Stanford Energy Researchers
Some 225 faculty and staff at Stanford are engaged in energy-related research. Many of the people listed below also conduct research not related to energy, which is not described here. This database covers only energy-related research at Stanford, SLAC, Hoover Institution and the Carnegie Institution departments at Stanford. Names link to Stanford employee directory listings. Terms for filtering under “Energy Research Area” are divided into categories provided in capital letters, e.g. “END USE/EFFICIENCY” “ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS,” and “POLICY & ECONOMICS.” Users can filter for specific areas or the entire category.
Please send comments and suggestions to: mark.golden@stanford.edu.
Department/Research Program:
Education, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Energy & Behavior, Transportation
Developing a community-based program for reducing residential energy use, working with Girl Scouts. Environmental learning and behavior, including transportation.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery
The formation, geometric patterns and fluid flow properties of fractures and faults, at lengths from a thin section to a mountain range.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Natural Gas, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Models for predicting performance of conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs (including shale oil and gas), and CO2 sequestration operations. Flow of complex mixtures (oil, gas and water) in porous rocks and in pipes. Optimization of oil field development and operations.
Department/Research Program:
Communication
Energy Research Area:
Energy & Behavior
Using avatars and virtual reality simulations to reduce energy use through reexamination of personal energy behavior and by connecting specific energy use and environmental consequences.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Nuclear
Probabilistic and statistical tools for modeling the reliability of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste repositories.
Department/Research Program:
Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance
Energy Research Area:
Economic Development & Equity, Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation, Tax & Regulation
How China and the U.S. could deploy solar energy more efficiently if each one played to its economic strengths. Making wind and solar power affordable.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Bioenergy, Photovoltaics
Synthesis of functional organic and polymer materials for numerous energy applications, such asnanostructured polymers for low-cost, stretchable batteries and PV cells, and thin-film organic PV cells. Printable, electrically conductive gel for potential use in energy storage and biofuel cells. Nitrogen-doped porous carbon for CO2 capture.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering, Global Climate & Energy Project, Precourt Institute
Energy Research Area:
Climate, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion
Sequestering CO2 in deep underground formations. Permeability of CO2 and brine, especially sensitivity to injection flow-rate and various fluid properties. Net energy analysis of emerging technologies, such as PV and energy storage.Energy systems analysis to guide decisions about providing energy while reducing GHG emissions.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering, TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics, Renewable Fuels
Understanding and controlling surface and interfacial chemistry, and materials synthesis. Applying this to new materials and processes for next generation low-cost solar cells, fuel cells and catalysts.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings
Sustainable, durable construction materials. Use of renewable materials instead of plastics to make structural insulated panels, which improve heating and cooling efficiency in buildings.
Department/Research Program:
Geophysics
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery
New algorithms to improve imaging of reflection seismic data for structural and stratigraphic interpretation. Continuous passive seismic monitoring for detection of CO2 plumes in geologic sequestration projects.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Geothermal
Accelerating the conversion of CO2 into carbonate minerals that can be sequestered in silicate rocks rich in magnesium and calcium. Chemical and physical processes of geothermal systems.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Transportation, Climate, Combustion
Reacting flows and the processes by which pollutants are formed and destroyed in combustion. The environmental impact of energy use, specifically greenhouse gas emissions from use of fossil fuels.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Electric Grid
Decentralized message passing to constantly optimize an electricity network with many different devices, each with its own complex constraints and objective.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Climate, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Natural Gas, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Reducing the environmental impacts of energy systems. Methane leaks from US natural gas system. Analysis of CO2 capture technologies. Life-cycle analysis of transportation fuels. Modeling global oil depletion, or "peak oil," and transitions to oil substitutes.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics
Development of silicon-based microphotonic functionality and plasmonic devices to manipulate the flow of light at the nanoscale. Use of nanowires in thin-film solar cells to boost efficiency.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Geochemistry of mineral surfaces and their reactivity with organic matter. CO2 reaction with magnesium-silicate rock in carbon sequestration, with a view to enhancing reaction and reducing cost.
