Industry
Industry touchpoints take place throughout the energy landscape at Stanford. The pathway to industry engagement with Stanford’s core energy research efforts and other industrial affiliates programs create significant fundamental research opportunities that address critical global challenges.
Industry Supported Research Programs I Industry Engagement I Centers & Programs I Industry Internship Programs I Industry Resources
Industry supported research programs
Stanford Energy Corporate Affiliates
Stanford Energy Corporate Affiliates Program creates a connection between member firms and Stanford University. The program supports advanced research, policy study, outreach, and education across a broad range of issues at the intersection of energy, materials and chemistry, technology, and policy.
Visit the Stanford Energy Corporate Affiliates website
Bits & Watts Initiative
Bits & Watts focuses on innovations for the 21st century electric grid. The initiative enables researchers from Stanford to develop a new grid paradigm that incorporates more than 50 percent clean power and distributed energy while assuring grid reliability, security, and affordability. The holistic approach involves engineering, markets, regulations, business models, and policy, all working in sync to form a large functional ecosystem.
Visit the Bits & Watts Initiative website
Carbon Removal Initiative (in development)
Carbon Removal (in development) engages faculty across the campus and beyond to carry out the research needed to capture, utilize and store Carbon (CO2 and methane) emissions at the gigaton per year scale. The goal of the initiative is to extend our thinking from addressing technical issues in isolation, to a more integrated approach that addresses the elements and pathways together.
Visit the Carbon Removal Initiative (in development) website
Natural Gas Initiative
Natural Gas Initiative engages faculty across the university to carry out the many types of research needed to ensure that natural gas is developed and used in ways that are economically, environmentally and societally optimal. The initiative focuses on major advances in natural gas production that have fundamentally changed the energy outlook in the United States and much of the world.
Visit the Natural Gas Initiative website
StorageX Initiative
StorageX Initiative brings together Stanford faculty from materials science to computer science to economics to tackle the dominant challenges in energy storage. By addressing gaps between academic and industrial R&D, StorageX aims to accelerate the development and implementation of revolutionary energy storage technologies and concepts.
Visit the StorageX Initiative website
Sustainable Finance Initiative
Sustainable Finance Initiative sees the transition to a new economy dramatically impacting financial risk and opportunity, most notably in energy, agriculture, and mobility. SFI develops innovative policy and finance solutions in collaboration with government and market participants in specific countries and regions with the goal of unlocking capital flows at the speed and scale required to transition toward decarbonization and climate resilience.
Visit the Sustainable Finance Initiative website
Hydrogen Initiative
Hydrogen Initiative is a global community of academicians, industrialists, thought leaders and government officials that convene to advance the use of hydrogen for stable, long-term, low-carbon energy storage that can be transported and utilized around the world across many industries. The group is interested in the hydrogen economy across the supply chain, including hydrogen creation, distribution and storage, and utilization.
Global Energy Forum
Global Energy Forum is the premier energy event at Stanford that brings together a unique delegation of global leaders to holistically address the challenges of the transforming global energy ecosystem. Hosted by four former United States Secretaries, the gathering offers participants the unique opportunity to engage with world-renowned Stanford energy faculty, students, and innovators who are launching cutting-edge energy technologies.
Global Energy Dialogues
Global Energy Dialogues is a virtual series where distinguished global energy thought leaders and world-renowned Stanford faculty address new challenges and unknowns that the world now faces. Global Energy Dialogues are free and open to all.
Global Energy Heroes Prize
Global Energy Heroes Prize is a $20K prize competition that recognizes young people around the world who are creating sustainable energy solutions to benefit their communities. The competition aims to inspire direct action to reduce carbon emissions in communities worldwide to: provide access to affordable energy; minimize environmental impact such as air and water pollution and carbon dioxide emissions; enable scalability, and wide adoption.
Stanford Energy Global Council
The Stanford Energy Global Council engages industry partners and energy thought-leaders in deep dialogue on the trends in technology, business, investments, and policy, and their complex interplay that is shaping and likely to shape the energy landscape in different parts of the world.
