MIT hoping to short-circuit energy crunch
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is planning an ambitious effort to solve the world's energy problems, including spending at least $25 million annually on new research, according to a report set to be released today.
MIT president Susan Hockfield declared in her inaugural address last year that finding solutions to the looming energy crisis would be one of the university's top priorities.
The new report, compiled by a faculty committee working over a year, lays out a long list of areas where researchers can make a contribution, from solar and nuclear power, to somewhat less familiar technologies such as nanotechnology, new energy-conserving construction techniques, and advanced computer simulation for energy grids and transportation networks.
The report, which Hockfield will now review, also calls for construction of a new energy research center to oversee the efforts, as well as measures to make the campus energy-efficient.
Yet the energy plan, Hockfield's first large initiative, is also aimed at challenging the nation, from government to industry to other universities, to adopt a more aggressive and creative approach to a set of problems that has seen frustratingly few solutions.
''It is time for the field of energy to experience a flowering of creativity that it has not seen in decades," Hockfield said in an interview yesterday. She will host a daylong conference at MIT today to release the report and discuss its conclusions.
Hockfield said that the report was remarkable, but that she would not make any decision on how to proceed until after getting feedback from the MIT community. Money for the new research will increase to perhaps $25 million to $30 million annually five years from now and will be raised from alumni, philanthropists, industry, and government grants, according to MIT professor Ernest J. Moniz, who cochaired the committee that created the report.
High gasoline prices have sparked a new debate over energy policy, but the initiative is being driven by three longer-term trends, according to the report. Global energy use is expected to double over the next half-century, even as climate change becomes a mounting problem and as demand for energy causes security problems in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The MIT research will include breakthrough technology that could revolutionize the production of energy, including biofuels, solar, and wave-generated power.
But Moniz said the university should also work on improving current power-generation technology, including coal, oil, and nuclear. For example, he said, much more could be done to advance carbon sequestration technology, which captures the carbon dioxide normally released when a fuel is burned, preventing it from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.
The committee received 45 white papers, each describing a different approach to the problem, including better diesel engines, wind energy, and genetic engineering to develop new fuels.
A signature piece of the proposal is for MIT to lead by example. The report pointed out that MIT has quickly expanded its campus, but has not paid enough attention to energy efficiency as it did so. Since 1998, MIT's electricity and fossil fuel use has increased by more than 60 percent, according to the report. Improving the campus's energy efficiency could save money and serve as a valuable way to educate students, the report argues.
The report also calls for a range of new educational initiatives, including a new undergraduate minor in energy.
Within five years, the report says, the university should build a new energy laboratory. This laboratory would focus on interdisciplinary research and provide a place where ideas could be tested in cooperation with industry, Moniz said. He said the university has been talking with companies about helping with the effort, but he declined to name them.
Information is available at web.mit.edu/erc/forum/. The conference is open to the public and will be webcast. Cook can be reached at cook@globe.com. 