Department/Research Program:
Management Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Management & Innovation
Entrepreneurship education regarding high-growth and technology enterprises, in particular energy-related technologies.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery, Natural Gas
Stochastic modeling and assessing uncertainty for decision making in geoengineering applications, particularly in modeling oil and gas reservoirs.
Department/Research Program:
Carnegie - Global Ecology, Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Climate, Wind
Transition from coal to low-carbon electricity. Oceanic CO2 sequestration. Accounting for CO2 emissions. Future CO2 from existing energy infrastructure. High-altitude wind power. Assessing wind power resources. Geoengineering to combat climate change.
Department/Research Program:
Aeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Combustion, Water, Transportation
New, fast burning fuels for application to hybrid propulsion. Nitrous oxide as a propellant for small space thrusters. Energy-neutral biological sewage treatment.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Combustion, Photovoltaics, Renewable Fuels
Developing materials for heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis using nanoparticles and nanocrystals, especially of titanium dioxide. Applications include hydrogen and methanol generation through photocatalysis, reduction of methane emissions, PV solar cells, solid oxide fuel cells and batteries.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Research Area:
A new type of cellulose in bacteria with properties that could make it an improvement over traditional cellulose for production of biofuels.
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry, SLAC - Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Renewable Fuels
Electron transfer between electrodes and among redox species. Electrocatalysts to convert CO2 and feedstocks to higher value materials. Water oxidation with metal-oxide semiconductor anodes.
Department/Research Program:
Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Physics
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Batteries & Fuel Cells, Climate, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation, Tax & Regulation
Research pathways to low-carbon energy systems. Methods to project trends in energy technology innovations and associated new business models. The effect of energy efficiency standards in appliances and buildings, and how these standards affect purchase prices and operating costs. Carbon nanospheres for stable lithium metal anodes.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Renewable Fuels
Fundamental and applied electrochemistry: solar fuels, fuel cells, and batteries.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics, Renewable Fuels
Controlling atomic scale structure of thin films and nanomaterials for use in photovoltaics and hydrogen storage. Photovoltaic absorbers from earth-abundant elements. Ion-beam assisted deposition for thin-film solar.
Department/Research Program:
Precourt Institute, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance
Energy Research Area:
Transportation, Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation
Co-evolution of technology and policy on the business case of low-carbon energy solutions. Innovation strategy and management within the global energy transition. Energy efficiency technology, policy and economics. Emerging business models at the interface of data sharing platforms and energy systems. Cost competitiveness of alternative drivetrains for mobility.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Water Systems, Bioenergy
Creating valuable products from organic waste streams. Turning wastewater treatment into a producer of energy instead of a consumer. Using anaerobic bacteria to convert organic waste to methane gas for fuel to convert wastewater to drinking water. Biosynthesis and molecular-scale recycling of bioplastics and biocomposites. In-situ remediation of radioactive waste.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Electric Grid, Grid Scale Storage, Photovoltaics
Fabrication of nanoscale materials, and study of their electronic, photonic, electrochemical and catalytic properties. Applications include lithium ion batteries, supercapacitors, CIGS solar cells, transparent electrodes and using carbon nanotubes in microbial fuel cell electrodes.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Wind
Science and technology at the intersection of fluid mechanics, energy and environment, and biology, including bio-inspired wind energy.
Department/Research Program:
Stanford Institute for Materials & Energy Science
Energy Research Area:
Unconventional Oil & Gas
Understanding diamondoid electron transport properties, synthesis of higher diamondoids, and developing diamondoid applications for oil and gas exploration.
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Renewable Fuels
New ways to synthesize graphene and carbon nanotube architectures for potential future device applications, such as fuel cells, catalysis, and lithium-air and nickel-metal batteries. Tungsten disulfide nanoflakesas a catalyst for producing hydrogen from water.
