAEL WEBBER

Michael speaks on the convergence of engineering, policy & commercialization. His talks focus on global energy trends, with additional insights on US energy trends. His events encompass global energy trends mixed in with humorous anecdotes, historical snippets, and unexpected examples that will give a surprising look into the future of energy.

Dr. Michael E. Webber is the Sid Richardson Chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his role as a faculty member, from August 2021 to September 2024, Webber served as CTO of Energy Impact Partners, a $5 billion venture fund focused on investments in cleantech and climate tech startups with the potential for deep decarbonization at speed and scale. Furthermore, from September 2018 to August 2021, Webber was based in Paris, France where he served as the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, one of the world’s largest energy companies. Exclusively represented by BrightSight Speakers, Webber’s works spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. His group’s research tackles complex energy systems analysis with a deep record of expertise on the following: 1) grid reliability in the face of electrification and the rise of variable sources in a warming world, 2) the hydrogen sector and how it couples to other sectors such as the grid, transportation, industry, and the built environment and 3) the food-energy-water-waste nexus. He serves on the board of GTI Energy (an industry consortium formerly known as the Gas Technology Institute) and the Scientific Advisory Council for ENGIE.

Webber has authored or co-authored more than 600 publications, including five full-length general interest books, and holds 6 patents. His essays have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Scientific American and more. Webber’s scholarly articles have appeared in top journals such as Science, Nature, and Environmental Science & Technology.

His book Power Trip: the Story of Energy was published in 2019 by Basic Books with an award-winning 12-part companion series spread out over two seasons that aired on PBS, Amazon Prime, AppleTV, and in-flight entertainment on American Airlines. The series had more than 10,000 broadcasts in the United States and has been distributed in dozens of countries, ultimately reaching millions of viewers. Seasons 1 and 2 of Power Trip along with his documentary Thirst for Power and television special Energy at the Movies have been recognized with six Telly Awards (one gold, four silver, and one bronze) for excellence in television.

In 2024 Webber was selected for the Energy Thought Leader: Higher Education award by the American Energy Society and a three-year term as a Fulbright Technical Specialist by the U.S. State Department. He was selected in 2014 as a Fellow of ASME (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers), in 2018 as a member of the 4th class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars, which is a leadership training program organized by Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton, and in 2022 for the Rockefeller Foundation’s prestigious writer’s residency in Bellagio, Italy. He was honored as an American Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and on four separate occasions by the University of Texas for exceptional teaching.

Webber holds a B.S. and B.A. from UT Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Speech topics

Geopolitical events and the impact they have on the energy industry

The session examines the threat of physical damage to energy assets and cyber-attacks against energy companies following an uncertain situation due to the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, looks at hybrid war and its potential effect globally, on energy companies, using examples such as the Baltic Sea pipeline explosion and recent drone activity in the North Sea.

Power Trip: The Story of Energy

Global Energy Trends and Transition

This talk focuses on global energy trends, with additional insights on US energy trends. The worldwide energy sector is going through dramatic shifts in energy demand, end-uses, and sources. Population growth and economic growth are driving up total demand. Industrialization, electrification and motorization are changing how we use energy. And a policy push for domestic, low-carbon and renewable fuels is changing our sources of energy. At the same time, we are entering an era where markets, technologies and policies are enabling dramatic increases in U.S. production of oil, gas, wind, solar and bioenergy that is affecting global economies, the environment, and our national security posture. In parallel, our energy and information sectors are merging to form smarter energy systems and more energy-intensive information systems. For this talk, Dr. Webber will give an entertaining and big-picture overview of global energy trends mixed in with humorous anecdotes, historical snippets, and unexpected examples that will give a surprising look into the future of energy. 

A Thirst for Power: The Global Nexus of Energy and Water

Energy and water are precious, global resources, and they are interconnected. The energy sector uses a lot of water -- the thermoelectric power sector alone is the largest user of water in the U.S., withdrawing 200 billion gallons daily for powerplant cooling. Conversely, the water sector is responsible for about twelve percent of national energy consumption for moving, pumping, treating, and heating water. This interdependence means that droughts can cause energy shortages, and power outages can bring the water system to a halt. Given recent trends towards increasingly water-intensive energy and energy-intensive water, the problems might become more extreme if the currently segregated funding, policy-making, and oversight paradigm of these resources are not integrated. For this talk, Dr. Webber will build from his extensive body of research, his course lectures, and his congressional testimony to share his perspective on the global nexus of energy and water to outline trends while identifying technical and policy options that might mitigate the challenges. 

