To fend off the worst impacts of climate change, “we have to decarbonize, and do it even faster,” said William H. Green, director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and Hoyt C. Hottel Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. MIT. , at the MITEI Annual Research Conference.
“But how on earth can we really achieve this goal when the United States is in the middle of a divisive election campaign and, globally, we are facing all kinds of geopolitical conflicts, trade protectionism, climate disasters, growing demand from developing countries What are they building? A middle class and data centers in countries like the United States?
Researchers, government officials, and business leaders gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 25-26 to debate this vexing question at a conference themed “A Lasting Energy Transition: Staying the Course in the Face of Rising Demand and Obstacles.” unpredictable.”
“We have a lot of power in this room,” Green said, “if we work together, we communicate to all of society what we consider real paths and policies to solve problems and we take collective action.”
The critical role of consensus-building in driving the energy transition emerged repeatedly in conference sessions, whether the topic involved the development and adoption of new technologies, the construction and siting of infrastructure, the drafting and approval of policies vital energy resources or the attraction and retention of a qualified workforce.
Resolving conflicts
The transition to fossil fuels has “a setback and a social cost,” said Stephen Ansolabehere, Frank G. Thompson Professor of Government at Harvard University, on a panel on social barriers to decarbonization. “Businesses must engage differently and recognize the rights of communities,” he said.
Nora DeDontney, director of development for Vineyard Offshore, described her company's two-year outreach and negotiations to bring large cables from ocean wind turbines ashore.
“Our motto is 'community first,'” he said. His company works to mitigate any impacts cities may feel from building offshore wind infrastructure with projects such as sewer upgrades; provides job training to tribal nations; and arrange wind turbines to provide safe and reliable areas for local fisheries.
Elsa A. Olivetti, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and leader of the Decarbonization Mission of the new MIT Climate Project, discussed the urgent need for a rapid scale-up of mineral extraction. “Estimates indicate that to electrify the vehicle fleet by 2050, about six new large copper mines need to come online each year,” he said. Meeting America's demand for metals means moving toward indigenous lands and environmentally sensitive habitats. “The timeline for permitting is not aligned with the necessary temporal acceleration,” he said.
Larry Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, is trying to resolve those tensions with universities playing the role of mediator. It is creating renewable energy clinics where students are trained to participate in emerging siting disputes. “Talk to people before making decisions, do joint research so that facilities reduce harm and share benefits,” he said.
Rise and pressure of clean energy
A relatively recent and unforeseen increase in energy demand comes from data centers, which are being built by large technology companies for new offerings, such as artificial intelligence.
“Overall energy demand has been stable for 20 years, and now there's a boom,” said Sean James, senior director of data center research at Microsoft. “It took the utilities by surprise.” With the spread of ai, the rush to supply data centers with more than 35 gigawatts of new (and primarily renewable) energy in the near future intensifies pressure on large companies to balance stakeholder concerns across multiple domains. . Google is seeking 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030, said Devon Swezey, the company's senior manager of global energy and climate.
“We are pursuing this by purchasing more and different types of clean energy locally and accelerating technological innovation, such as next-generation geothermal projects,” he said. Pedro Gómez López, director of strategy and development at Ferrovial Digital, which designs and builds data centers, incorporates renewable energies in its projects, which contributes to decarbonization objectives and benefits the places where they are located. “We can create a new energy supply, bringing the heat generated by a data center to residences or industries in neighborhoods through district heating initiatives,” he said.
The Inflation Reduction Act and other laws have increased clean energy employment opportunities across the country, affecting all regions, including those most tied to fossil fuels. “At the beginning of 2024 there were about 3.5 million clean energy jobs, with 'red' states showing the fastest growth in clean energy jobs,” said David S. Miller, managing partner at Clean Energy Ventures. “The majority (58 percent) of new energy jobs are now in clean energy; that transition has occurred. And one in 16 new jobs nationwide was in clean energy, and clean energy jobs grew more than three times faster than economy-wide job growth.”
