News

MITEI Visiting Scientist Carlos Batlle discusses Europe’s energy crisis, their decarbonization projects, and the potential impact on international alliances.

Cowriting for The Hill, Randolph Kirchain (Materials Research Laboratory) discusses the relationship between road system conditions and transportation emissions: “Investing in a higher-performance road system is a lever within state control that will improve the efficiency and carbon emissions of all vehicles, regardless of how each is powered.”

Jessika Trancik (Institute for Data, Systems, and Society) writes about the importance of government policy supporting the electric vehicle transition: “Policy is needed to make EVs widely accessible to people while the technology and markets continue to mature and, in this way, to ensure the process moves quickly enough to help slow the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

Jessika Trancik (Institute for Data, Systems, and Society) discusses electric vehicle emissions and ownership costs: “buyers should consider total cost of ownership, which for an EV is generally less than that of a gas-powered counterpart due to savings on maintenance and fuel.” 

The current administration’s commitment to clean energy could be positioning hydrogen as the alternative automotive fuel of the future. While there are several ways to produce hydrogen, MITEI Principal Research Scientist Emre Gençer states that using water electrolysis powered by renewable energy would allow for widespread use at a reasonable cost.

MITEI Principal Research Scientist Dharik Mallapragada discusses the role of renewable energy sources like hydrogen and geothermal energy, and how energy storage and electricity retail rates can meet energy demand. 

MITEI Director Rob Stoner spoke with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about fusion, energy poverty, and MITEI’s role in combatting the climate crisis at MIT and beyond. 

MIT researchers are discovering new ways to avoid contrails and minimize their impact on global warming. Florian Allroggen (Aeronautics and Astronautics) states that the exact impact of contrails compared to aviation’s total warming effect isn’t known for certain; regardless, “it’s a big contributor and we need to worry about it.”

Engineers from MIT and Harvard have developed a method for directly converting greenhouse gas into a stable fuel that can power fuel cells and generate electricity. 

MIT researchers—led by Franz-Josef Ulm (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Admir Masic (Civil and Environmental Engineering), and Yang-Shao Horn (Mechanical Engineering)—created a “supercapacitator” using cement and carbon black that can store renewable energy. 

Michael Mehling (MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research) discusses the impact of global climate deals on climate change: “The history of the Paris Agreement suggests that global climate deals do make a dent in emissions. But the impact can be subtle and felt over time.” 

Henry Jacoby (MIT Sloan) highlights the importance of addressing climate change in discussions of government policy.