Stanford University raised $100 Million towards a new energy research institute along with a new sustainable-energy research center and it will be called the Precourt Institute for Energy. Stanford University and its students have jumped on new technologies and trends. One famous example is the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. They were both computer science graduate students at Stanford when they first started Google, which was at the time called BackRub. Stanford’s trend savvy reputation makes it not a huge surprise that they see the importance of improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In fact, Stanford is already spending $30 million a year on energy research as part of the current Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP). The mission of this project is “to conduct fundamental research on technologies that will permit the development of global energy systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the GCEP section of the Stanford Website. Lynn Orr, the director of the GCEP and who will be heading the Precourt Institute for Technology, claims that they will spend time focusing on technology to find inexpensive ways to produce energy from sunlight as part of their research in the facility. Sounds like Stanford is ready to continue their legacy by transforming the green revolution, like they did with information technology.
Jay Precourt, the majority donor and namesake of the Precourt Institute for Energy, said that he finds this institute important for many reasons, including decreasing carbon emissions in the earth’s atmosphere, but he also said “I’m quite concerned, having been in the energy business my whole life, with the fact that we are importing energy from insecure, unreliable sources who are, in many cases, not friends of the United States.” Jay Precourt held the positions of President and CEO of Hamilton Oil Company (a subsidiary of Shell Oil Co.) and ScissorTail Energy and Hermes Consolidated. Whatever his past, I am thankful for his current decision of supporting sustainability in the future.
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