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Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, who is MITEI's founding director, speaks about data center power demand, nuclear power, and grid investment.

Writing for WBUR, Christopher Knittel (MIT Sloan) argues that a vehicle miles traveled tax would be the best substitute for federal gas taxes in order to account for the rise in electric vehicles—and other more fuel-efficient cars—and prevent the erosion of the transportation sector’s revenue base.

A new MIT study proposed that household devices, like electric vehicle chargers and rooftop solar panels, could form a backup network when the main electrical grid fails. This project was funded by MITEI’s Future Energy Systems Center.

Phoenix Tailings, with support from the U.S. Office of Strategic Capital, will scale their domestic processing of rare earth elements, restoring U.S. industrial independence by building the capacity needed to make metals for major technologies. CTO and Co-Founder Thomas Villalón Jr. participated in the MITEI Energy Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program while a student at MIT.

In a series of recently published papers, researchers from MIT, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), and other universities were able to validate the science and feasibility of CFS’ plants to build a 400-megawatt fusion power plant.

Founded by Peter Godart ’15, SM ’19, PhD ’21, the company has developed technologies for extracting critical metals and making fuel out of aluminum.

In the wake of the recent blizzard that caused many to lose power, Christopher Knittel, MIT associate dean for climate and sustainability, discusses the benefits and risks of moving powerlines underground. Rather than moving everything underground, Knittel states that we need “a more targeted approach, which is identify the most critical lines in the network and do the cost-benefit test on undergrounding those."

Even when data centers can produce all or some of their own energy, they usually still need to be connected to the grid. The cost of those utility investments can add up quickly, according to Christopher Knittel, MIT associate dean for climate and sustainability, who states that this will matter more and more with data center expansion.

Jennifer Morris, principal research scientist at MITEI and the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy, shares her expertise in a conversation with Boston College's Climate Reveal podcast. She discusses how climate modeling works, its benefits and challenges, and how to best communicate its findings so the world can adapt and prepare.