News

In this article from Utility Dive, MITEI's Jesse Jenkins weighs in on the pricing of Tucson Electric Power’s (TEP) solar plus storage facility.

Francis O'Sullivan, MITEI's director of research, talks with reporter Emre Kelly about the value of microgrids in increasing resilience to natural disasters. “In places like the U.S. Virgin Islands, it makes a whole lot of sense right now," he says. "They should look to integrate today’s newer technologies and not simply rebuild the old system we had.”

In Engineering News, MITEI's Ignacio Perez-Arriaga discusses how changing patterns of electricity use are forcing global power utilities to rethink their "antiquated business models." The article cites examples from MITEI's Utility of the Future study.

On PRI's "The World," MITEI director of research Francis O'Sullivan explains how microgrids can help make the electric grid more resilient against mass blackouts in future natural disasters like Hurricane Irma.

This article by David Unger in Midwest Energy News describes a novel investment model piloted by the cleantech accelerator Clean Energy Trust (CET). In comparing this new model to traditional venture capital methods, Unger cites a MITEI working paper on investment in early-stage cleantech.

In this article from Chemical & Engineering News Magazine, Professor Fikile Brushett of chemical engineering is named one of the magazine’s “Talented Twelve” for his work on electrochemical flow batteries. "The most interesting and important problems exist at the interface of multiple disciplines," he says.

In this article from Vox, MITEI Director of Research Francis O’Sullivan discusses the effects of the total solar eclipse on U.S. solar facilities and grid operations, predicting that following the eclipse there will be an “increased focus on ensuring that we have backup that’s more flexible.”

In the Wall Street Journal, reporter Christopher Mims talks with MITEI's Francis O’Sullivan and Jesse Jenkins about the challenges related to building charging infrastructure and upgrading electric distribution grids to accommodate the growing electric vehicle market.

In this article from Grist, MITEI's Donald Sadoway discusses the contending options for power storage technology, including pumped hydro, compressed air, flywheels, and batteries, and highlights the need for a set of diverse solutions.

PV Magazine highlights the work of MIT researchers Jing Kong and Yi Song, who are developing a flexible, transparent solar cell that could turn virtually any surface into a source of power generation.

In this article from the Journal of Petroleum Technology, MITEI’s Justin Montgomery and Francis O’Sullivan's research on well productivity provides insight into why models overstate technology impact and understate location impact for unconventional wells.

In this article and video, CNBC reporter Anmar Frangoul explores Prof. Vladimir Bulović’s work developing ultra-light and thin solar cells that could be used to power electronic devices and could eventually be scaled to power buildings. Bulović explains that over the next decade, “a very significant fraction of the world’s electricity will be provided by solar.”