Department/Research Program:
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing
Energy-Efficient computing. Developing an efficient low-power microprocessor. Developing an image and signal processor 20 times more power efficient than conventional signal processors.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics, Solar Thermal
Characterizing and modeling the fundamental micromechanical and photochemical mechanisms that dictate the reliability and lifetimes of emerging energy technologies, including solar cells and their modules, PEM fuel cells, and batteries.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Energy Research Area:
Water Systems, Economic Development & Equity
Communal anaerobic digesters as a waste-to-energy strategy to provide sanitation and clean energy, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions relative to conventional septic tanks.
Department/Research Program:
SLAC - Photon Science, Stanford Institute for Materials & Energy Science
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Superconductors, Photovoltaics
Modern computational approaches to electron and photon dynamics. Models for new energy paradigms for developing novel materials for superconductors, photovoltaics and batteries.
Department/Research Program:
Earth System Science, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use, Energy Markets
Interactions between climate change, biofuel mandates, and energy and agriculture markets. Interactions between climate and large-scale solar energy projects.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Grid Scale Storage, Photovoltaics
Nanostructured materials for light manipulation, photovoltaics and photocatalysis. Converting low energy photons to higher for greater efficiency in solar cells. Hydrogen absorption and desorption in individual palladium nanocrystals
Department/Research Program:
Geophysics
Energy Research Area:
Land Use, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Characterization of guided waves in fluid-filled cracks, including induced hydraulic fractures in rock filled with water or hydrocarbons, andinstability when the fluid velocity exceeds a threshold. Inference of fracture geometry from resonant frequencies and attenuation.Fault damage zones impact on the flow characteristics of fractured reservoirs, and predicting fault damage zones.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Natural Gas
Computational modeling of subsurface flow, with applications in oil and gas production and geological carbon sequestration. Optimization of subsurface flow operations and energy systems.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Combustion
Flow and heat transfer in complex turbulent flows. Turbulence interactions with dispersed particles and droplets, such as with pulverized coal combustors and fast-fluidized beds.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Transportation, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Combustion
Efficient, low-polluting transportation engines (piston and turbine) by taking reactants to extreme states of energy density, and advanced electric generation. Sootless diesel engine. Coal-fired power with CO2 capture via combustion in supercritical saline aquifer water.
Department/Research Program:
Biology
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use
The population-resource-environment crisis, including a revision of humanity's energy systems, energy's effect on biodiversity, and the potential for reduction in energy consumption.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Electric Grid
A simulation tool that models all parts of the electrical network, including generation, transmission, intermittent renewable supply, energy storage, distributed generation and electrical vehicles.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Nuclear
The back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, mainly nuclear materials and the geochemistry of radionuclides with application to permanent geologic disposal. The long-term behavior of materials, such as those used in radioactive waste disposal.
Department/Research Program:
Center on Food Security & the Environment, Economics
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use, Economic Development & Equity, Bioenergy
How different scenarios of expanded biofuels production in rich and poor countries will affect global and regional food prices, farmer incomes, food consumption by the poor, and climate.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Transportation, Photovoltaics, Solar Thermal
Photonic band gap materials and nanoscale photonic devices. Thermophotovoltaics. Control of thermal radiation. Nanostructured solar cells. Wireless charging of electric cars.
Department/Research Program:
Biology
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use, Bioenergy
Integrating large-scale solar projects with biofuel production in deserts. Impacts on climate of converting land use from food to biofuel crops. Climate benefits of converting biofuel crops from annual plants to perennials. Global potential of bioenergy.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings
Virtual design and construction.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
Materials with unconventional magnetic and electronic properties. Effects of electron correlation. Superconductivity, topological insulators and behavior of electrons in low-dimensional materials.
Department/Research Program:
Communication
Energy Research Area:
Public Opinion
Impact of deliberative polling, (which explores how people's opinions would change if they were more informed), on energy choices, attitudes toward renewable energy and energy conservation.
