Tag Archives: mit

Jesse Jenkins: Decarbonization Deep Dive

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jessejenkinsWhat does decarbonization mean? Well, it’s not just what happens when your soda goes flat. Today on Sea Change Radio we talk with Jesse Jenkins, researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about the decarbonization of the electric grid. We discuss the great progress being made in states like California, Texas, and New York, how fossil fuels and nuclear power might figure in the future, and the potential impact of something called distributed energy management systems.

MIT Team Turning Fumes Into Fuel

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GregStephanopoulosYou know that sick feeling when you look at a smokestack belching noxious gases into the air? Well, what if you knew that the gas waste coming from that smokestack was getting turned into a usable, liquid fuel? That’s the technology that an MIT professor, Gregory Stephanopoulos, and his colleagues are working on and so far, the results have been quite promising. This week on Sea Change Radio, we learn more about this ground-breaking technology from Prof. Stephanopoulos and the promise that it holds. Then, we hear from entrepreneur Todd Thorner about independent power producers and the potential of home battery storage technology.

Richard Lunt: Transparent Solar Cells

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New Faculty Orientation at the Kellogg Center Aug. 23, 2011.Imagine a world where every window-laden skyscraper generates its own solar power, where the skylights in your ceiling are a source of light and electricity, and where your iphone charges itself through the power of the sun. What could make this imagined world possible? Photovoltaic solar cells that are as transparent as regular glass. Our guest this week on Sea Change Radio is Prof. Richard Lunt, the lead researcher on the MIT team that developed the technology, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, and co-founder of Ubiquitous Energy, the commercial enterprise through which this energy-capturing glassy-film will be distributed. Lunt talks about the science behind “transparent luminescent solar concentrators” and the opportunities ahead with applications ranging from power-generating car and building windows, to use on every device you can think of, from smart phones to store signs.