Energy

Left to right: Seed Fund awardees Ahmed Ghoniem, Betar Gallant, Karthish Manthiram, and Bilge Yildiz.

MIT Energy Initiative awards nine Seed Fund grants for early-stage energy research

Awardees will use grants to advance research in areas including energy storage, renewables expansion modeling, and the chemistry of electrocatalysts.

June 1, 2018

Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have designed a device that helps cheap flash storage process massive graphs on a personal computer. The device (pictured here) consists of a flash chip array (eight black chips) and computation “accelerator" (square piece directly to the left of the array). A novel algorithm sorts all access requests for gr...

Device allows a personal computer to process huge graphs

With novel system, data scientists can analyze massive networks without the need for power-hungry servers.

May 31, 2018

“[The] opportunity to become involved in the broader MIT energy community has further solidified my passion for electrochemical energy storage,” says Jason Martins, who will begin his studies at Cambridge University in the fall.

Jason Martins named 2018 Gates Cambridge Scholar

MSCEP student will pursue an advanced degree in engineering at Cambridge University in the U.K.

May 29, 2018

MIT physicists have now found a way to significantly boost thermoelectricity’s potential by using metal, heat, and magnetic fields to produce energy.

Turning up the heat on thermoelectrics

New materials, heated under high magnetic fields, could produce record levels of energy, model shows.

May 25, 2018

Abigail Krich, founder and president of Boreas Renewables, discusses New England's impending energy market transition from natural gas domination to a greater proliferation of renewables.

3 Questions: New England’s wholesale electricity markets

Boreas Renewables' Abigail Krich discusses the incompatibility of New England’s electricity market structure with achieving carbon emissions reduction goals.

May 23, 2018

Guanyu Su, MIT graduate student in nuclear science and engineering, is examining multi-scale physics in annular flow heat transfer using advanced diagnostics.

Turning up the heat

Fine-tuning thermal hydraulics in reactors, doctoral student Guanyu Su hopes to advance more powerful nuclear energy technology.

May 17, 2018

In January, Flux and the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team went on a road-testing trip in Georgia.

Powered by the sun

Flux, built by the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team, was recently unveiled at Johnson Rink in preparation for its participation in the American Solar Challenge.

May 16, 2018

The grand prize winner at this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition was Infinite Cooling, which is developing a system that captures and recycles vaporized water from thermoelectric power plants. Pictured here are the four Infinite Cooling team members, holding the big check (from left): Maher Damak, Karim Khalil, Kripa Varanasi, and Derek Warnick.

Device that recycles vaporized water from power plants wins MIT $100K

Eight teams pitched business ideas, and three took home cash prizes, at the annual entrepreneurship competition.

May 16, 2018

Kouichi Murakami (left), general manager of corporate research and development at IHI Corporation, meets with MIT Energy Initiative Director Robert Armstrong.

IHI Corporation to support MIT Energy Initiative

Tokyo-based IHI will join MITEI’s Low-Carbon Energy Center for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage to reduce greenhouse gases and advance clean energy.

May 15, 2018

Mircea Dincă: Searching for materials that collect and store energy

A lifelong fascination with chemistry has led to research on exotic new materials with environmental advantages.

May 8, 2018

A team of researchers at MIT and elsewhere has come up with a way to figure out the best type of solar panel for a given location and type of installation.

How to assess new solar technologies

MIT analysis shows when and where advanced photovoltaics would be economic to install.

April 30, 2018

“What this study shows is that rather than shut down nuclear plants, you can operate them in a way that makes room for renewables,” says MIT Energy Initiative researcher Jesse Jenkins. “It shows that flexible nuclear plants can play much better with variable renewables than many people think, which might lead to reevaluations of the role of these two resources together.”

Keeping the balance: How flexible nuclear operation can help add more wind and solar to the grid

Model finds operating nuclear plants flexibly can reduce electricity costs, increase revenue for nuclear plants, and cut carbon emissions in electric power systems.

April 25, 2018

Grand prize winner of $15,000 at the annual MIT IDEAS Global Challenge showcase and awards ceremony went to Umbulizer, a team developing a low-cost, portable ventilator for patients in rural areas where medical resources are scarce and unreliable. Pictured is team member Moiz Imam, a senior in mechanical engineering at MIT, accepting the award from Kate Trimble, senior director of the Priscilla Ki...

IDEAS Global Challenge rewards inventions with social impact

At annual event, 10 teams split $92,500 in prize money for designing innovations that improve lives worldwide.

April 23, 2018

Assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering Mingda Li relishes the freedom of his new academic life, and the growing MIT network that sustains his research passions.

Deriving a theory of defects

Mingda Li seeks to harness atomic irregularities in materials for improved energy applications.

April 19, 2018

At Michigan State University’s W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center researchers are evaluating the performance of a variety of novel bioenergy crop production systems for crop yield and quality, impacts on microbial-plant interactions, biogeochemical and biodiversity responses and water use.

Gauging the effects of water scarcity on an irrigated planet

Study projects likely impacts on food prices, bioenergy production, and deforestation.