MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI)

Troy Van Voorhis is the Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry.

Laying the foundation for new energy technology

Theoretical chemist Troy Van Voorhis probes big energy-related questions, scrutinizing electrons and chemical bonds to improve sustainable energy solutions.

July 24, 2017

MIT Energy Initiative Director of Research Francis O'Sullivan is pondering decarbonization, decentralization, and the smart electric grid of the future.

3 Questions: The future of the electric utility

MIT Energy Initiative Director of Research Francis O’Sullivan reflects on current trends in the utility industry, as well as potential solutions to current challenges.

July 14, 2017

Angela Belcher (left) and Kristala Prather

3 Questions: Angela Belcher and Kristala Prather on the promise of energy bioscience

Engineers and co-directors of MITEI's Energy Bioscience Low-Carbon Energy Center discuss their vision for transforming the energy system.

July 10, 2017

New research finds certain aspects of how state-level renewable portfolio standards are designed and presented can set people’s minds for or against such policies — and that in this arena, public opinion does influence policymaking. For example, learning that a renewable energy policy will likely create several thousand jobs led to a significant increase in supporters of that policy.

Bolstering public support for state-level renewable energy policies

Analysis shows the design and framing of renewable energy policies can strengthen public support — or opposition.

June 30, 2017

MIT President L. Rafael Reif (left) and Iberdrola Chairman and CEO Ignacio S. Galán

Iberdrola and MIT Energy Initiative announce $10.3 million collaboration

Funding will establish MIT professorship and support low-carbon energy and climate initiatives.

June 21, 2017

Nicholas Fang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, won an MITEI Seed Fund grant to continue his research into developing efficient ceramic support structures for catalytic converters used in power plants and in the automotive industry. This photo shows a piece of 3-D-printed cellular ceramic substrate with 100-nm-thin walls that has exhibited excellent thermal conductance and mechani...

MIT Energy Initiative awards 10 seed fund grants for early-stage energy research

May 2, 2017

Former Congressman Bob Inglis speaks at MIT on April 25.

A tax plan to stop climate change

At MIT, former Congressman Bob Inglis speaks about climate and free enterprise.

April 28, 2017

A joint team of American, Israeli, and Jordanian students worked together to study possible integrated pumped hydro reverse osmosis (IPHRO) system site locations around the world.

Combined energy and water system could provide for millions

Analysis shows system could economically bring fresh water and renewable energy storage to drought-stricken coastal regions worldwide.

April 18, 2017

Zhu Zhenqi (left), president of ENN Energy Research Institute, and Robert Armstrong, director of the MIT Energy Initiative, sign the agreement for ENN's membership in MITEI's Center for Energy Storage Research.

ENN Group becomes MIT Energy Initiative member to advance energy storage technologies

ENN Group, one of China’s largest private energy companies, will join MITEI’s Center for Energy Storage Research.

April 13, 2017

A major study — “Mobility of the Future” — will explore how consumers and markets will respond to potentially disruptive technologies, business models, and government policies. The scope of the study is ground transportation, with an emphasis on the movement of people.

Study from MIT Energy Initiative will explore the future of transportation

“Mobility of the Future” study examines how developments in technology, fuel, infrastructure, policy, and consumer preference will drive transportation changes.

April 11, 2017