$10 MIL FUNDS AFFORDABLE SOLAR AT MIT

Recent conversations with prominent scientists makes it clear to NewEnergyNews the pressure on research funding during the Bush administration (called by some a "war on science") has driven U.S. science to a dark place. Only visionary private foundations have prevented the situation from becoming absolutely dire.

The Chesonis Family Foundation joined the honor role of science saviors with a $10 million gift funding MIT's Solar Revolution Project (SRP).

Arunas Chesonis, foundation’s benefactor/ 1984 MIT B.S, civil engineering/ Chairman and CEO, PAETEC Holding Corp.: “We are at a breakpoint, both in energy supply and environmental consequences. Solar energy has enormous promise…is widely distributed and the [cost]…is zero…by investing in the people at MIT and giving them the freedom to take risks in the lab, we will enable them to be true game-changers…to a point where solar power is cheaper and more reliable than electricity from coal.”

Same goal as Google set when it announced its RE < C (Renewable Energy less than Coal) program and gave $10 million to eSolar to develop the solar power plant concept.

Specific targets of the Chesonis gift to MIT: Solar energy capture and conversion (exploring new, abundant and affordable materials) and solar energy storage. Breakthroughs in those areas would likely do the trick.

Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy/Professor of Chemistry, MIT: “With SRP, think ‘solar’ and think ‘now.’ This is the revolution that is implied in the project name.”

Chesonis is putting very few restrictions on spending and giving 5-year fellowships. That ought to free up some powerful creative thinking.

The Foundation will also fund an integrated study on the future of solar energy similar to earlier MIT interdisciplinary studies on the future of coal and of nuclear energy in a carbon-constrained world. Can’t wait to get a look at that report.

This is what the research hopes to rectify. (click to enlarge)

MIT, Chesonis Foundation Announce Solar Revolution; Goal: Bring the sun’s power to the people
April 22, 2008 (MIT via Business Wire)

WHO
The Chesonis Family Foundation (Arunas Chesonis, foundation’s benefactor/ 1984 MIT B.S, civil engineering/ Chairman and CEO, PAETEC Holding Corp.); Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy/Professor of Chemistry, MIT; Professor Ernest Moniz, director, MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI);

DOE spending on energy research, 1978 - 2008: We get what we pay for. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
The Chesonis Foundation will fund The Solar Revolution Project (SRP) seeking to transform solar power into an affordable, dependable, mainstream energy. It will also contribute to the MITEI Energy Seed Fund Program (ESFP) to facilitate the growth of other energy research programs.

WHEN
- Fellowships will be for 5 years, allowing for continuity.
- The Foundation funding is intended to sponsor research over a 10-year timeframe.

Walkin' the talk: Solar panels atop the MIT Student Center. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- Both MIT and the Chesonis Family Foundation are in Cambridge, Mass.
- The SRP will work with and complement other MIT solar projects to create one of the largest “solar energy clusters” at any research university.

WHY
- The SRP will explore new materials and systems to accelerate the availability of solar energy. Ex: the development of novel energy conversion materials, solar energy storage, the use of solar energy to produce hydrogen fuel from water.
- The SRP will allow researchers to explore not known materials and systems but entirely new materials and systems, seeking the formula that will make solar energy commercially viable in the near-term.
- The SRP will initially support 30 energy fellowships.
- Other large MIT solar projects: (1) the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center, (2) the MIT-Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, (3) the Masdar Foundation solar project, (4) solar research grants to MIT from the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal agencies.
- MITEI: Designed to transform the global energy system.

It's science - it only looks like magic. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy/Professor of Chemistry, MIT: “Solar is thought of as an ultimate energy technology off in the distant future. The goal of SRP is to move this timeframe nearer to the present. The SRP will make solar a practical alternative, by committing a 10-year timeframe…”
- Professor Ernest Moniz, director, MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI): “Climate change makes the search for more environmentally benign sources of energy urgent and hugely important. Many experts have concluded that solar energy is a key, if not the key answer to our global energy challenges in the long term…The Chesonis investment—large, flexible, empowering of highly creative MIT faculty and students—embodies this conclusion…”