In this rapid expansion, the US Department of Energy (DoE) is prioritizing economically underserved places, according to Zoe Lipman, responsible for good jobs and labor standards in the DoE's Office of Energy Jobs. “The community benefit process is built into our financing,” he said. “We are creating the foundation for a virtuous cycle,” encouraging benefits to flow to energy and disadvantaged communities, stimulating workforce training partnerships, and promoting good-paying union jobs. “These policies incentivize proactive community and worker participation and provide community benefits, which are key to generating support for technological change.”
Hydrogen opportunity and challenge
While engagement with stakeholders helps clear the way for technology deployment and infrastructure expansion, enormous political, scientific and engineering challenges remain to be resolved, several conference participants said. In a “fireside chat,” Prasanna V. Joshi, vice president of low-carbon solutions technology at ExxonMobil, and Ernest J. Moniz, professor of physics and special advisor to the president at MIT, discussed efforts to replace natural gas and coal. with carbon-free hydrogen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in such important industries as steel and fertilizer manufacturing.
“We have entered an era of industrial policy,” Moniz said, citing a new Department of Energy program that offers incentives to generate demand for hydrogen (more expensive than conventional fossil fuels) in end-use applications. “We are going to have to move from our current approach, which I would call carrots and twigs, to, ultimately, carrots and sticks,” Moniz warned, to create “a self-sustaining, meaningful, scalable and affordable hydrogen economy.”
To achieve net zero emissions by 2050, ExxonMobil intends to use carbon capture and sequestration in the production of natural gas-based hydrogen and ammonia. Ammonia can also serve as a carbon-free fuel. The industry is exploring burning ammonia directly in coal-fired power plants to expand the hydrogen value chain. But there are challenges. “How do you burn 100 percent ammonia?” Joshi asked. “That's one of the key technological advances needed.” Joshi believes that collaboration with MIT's “breakthrough innovation ecosystem” will be essential to breaking logjams around hydrogen and ammonia-based industries.
MIT ingenuity is essential
The energy transition is imposing very different demands on different regions of the world. Take India as an example, where today per capita energy consumption is one of the lowest. But Indians “are an aspirational people… and with increasing urbanization and industrial activity, growth in energy demand is expected to triple by 2050,” said Praveer Sinha, managing director and CEO of Tata Power Co. . Ltd., in his opening speech. . For that nation, which currently relies on coal, the shift to clean energy means bringing another 300 gigawatts of carbon-free capacity online over the next five years. Sinha believes that this energy comes from wind, solar and hydroelectric energy, complemented by nuclear energy.
“India plans to triple its nuclear power generation capacity by 2032 and is focusing on advancing small modular reactors,” Sinha said. “The country also needs the rapid deployment of storage solutions to shore up intermittent power.” The goal is to provide reliable 24/7 electricity to a population living in both large cities and geographically remote villages, with the help of long-range transmission lines and local microgrids. “India's energy transition will require innovative and affordable technology solutions, and there is no better place to go than MIT, home to the best brains, startups and technology,” he said.
These assets were on full display at the conference. Among them a group of young companies, including:
- MIT spin-off Form Energy, which has developed a 100-hour iron battery to back up renewable energy sources in the event of multi-day outages;
- The startup Noya is committed to directly capturing atmospheric CO in the air2 using carbon-based materials;
- the company Active Surfaces, with a light material to place photovoltaic solar energy in previously inaccessible places;
- Copernic Catalysts, with a new chemistry to produce ammonia and sustainable aviation fuel at a much cheaper price than current processes; and
- Sesame Sustainability, a software platform born from MITEI that provides industries with a complete financial analysis of the costs and benefits of decarbonization.
The flow of research talent extended to the ranks of undergraduates, with a lecture competition showcasing students' summer research projects in areas ranging from carbon capture using enzymes to 3D design of coils used in the confinement of fusion energy.
“MIT students like me are looking to be the next generation of energy leaders, seeking careers where we can apply our engineering skills to address interesting climate problems and make a tangible impact,” said Trent Lee, a third-year engineering student. mechanics investigating improvements in lithium-ion energy storage. “We are excited about the energy transition, because it is not only the future, but our opportunity to build it.”