Department/Research Program:
Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Energy & Behavior, Sensors & Data
Understanding energy efficiency behavior selection and plasticity, and tests of adoption. Affective, cognitive and social web interfaces for reducing energy use. Real-time feedback and its affects.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics
Energy Research Area:
Transportation
Trip estimation techniques to better manage hybrid vehicle batteries. Energy interests in transportation systems, energy efficiency and education of scientists and non-scientists in energy policy and technology.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Buildings, Photovoltaics
Synthesizing and characterizing polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells, both acidic and alkaline. Potential energy applications of ultrathin films and amphiphiles. Green construction materials.
Department/Research Program:
SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Renewable Fuels
Electron transfer dynamics. Mechanisms for directed and efficient channeling of solar energy to chemical energy. Multi-exciton generation efficiency in nano-structured materials.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Transportation, Combustion
Using control systems to reduce the environmental impact of automobiles. Unmanned electric vehicles. Homogeneous charge compression ignition engines.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery, Solar Thermal
Models to predict the performance of enhanced oil recovery methods, particularly gas injection and in-situ combustion. Improved siting of large-scale concentrating solar power projects.
Department/Research Program:
Physics
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
Behavior of electrons confined to nanostructures. Tuning electronic and optical properties of materials and nanostructures using electrolyte gating, to optimize materials for energy conversion.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Electric Grid, Sensors & Data, Transportation
Wireless technology, including channel modeling, multiuser communications, signal processing and system design, for use in smart grids, automated highways and intelligent home electronics.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Buildings, Thermoelectrics, Transportation
Study of heat transfer and energy conversion processes, such as thermoelectric and photonic, at nanoscale. Novel materials for thermoelectric waste-heat recovery in vehicles and buildings. Two-phase flow in fuel cell microchannels.
Department/Research Program:
Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Energy Markets, Water
Fundamentals of transport of groundwater and contaminants. The future of global oil resources, supply and demand. Deep CO2 sequestration and earthquake triggering.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Electric Grid
Big data analytics for asset management. Risk-adjusted forecasting of electric power load. Systems and controls analysis of power systems with distributed generation.
Department/Research Program:
Economics
Energy Research Area:
Energy Markets, Law, Tax & Regulation
The environmental and economic impacts of U.S. and international environmental policies, including policies to deal with climate change, and with pollution from power plants and automobiles. Strengths and weaknesses of a carbon tax. Design of cap-and-trade systems. Obama administration's "Clean Power Plan."
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery, Natural Gas
Energy resources of sedimentary basins. Basin and petroleum basin systems modeling. Geologic characterization of petroleum reservoirs, especially deep-water reservoirs.
Department/Research Program:
Biology, Carnegie - Plant Biology
Energy Research Area:
Bioenergy, Renewable Fuels
Acclimation in photosynthetic organisms. Generating bioenergy in the form of hydrocarbons and electricity from living cells. Regulatory aspects of photosynthesis and the biogenesis of photosynthetic membranes.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Renewable Fuels
Electrochemical energy conversion, and storage materials and processes. Fuel cells for methane, hydrogen and solid fuel conversion. CO2 and water electrolysis for energy storage (methane). Coal-fired fuel cell with CO2 capture.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Combustion, Transportation
Development of laser-based diagnostics to optimize performance and minimize pollution of combustion and propulsion systems. Synthetic oxygenated fuels. Sensors for advanced combustion. Rate constants for reactions of OH with fuels.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing, Photovoltaics
Using molecular beam epitaxy of III-V compound semiconductor materials to investigate new materials and nano structuring for high efficiency solar cells and photo electrochemical water splitting for the generation of hydrogen.
Department/Research Program:
Geophysics
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Seismic wave propagation in multi-scale heterogeneous reservoirs. Characterization and monitoring of petroleum and carbon storage systems. CO2 sequestration in coal beds.
