Prof. Asegun Henry has been named a 2024 Grist honoree for his work developing a “sun in a box,” a new cost-effective system for storing renewable energy, reports Grist. Based on his research, Prof. Henry has founded Fourth Power, a startup working to build a prototype system that will hopefully “allow us to decarbonize electricity,” says Henry.
Prof. Michael Strano joins “Somewhere on Earth” podcast host Gareth Mitchell to discuss how he and his colleagues developed tiny batteries that could be used to power cell-sized robots. Roughly the thickness of a human hair, the new battery can create a current by capturing oxygen. “I would say we're making the LEGOs, the building blocks that go into robots,” Strano says. “We’re building the parts and it's an exciting time for the field.”
Anurag Bajpayee MS '08, PhD '12 and Prakash Govindan PhD '12 founded Gradiant, an MIT startup “trying to reduce both costs and energy while eliminating chemicals” in water, reports Diana Olick for CNBC. “We take highly contaminated wastewater which contains solvents, which contains dissolved salt, which contains organics, and we eliminate the entire liquid waste,” says Govindan.
Writing for Foreign Affairs, MIT Innovation Fellow Brian Deese proposes a Clean Energy Marshall Plan to combat climate change and renew U.S. leadership on a global stage, arguing this can be done in a way that promotes U.S. interests and supports aligned countries. “In this moment of domestic economic strength—stark against the backdrop of heightened competition, a fracturing world, and a raging climate crisis—the United States can do something generous for people across the globe in a way that benefits Americans,” writes Deese. “It should take that leap, not just because it is the morally right thing to do but also because it is the strategically necessary thing to do.”
Researchers at MIT have developed tiny batteries capable of powering cell-sized robots that can “execute tasks as varied as targeting drug delivery inside the human body to checking pipelines for gas leaks,” reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “Despite the barely visible size, the researchers say the batteries can generate up to 1 volt, which can be used to power a sensor, circuit or even a moving actuator.”
Research affiliate Thomas Neff, a physicist known for his proposal aimed at “reducing the global stockpile of nuclear weapons and helping stabilize the former Soviet Union,” has died at age 80, reports Harrison Smith for the Washington Post. Credited with the “Megatons to Megawatts” agreement, “Dr. Neff spent years working in arms control, nuclear weapons proliferation and uranium markets, bridging the divide between experts who specialized in the kind of highly enriched uranium used for warheads and the far less enriched version used for electricity generation,” Smith writes.
Research affiliate Thomas Neff, a physicist whose work with nuclear weapon conversion led to an agreement “that reduced nuclear threats and produced one of the greatest peace dividends of all time,” has died at the age of 80, reports William J. Broad for The New York Times. Neff’s idea of converting Soviet nuclear weapons into electricity used to power American cities “turned some 20,000 Russian nuclear arms into electricity, lighting billions of American lightbulbs.”
Writing for Fast Company, Moshe Tanach highlights how researchers from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center are developing new technologies to reduce AI energy costs, such as power-capping hardware and tools that can halt AI training.
MIT startup, 24M, has designed an EV battery with a range of 1,000 miles on a single charge, reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. “The extra-long range also can help the car’s battery last much longer,” explains Peters. “If you use a rapid charger to fully charge a battery, it can damage the battery, meaning it won’t last as long. Because it has such a long range, the new battery should rarely need a full rapid charge.”
Conner Galloway SB '08 SM '09 and Alexander Valys SB '08 lead Xcimer Energy Company, a startup seeking to provide economical nuclear fusion power and “pursuing what’s best described as a ground-up redesign of the underlying technology,” writes Tim De Chant for TechCrunch. “This is proven science,” Galloway, the CEO of Xcimer CEO, explains. “It’s just a matter of building a big enough laser, cheap enough laser and efficient enough laser.”
Researchers from the MIT Climate Policy Center have shown increasing shared transmission reduces outage risk, writes Sara Dinatale for the Star-Telegram. The researchers found connecting the Texas power grid to neighboring systems could have reduced blackouts during Winter Storm Uri in 2021. “What we're trying to do is provide policymakers with data," explains Prof. Christopher Knittel. “We just want policymakers to know what the trade-offs are from interconnecting or not interconnecting. And hopefully they can make a better decision.”
Prof. Asegun Henry founded Fourth Power, a startup using new technology to cut the cost of storing renewable energy, reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. The technology is designed “to tap into excess renewable energy,” explains Peters. “That energy heats up liquid tin, which flows down carbon pipes to heat up the blocks. When the grid needs electricity again, the system generates it using special solar panels that run on the white-hot light from the pipes rather than sunshine. Because the system was designed for durability, the team expects it to last for three decades—far longer than lithium-ion batteries, which quickly degrade.”
An analysis by The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein notes despite Republican resistance to electric vehicles, many new production facilities are located in GOP-represented states. MIT Innovation Fellow Brian Deese explains EV companies are simply seeking space and nearby manufacturing and construction capacity, but said “it’s pretty hard to think of a technology where there was a cheaper, better technology to solve a consumer need and consumers prioritized a cultural or political patina over lower costs and higher quality.”
Robert Stoner, interim director of the MIT Energy Initiative, speaks with Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act provides funding for hydrogen hubs around the country to create networks of hydrogen fuel producers. “We're going to use hydrogen as a substitute for natural gas. In order for that to happen, we have to get the cost way down,” Stoner explains.
Boston Globe reporter Jon Chesto spotlights how MIT President Sally Kornbluth is “determined to harness MIT’s considerable brainpower to tackle” climate change. During a clean-tech entrepreneurship event hosted by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Kornbluth highlighted the newly announced Climate Project at MIT, “which commits $75 million and dozens of faculty to solving some of the biggest climate problems.” Kornbluth also noted that MIT’s “culture of entrepreneurship” makes the Institute uniquely positioned to help address the challenges posed by climate change.