Take the “training wheels” of clean energy | MIT News

Renewable energy sources have seen unprecedented investment levels in recent years. But with the political uncertainty that clouds the future of green energy subsidies, these technologies must begin to compete with fossil fuels on equal terms, participants said in the MIT 2025 energy conference.

“What these technologies need less are the training wheels and more a level game field,” said Brian Desese, a member of the MIT Institute innovation, during a conference opening panel.

The topic of the two -day conference, organized every year by MIT Students, was “Advance for implementation: to promote climate innovation to the market.” The speakers greatly expressed optimism about advances in green technology, balanced by occasional alarm notes on a regulatory and political environment that changes rapidly.

Dese defined what he called “the good, the bad and the ugly” of the current energy panorama. The good: the investment of clean energy in the United States reached a historical maximum of $ 272 billion in 2024. The bad: the ads of future investments have been reduced. And the ugly: macro conditions are making it difficult for public services and private companies to build the clean energy infrastructure necessary to meet the growing energy demands.

“We need to build massive amounts of energy capacity in the United States,” Dese said. “And the three things that are the most allergic to construction are high uncertainty, high interest rates and high rates rates. So that is ugly. But the question … is how, and in what way, that underlying commercial impulse can conduct through this period of uncertainty.”

A CLEANING LANDSCAPE CHANGE

During a panel on artificial intelligence and growth in demand for electricity, speakers said technology can serve as a catalyst for green energy advances, in addition to putting tension in existing infrastructure. “Google is committed to the construction of digital infrastructure in a responsible manner, and part of that means catalyzing the development of clean energy infrastructure that not only meets the needs of ai, but also benefits the network as a whole,” said Lucia Tian, ​​director of Clean Energy Technologies and Decarbonization in Google.

In the two days, the speakers emphasized that the cost per unit and the scalability of clean energy technologies will ultimately determine their destination. But they also recognized the impact of public policies, as well as the need for government investment to address large -scale issues such as network modernization.

Vanessa Chan, former officer of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and current vice -dealer of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania and applied sciences, warned about the “beaten” effects of the movement to reduce the funds of the National Health Institutes (NIH) for indirect research costs, for example. “Actually, what you are doing is to undermine each academic institution that investigates throughout the country,” he said.

During a panel entitled “Without transition of clean energy without transmission”, Maria Robinson, former director of the Implementation Office of the DOE Network, said that taxpayers can probably not be able to finance the necessary network updates to meet the growing energy demand. “The amount of investment we are going to need in the next two years will be significant,” he said. “That's where the federal government will have to play a role.”

David Cohen-Tanugi, a constructor of clean energy companies in the MIT, said that extreme climatic events have changed the conversation of climate change in recent years. “10 years ago I said … If we start talking about resistance and adaptation to climate change, we are throwing the towel or giving us,” he said. “I have noticed a great change in the narrative of investors, the starting narrative and, in general, public awareness. There is an understanding that the effects of climate change are already on us.”

“All on the table”

The conference presented key panels and directions in a variety of emerging clean energy technologies, including hydrogen power, geothermal energy and nuclear fusion, as well as a carbon capture session.

Alex Crely, a chief engineer from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, explained that the merger (the combination of small atoms in larger atoms, which is the same process that feeds the stars) is more safe and potentially more economical than traditional nuclear energy. Fusion facilities, he said, can be promoted instantly, and companies such as yours are developing a new less expensive magnetic technology to contain the extreme heat produced by fusion reactors.

At the beginning of the 2030s, Crely said, his company expects to operate electric power plants of 400 megawatts that use only 50 kilograms of fuel per year. “If you can make fusion work, it turns energy into a manufacturing product, not a natural resource,” he said.

Quinn Woodard Jr., senior director of energy generation and surface facilities at the Fervo Energy Geothermal Energy supplier, said her company is making geothermal energy more economical through standardization, innovation and economies of scale. Traditionally, he said, drilling is the highest cost in geothermal energy production. Fervo has “completely turned the cost structure” with advances in drilling, Woodard said, and now the company focuses on reducing the costs of its energy plants.

“We have to continually focus on cost and achieve that is essential for the success of the geothermal industry,” he said.

A common topic throughout the conference: a series of approaches are making quick advances, but experts are not sure when, or, in some cases, if, each specific technology will reach a turning point where it is capable of transforming energy markets.

“I don't want to get caught in a place where we often descend in this situation of climatic solution, where it is or is,” said Peter Ellis, global director of nature climatic solutions in Nature Conservancy. “We are talking about the greatest challenge that civilization has faced. We need everything about the table.”

The way ahead

Several speakers emphasized the need for academia, industry and government to collaborate in the search for climatic and energy objectives. Amy Luers, senior global sustainability director of Microsoft, compared the challenge with the Apollo SpaceFlight program, and said that academic institutions should focus more on how to climb and stimulate green energy investments.

“The challenge is that academic institutions are not currently configured in order to learn how, by promoting changes from the bottom up and from top to time,” Luers said. “If the world is going to succeed in our way to Net Zero, the academy's mentality needs to change. And fortunately, it is beginning to.”

During a panel called “Laboratory to Network: climbing the first energy technologies in its kind”, Hannan Happy, CEO of the Exowatt renewable energy company, emphasized that electricity is ultimately a merchandise. “The electrons are all the same,” he said. “The only thing that matters (customers) regarding electrons is that they are available when they need them and that they are very cheap.”

Melissa Zhang, director of Azimuth Capital Management, said that energy infrastructure development cycles generally take at least five to 10 years, more than a political cycle of the United States. However, he warned that green energy technologies are unlikely to receive significant federal support in the near future. “If you are in something that depends too much on subsidies … there are reasons to worry about this administration,” he said.

The World Energy CEO, Gene Gebolys, the laboratory panel moderator to the Network, listed several companies founded in the MIT. “Everyone has one thing in common,” he said. “Everyone went from someone's idea, to a laboratory, to the proof of concept, at the scale. It is not as if none of these things end. It is a continuous process.”