Department/Research Program:
Management Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Economic Development & Equity, National Security
Managing the global expansion of nuclear power while avoiding the proliferation of nuclear weapons, with special attention to the nuclear aspirations of states such as North Korea and Iran.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Combustion, Solar Thermal
Optics, photonics and optical materials. Combined cooling, heating and power system for the home with thermoacoustic Stirling engine core fueled by natural gas and solar thermal energy.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Air Quality, Buildings
Characteristics of of airborne particles emitted from urban combustion sources. Assessment of air pollutant dispersion and mixing indoors, including the effects of energy-efficient building design strategies on indoor pollutant levels.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery, Unconventional Oil & Gas, Geothermal
Geothermal, oil and gas reservoir engineering. Energy production optimization. Enhanced geothermal systems. Well test interpretation. Tracer analysis of fractures.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing
Developing energy efficient electronic solutions. Circuit, architecture and application optimization tools to minimize energy needed for each task. Applications from server farms to imagers in mobile platforms.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing, Solar Thermal
Sensors and actuators for energy conversion. Optimizing materials for photon-enhanced thermionic emission. Nano electromechanical relays for ultra-low power computation. Discovering new, chemically stable nanomaterials for thermionic energy conversion.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Grid Scale Storage
Overview of advanced batteries. New types of long life, safe and inexpensive alkali metal batteries to connect wind and solar sources to the electrical grid. Hydrogen transport and hydride formation in metals, alloys and intermetallic compounds for use in vehicular fuel cells and batteries.Materials and phenomena in lithium-ion batteries.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Modeling Forum, Management Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Energy Markets, Integrated Modeling, National Security
Improving the use of energy-economic models for evaluating energy security, energy price shocks and the energy market impacts of environmental policies. Evaluating U.S. oil security, import reliance and oil markets.GHG emissions and economic implications of new shale gas supplies.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Superconductors
Atomic scale synthesis and control of complex oxides heterostructures for energy applications, including superconductors, catalysis and charge storage.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Solar Thermal, Wind
Developing new computational methods to design and analyze renewable energy, including solar thermal devices. Using current supercomputers and next-generation high performance systems for multidisciplinary optimization to increase wind turbine power output and reduce noise. Modeling natural ventilation in energy efficient buildings using high-fidelity simulations.
Department/Research Program:
Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Water, Natural Gas, Unconventional Oil & Gas, Tax & Regulation
Produce scientific knowledge to guide policies on energy extraction and global warming. Environmental costs and benefits of hydraulic fracturing, especially on local water, air, human health and climate. Finding natural gas leaks in urban distribution systems. Monitoring global GHG emissions.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Air Quality, Climate, Integrated Modeling, Wind
Developing large-scale clean, renewable energy solutions to global warming, air pollution and energy security. Modeling energy's effects on health and climate. Quantifying wind, water, and solar energy resources and reducing the impacts of their intermittency. Potential damping effect of large, ocean-based wind farms on hurricanes.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Tailoring solid-state surfaces for effective catalysis in both the production and consumption of energy. Developing devices for storing renewable electricity based on chemical transformations. Converting CO2 and water into sustainable fuels and chemicals. Tools include nanoparticles, metals, alloys, sulfides, nitrides, carbides, phosphides, oxides, and biomimetic organo-metallic complexes.
Department/Research Program:
Management Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Electric Grid, Energy Markets
Design and management of the electric grid. Model and analyze efficient market mechanisms for resource allocation on the grid, using tools from operations research, engineering and economics.
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry
Energy Research Area:
Renewable Fuels
Producing ethanol from carbon monoxide gas with a copper catalyst. Electrochemical CO2 and nitrogen gas reduction. Oxide-derived metal nanoparticle catalysts.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics, Physics
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
Understanding mechanisms for high-temperature superconductors. Novel phases and phase transitions in disordered and strongly correlated electron systems. Micro- and nano-scale mechanical devices
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Nuclear, Photovoltaics
Materials for the reversible sequestration of pollutants and for electro- and photo-catalytic conversions relevant for clean energy. Capturing atmospheric CO2 using organic-inorganic hybrid materials.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Green Computing
Green energy-efficient networks. Green networks for office and residential buildings. Novel photonics for green networks. Energy efficiency in optical and wireless access networks.
