Dane McFarlane

Director of Research at the Great Plains Institute, Dane McFarlane will moderate the Climate Action Workshop of Summit Session 5 on November 20, at 10am central time.

Dane McFarlane is the Director of Research at the Great Plains Institute and has led research and analytical projects at GPI since 2009. Dane has worked on creating technical models for energy and climate research, and on developing new analytical techniques to aide GPI’s policy work. He provides research to the Midwest Clean Fuels Policy Initiative and the Regional Carbon Capture Deployment Initiative, and through the e21 Initiative works on developing new electric utility business models that aim to increase penetration of renewables and distributed energy resources. Dane is currently involved in a multi-year collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory on decarbonization infrastructure, with Argonne National Laboratory to expand and improve the GREET lifecycle analysis model for full lifecycle analysis of fuels, and with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to staff and provide research for the U.S. Department of Energy. He has expertise in lifecycle analysis, computer programming, economic analysis, GIS, and other research methodologies. 

Dane has a Master of Science degree from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Minnesota. Previously, he has worked on research contracts for the Minnesota Department of Commerce and the University of Minnesota on energy efficiency, low carbon fuels, and other related subjects.