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Energy Futures

Part 1: Harnessing New Energy Sources

Part 2: Boosting Energy Systems

Part 3: Mitigating Energy Impact

Questions & Answers

Stephen R. Connors '89 Director of the Analysis Group for Regional Electricity Alternatives

Ralph Hall '02 Winner of the MIT Technology and Policy Program award for Best Masters Thesis '02

Professor John B. Heywood Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory

Tom Magliozzi '58 Co-host of NPR's Car Talk

Professor Miklos Porkolab Director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center

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Energy Futures

The world's energy hunger, expected to triple within 100 years, is causing a few problems: Pollution. Global warming. Cost. Equitable distribution. Yet clean, abundant energy is widely perceived as vital to economic and social well being. What's a global economy with a voracious appetite to do?

MIT President Charles M. Vest will face that challenge as the new chair of the Task Force on the Future of Science Programs at the Department of Energy. Around the Institute, researchers from the Plasma Science and Fusion Center to the Sloan Automotive Laboratory to the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment are exploring key questions about the future of energy. Will nuclear fusion, the Sun's own energy process, meet Earth's future energy needs? Can renewable sources like solar and wind fuel the future? Can advanced technologies make oil and gas fuels cleaner, more efficient, and available indefinitely? Can carbon sequestration soften the impact of fossil fuel use? Will conservation and new technologies assuage this appetite?

This month, openDOOR explores research on energy futures:

• Harnessing New Energy Sources: Fusion energy, plasmatron, photosynthesis in a beaker, fuel cell systems, Solar-to-Market, Mr. Magnet, 150-Ton Magnet, "Secure and Sustainable Energy Economy"
• Boosting Energy Systems: Electricity alternatives, global transportation systems, Sloan Auto Lab, lighter cars, MicroEngines, Modular Pebble Bed Reactor, digital geology, MIT Research Reactor, Shell's Chair on gas and renewables
• Mitigating Energy Impact: carbon sequestration initiative, Youth Encounter on Sustainability, Environmental Information Technology group, energy and environmental economics, SunLine Transit, regional-scale photochemical air quality model, Energy and Environment, Co-Gen award

Poll: What's the main thing you (or you and your family) have done in the past year to conserve energy? Every little bit counts: turned off lights or other electrical devices when not in use Replaced a major appliance with one that is more energy efficient Insulated or renovated to increase my home's efficiency Used public transportation, walked, and/or biked more frequently Bought a more energy efficient car Haven't done very much