Changing the Way Business Thinks about Energy

In this engaging lecture, Dr. Webber will identify the key global energy trends, and their impacts on business. These trends include shifts in energy consumption, changes in end-uses of energy, policy pressure on the sources of energy, and merger of energy and information. Webber will give an entertaining and big-picture overview of these major energy trends mixed in with humorous anecdotes, historical snippets, and unexpected examples to give a surprising look into the future of energy. In particular, this talk will focus on the business opportunities that are emerging from these trends and will reveal the shifting philosophies that are taking place for the business sector. These shifts include a transition from old economic theory (cost-based capitalism) to new economic theory (value-based capitalism). Webber will reveal how this trend towards a service economy opens up the opportunity for businesses to increase profit margins while decreasing resource consumption, which will simultaneously boost the economy and protect the environment. 

The Facts, Fiction and Future of Fracking

This talk will introduce both the technology and the associated economic and environmental tradeoffs of hydraulic fracturing for production of oil and gas from shale formations. Using entertaining examples, funny anecdotes, and multimedia including custom animations and movie clips, this talk will put the shale phenomenon into historical context, explain what it means for the global energy picture, and enumerate the various upside benefits and downside risks that its growth offers for the United States. In particular, this talk will examine the water impacts (good and bad) from shale production. In addition, the potential for natural gas as a transition fuel and enabler or inhibitor of renewable alternatives will be discussed, ultimately leading to a potentially surprising conclusion. 

A Hunger for Power: The Global Nexus of Energy and Food

Energy and food are precious, global, and interconnected resources. The food sector uses a surprising amount of energy for growing, reaping, transporting, preparing and disposing of the food. In parallel, with a global push for biofuels, the energy sector is increasingly using a lot of food. This tends generates resource competition creating a variety of moral dilemmas along the lines of food vs. fuel. vs. feed. However, potential for cooperative interactions also exists where waste streams from each can be used for the other. For example, food waste and agricultural waste can be used to generate biogas that can be used on-site for heat or power generation. Additionally, powerplant waste in the form of CO2 emissions can be used to produce commodities such as baking soda (for food) or algae (for feed). This talk will use funny anecdotes and illustrative examples to address macro trends related to energy and food and give a brief history of the role energy plays for enhancing agricultural productivity (including the original Green Revolution), while also covering food waste, food miles, organic vs. conventional farming, and the non-obvious tradeoffs associated with local food production.

Global Energy Security and its effect on the Energy Transition

The worldwide energy sector is going through dramatic shifts in energy demand, end-uses, and sources. Population growth and economic growth are driving up total demand.  Industrialization, urbanization, electrification and motorization are changing how we use energy. And a policy push for domestic, low-carbon and renewable fuels is changing our sources of energy.  At the same time, we are entering an era where markets, technologies and policies are enabling dramatic increases in production of oil, gas, wind, solar and bioenergy that is affecting global economies, the environment, and national security postures.  In parallel, our energy and information sectors are merging to form smarter energy systems and more energy-intensive information systems. For this talk, Dr. Webber will give an entertaining and big-picture overview of global energy trends mixed in with humorous anecdotes, historical snippets, and unexpected examples that will give a surprising look into the future of energy. 

Books

Powering Humanity: Essays on Energy & Society

These essays offer a whirlwind global tour of energy's relevance across modern society as we collectively grapple with an energy transition that is already underway

Power Trip: The Story of Energy 

A global tour of energy--the builder of human civilization and also its greatest threat.

Thirst for Power: Energy, Water, and Human Survival 

How changing the way we think about water and energy can secure the long-term sustainability of both precious resources.

Engineer and energy policy expert Dr. Michael E. Webber presents a series of original insights on energy strategy 

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