STANFORD’S NEW ENERGY DREAMIN’

Old man Stanford had a farm, E-I-E-I-Oh!

Stanford takes the long view with alternative energy research
Carrie Sturrock, May 21, 2007(San Francisco Chronicle)

WHO
Professors Fritz Prinz, Arthur Grossman, Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), GCEP Director Lynn Orr
Just as I thought...(click to enlarge)
WHAT
GCEP does highly speculative, fundamental, long-range research rather than working with familiar materials and aiming for short-term results.

WHEN
GCEP began in 2002

WHERE
Standford University, Palo Alto, CA and alternative energy projects at universities and institutions across the globe: Brigham Young University in Utah, the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth in Japan, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland and the University of New South Wales in Australia

WHY
- GCEP: founded by $225 million 10 year grant from ExxonMobil, General Electric, Schlumberger Limited and Toyota.
- GCEP: 42 projects worldwide, 59 principal investigators at 10 institutions, 225 graduate students, postdoctoral students and other researchers.
- Examples: Using microelectrodes to short-circuit the photosynthetic cycle and draw off the electrical energy in plant photosynthesis, better ways to store hydrogen, generating hydrogen from pond scum (filamentous cyanobacteria), radical new ways to make engines more efficient, new concepts in solar cells to better ways to sequester carbon dioxide
The Stanford Rancho (click to enlarge)
QUOTES
- Orr: "We are definitely focused on applications that might be farther out -- the 10- to 50-year time frame…We are willing to take risks because we're looking for our work to create new energy options…The original intent was to look for the best people around the world…"
- Grossman: "There aren't as many people as far-sighted…"
- Prinz: "Or naive or crazy…We have not yet demonstrated it's possible [to get electrical energy from plant photosynthesis]…It takes money and technology, patience, dedication and commitment."
- James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century":
"There's a great deal of confusion that technology is going to save our ass one way or another…I don't doubt we'll make many efforts and many ingenious things will be devised, but ... we're still going to have to make fundamental changes in the way we live in this country, and we're going to be disappointed about what these things can do."
- GCEP/Stanford Professor Arthur Spormann, working with postdoctoral student Jacky Ng to produce hydrogen from sunlight and water: "The solutions are out there -- you just have to see them…"