Still at Renewable Energy’s Cutting Edge

Published: Oct. 30, 2009

Ron Larson has a knack for getting involved with the “next big thing.”

In the 1970s, he was promoting solar energy before it became trendy. Years before Colorado became a leader in the “new energy economy,” he co-founded the Colorado Renewable Energy Society, a chapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), and helped pass the state’s first renewable portfolio standard.

And now he’s leading the push for biochar, a renewable energy technology that cooks biomass to produce pellets that can be used as fertilizer and gasses that can power vehicles or electric generators. Many are heralding it as a potential solution to our fossil fuel dependency.

If Larson’s involvement is any predictor for success, they’re probably right. The former ASES chair and board member has been at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution for more than three decades. In 1973, he helped work on the first two solar bills passed by Congress. He served as the branch chief and principal scientist at the Solar Energy Research Institute, which later became the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. And he’s worked on solar and biomass stoves projects around the world.  

Over the years, Larson has watched solar and other renewable energy technologies swing from marginalized to booming several times, but he finally thinks the United States is on the right track.

“For many years, there was no market at all [for renewables],” he said. “And now there’s a tremendous amount of interest. It’s clear we’re headed down the right path now. The United States is dismally behind the rest of the world in understanding energy, but I think we can catch up.”

And Larson intends to help. At 76, he has chosen not to spend his time kicking back in his home near Golden, Colo. — a re-worked Solar Decathlon house built by the University of Colorado’s team in 2002 — and has instead devoted his time to helping with the International Biochar Initiative (biochar-international.org).

While Larson says solar, wind and other renewables are still important, he believes biochar will be a major player in the future. Biochar acts as a carbon sink, Larson said — it prevents rotting biomass from releasing absorbed CO2 back into the air, while its resulting pellets condition the soil to grow plants that will absorb more CO2 — effectively making it a carbon-negative technology.

“Carbon negativity is going to be much more important than carbon neutrality,” he said. “Biochar is going to play a major role; this is the future.”

Larson helped organize International Biochar’s North American conference over the summer and has plans to help with the initiative’s future conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Kyoto, Japan, too.

No matter what renewable technology he’s promoting, though, Larson said his overarching goal over the years has been the same: To help the world transition to sustainable energy sources. “Fossil fuels have peaked, I think, and there’s only one alternative,” he said. “We need to go for renewables, and my driving factor has been wanting to do something to help with that process.”