Areas of Expertise:

Clean Energy, Coal, Energy Storage, Environmental Policy, Infrastructure, Innovation, Power Sector, R&D, Smart Grid, Transmission

Additional Areas of Expertise:

As a polymer scientist, I sometimes consult with startup companies in need of help.

Roger Faulkner is the founder of Electric Pipeline Corporation (www.elpipes.com) and a polymer scientist who studied at Akron University. His Ph.D. research was on one of his inventions, reaction wave polymerization, and most of his 30 year career since then has had to do with pursuing and developing this and other inventions, not all in the area of polymer science. He has a long-standing interest in enabling technologies for renewable energy, including development of a long distance multi-terminal HVDC grid based on “elpipes” (polymer-insulated electric pipelines).

He has had a strong interest in energy policy issues for many years, and was a full party and public intervenor in the Wisconsin PSC’s Advance Plan 6 hearings in 1991, where he first introduced the concept of HVDC pipelines in testimony he presented with Professor Willis (Bill) Long of UW-Madison, a leading expert in HVDC power transmission.

Electric Pipeline Corporation was formed in November 2009 to pursue inventions and technology development for elpipes. Since then he has been pursuing start-up funding and writing numerous scientific papers related to elpipes.

Recent Comments by Roger Faulkner

• "My website www.elpipe.com contains lots of details. The problems with superconductors are manifold: high complexity causes poor reliability; takes too"
  Advancing Energy Innovation in the Electric Power Sector
• "The HVDC supergrid can create continental-scale power sharing, but will need bigger powerlines than we have today. It is my fate to be ahead of the cu"
  Advancing Energy Innovation in the Electric Power Sector
• "I'm not sure where this fits, or how one should incentivize it, but developing underground transmission technology is the 'elephant in the room,' in t"
  Advancing Energy Innovation in the Electric Power Sector
• "Research dollars, yes. A carbon tax to level playing field, yes. But no direct subsidies. And I think cooling water use should be taxed or charged for"
  Should Nuclear Power Receive Environmental Subsidies?