News

On September 5, 2021, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth.

In a study analyzing California’s power system, MITEI researchers Emre Gençer and Drake D. Hernandez SM ’21 show that hydrogen-generated electricity is a cost-competitive alternative to lithium-ion battery arrays for backing up solar and wind.

LiquiGlide, an MIT startup that has developed a non-toxic lubricant that ensures each drop of a product slides out of the bottle, is making an environmental impact by lessening waste and making recycling easier.

Kristala Jones Prather (Chemical Engineering) has made it practical to turn microbes into efficient producers of desired chemicals, while also working to reduce our dependence on petroleum.

Sergey Paltsev (MITEI, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change) examines the findings of the most recent IPCC report on climate change, underscoring the need to take more aggressive action to cut carbon emissions.

MIT fusion energy spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is nearing a technological milestone that could take the world a step closer to fusion energy. CFS plans to demonstrate their new magnet—a crucial component in their Tokamak reactor design—that is almost twice the strength of the magnets used by other fusion reactors.

A new landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows how humanity’s burning of fossil fuels is driving changes to the planet’s climate unseen for thousands—if not hundreds of thousands—of years. Sergey Paltsev (MITEI, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change), the lead author of a past IPCC report says, “the reality this report presents is alarming.”

David Keith (MIT Sloan School of Management) discusses the perceived benefits of car ownership—particularly through the Covid-19 pandemic—and how that impacts efforts to increase shared mobility services.

Shayle Kann of The Interchange podcast sits down with Mateo Jaramillo, the CEO and cofounder of MIT spinout Form Energy, to discuss the company’s story—from founding to last week’s technology unveiling—and examine how multi-day storage fits into a decarbonizing grid.

MITEI Senior Research Engineer Howard Herzog joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the challenges facing the carbon capture and sequestration industry and the race to get to net zero.

An iron-air battery prototype developed by MIT spinout Form Energy could usher in a “sort of tipping point for green energy: reliable power from renewable sources at less than $20 per kilowatt hour,” says Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle.

Sergey Paltsev (MITEI, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change) discusses the total lifetime emissions associated with electric vehicles and how infrastructure must change to make them an even more environmentally friendly option.