Global Energy Roundtables
Taking a deep look at regional energy landscapes, Stanford Energy partners with industry, academia, government, and non-profits in pivotal regions around the world to understand and report on the state of energy, its challenges, and energy outlook. Read about India in the 2020 report on Innovation and India's Energy Future.
Funding Opportunities
The Precourt Institute for Energy fosters opportunities for faculty and students to engage in energy research and education at Stanford and beyond. Seed grants, technology transfer programs and catalyst grants are some of the ways industry can make a difference at Stanford.
Additional energy centers & programs
Stanford Center for Carbon Storage uses a multidisciplinary approach to address critical CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) questions related to flow physics, monitoring, geochemistry, and simulation of the transport and fate of CO2 stored in partially- to fully-depleted oil fields, saline aquifers, and other unconventional reservoirs.
Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance explores and advances public policies and financial mechanisms leading to an energy future that protects the environment in an economically sensible way.
Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy is an effort by fourteen private U.S. law firms to provide pro bono legal services to sustainability-focused entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations. $23 million worth of free legal services is available by the end of 2020 to advance sustainability in energy, transportation and land use. Stanford Law School and Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy will facilitate connections between participating firms and potential pro bono clients and track the effort’s impact in support of this effort.
Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy addresses energy policy in the United States and its effects on our domestic and international political priorities, particularly our national security.
The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) catalyzes and promotes evidence-based knowledge about pressing economic issues, leading to better-informed policy solutions to generate measurable improvements in the lives of all people for generations to come.
Woods Institute for the Environment is the university's hub of interdisciplinary environment and sustainability research and the go-to place for Stanford faculty, researchers, and students to collaborate on environmental research. Their interdisciplinary work crosses sectors and disciplines, advancing solutions to the most critical, complex environmental and sustainability challenges, working toward a future in which societies meet people’s needs for water, food, health and other vital services while sustaining the planet.
TomKat Innovation Transfer Program offers opportunities to Stanford University faculty, staff, and students in commercializing breakthrough technologies and innovations in sustainability. Teams of Stanford students and faculty advisors compete for the grants to develop prototypes, to refine business plans, and to conduct customer trials and market research. The program helps participants develop a business-centric approach through Stanford resources, like the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network. The TomKat Center introduces teams to relevant entrepreneurs, executives with experience in startups, and venture investors. Mentors for each funded project provide guidance as the teams assess market opportunities, plan the commercialization of their inventions, and prepare to externalize their product.
Energy internship programs in industry
TomKat Center energyStartup Summer Internships - The TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy has two internship programs. The objectives of the summer internships are for students to gain work experience, develop applied engineering knowledge, learn entrepreneurship in a startup environment, and build upon their academic studies. The TomKat Center offers a limited number of paid summer internships to Stanford undergraduate students at exciting Stanford-affiliated sustainable energy startup companies. The TomKat Center works with several exciting sustainable energy startup companies to help recruit talented Stanford undergraduate and master's students for paid summer internship positions.
CareerEd - Stanford Career Education engages with students to help them design their career pathways, venture into new opportunities, and pursue their job search. There are a number of meaningful ways in which industry can explore student engagement.
Stanford Energy Club serves as the central hub connecting students to energy-related networks, resources, projects, and research all across Stanford. The SEC aims to empower the Stanford student community with the knowledge, experiences, and opportunities to become energy leaders of tomorrow. The Stanford Energy Club welcomes support from sponsors to help put on a vibrant portfolio of educational events and student opportunities each year. If your team is working on the cutting edge of the energy industry and is interested in supporting the SEC’s efforts please connect with the SEC leadership.
Graduate School of Business Energy Club fosters connections between students at the GSB, across Stanford, and in the energy community. We host speakers and panels that are open to the public, offer career resources to Stanford students, and hold exclusive events for GSB club members.
Inquire about creating internship opportunities for Stanford students in energy at your company.