Stanford launches $100M energy research institute

Stanford University today announced the creation of a $100 million energy research institute to focus on sectors including solar photovoltaics and carbon sequestration.

The Precourt Institute for Energy is expected to fund seven or eight new faculty positions and create fellowships to support graduate students in the sector. Two existing energy research centers, The Global Climate and Energy Project and the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, will be rolled into the new institute.

Stanford Almunus Jay Precourt donated $50 million towards the new Precourt Institute for Energy. Thomas Steyer, managing partner of Farallon Capital Management, and his wife, Kat Taylor, donated $40 million to create a new research center as part of the institute, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy.

Other donors include Douglas Kimmelman of Energy Capital Partners; Michael Ruffatto of North American Power Group, and the Schmidt Family Foundation.

The university says the new facility plans to draw on scientific expertise from the campus and across the globe.

"Addressing the challenge of energy will require research on a wide range of issues, from energy efficiency, to development and deployment of renewable sources, to reducing the effect of fossil fuels," Stanford President John Hennessy said in a release.

Lynn Orr, a professor in energy resources engineering, was named director of the new institute, which will function as an independent laboratory. Orr has been the director of Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project, where 40 research projects are attempting to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy. Its portfolio includes biomass energy conversions, advanced batteries, fuel cells, advanced combustion, and carbon capture and storage.

Stanford currently spends $30 million a year on energy research through the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, founded in October 2006 through a gift from Precourt, an executive at Halliburton. That has now been renamed the Precourt Center for Energy Efficiency as part of its role in the new institute.