Department/Research Program:
Physics
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
High-temperature superconductivity. Quantum magnetism. Electronic liquid crystalline phases of matter. Strong correlation effects in electronic materials and devices.
Department/Research Program:
Precourt Institute, Stanford Environmental & Energy Policy Analysis Center
Energy Research Area:
Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Law, Tax & Regulation
Environmental economics and industrial organization, with a focus on climate change and energy markets. Uncertainty and learning in strategic contexts regarding the provision of public goods, mostly in the context of international environmental agreements.
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Recovery of unconventional hydrocarbon resources. Sequestration of greenhouse gases in oil and gas reservoirs.Physics of oil recovery at scales from pore to reservoir. Flow imaging to delineate the mechanisms of oil, water and gas flows in porous rock. Synthesis of models from experimental and field data.
Department/Research Program:
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing
Energy efficient computing based on architectures, runtime environments and parallel computer systems. Resource management in large, multi-core systems. Efficient data centers.
Department/Research Program:
Political Science
Energy Research Area:
Public Opinion
Surveys documenting public beliefs about global warming and preferences for energy policy for more than 15 years. Monitoring and interpreting processes of opinion formation and change.
Department/Research Program:
Aeronautics & Astronautics, Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Electric Grid
Control technologies for networked and distributed systems, including the electric system. Impact on power grid reliability from widespread use of distributed energy resources.
Department/Research Program:
Earth System Science, Center on Food Security & the Environment
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use
Consequences of switching land use to biofuels. Failure to account for geography of trade leads to an overstatement of GHG emissions from U.S. biofuel policies of nearly 100 percent.
Department/Research Program:
Aeronautics & Astronautics
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Air Quality, Climate, Combustion, Wind
Increasing output and reducing costs at large wind farms by positioning smaller, mixing turbines among the primary turbines in conjunction with other new management approaches. The effects of aircraft on climate and pollution. Combined cooling, heating and power system for the home with thermoacoustic Stirling engine.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Finance & Subsidies
Integration of energy and environmental performance indicators, value and payback time in design of energy-efficient buildings. Market-based valuation of renewable power plants' ecological benefits.
Department/Research Program:
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing
Emerging computer systems, such as low-power wireless sensor networks and full duplex wireless.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Management & Innovation
Ways for the construction industry to overcome barriers to adopting energy-efficient innovations. Designing organizations and governance regimes for sustainable development of energy and civil infrastructure projects.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics
The speed limits and microscopic processes that determine the performance of devices for energy conversion. Ultrafast properties of nanoscale materials.
Department/Research Program:
Political Science
Energy Research Area:
Economic Development & Equity, Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Public Opinion, Transportation, Tax & Regulation
The politics of energy policy, especially in regard to concern over global climate change, oil price volatility, the economic rise of China, andenergy efficiency in Japanese transportation. Variation in energy efficiency due to electoral incentives.
Department/Research Program:
Center on Food Security & the Environment, Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use
Impacts on climate of converting land use from food to biofuel crops. Climate benefits of converting biofuel crops from annual plants to perennials. Integrating large-scale solar projects with biofuel production in deserts.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Deep-water sedimentation, especially using outcrops and cores to study the processes by which coarse sediment is transported and deposited in the deep sea.
Department/Research Program:
SLAC, Stanford Institute for Materials & Energy Science
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies of strongly correlated electron systems, in particular the high temperature superconductors.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
END USE/EFFICIENCY, Water Systems, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS, Water
Urban water infrastructure and the water/energy nexus. A new palette for urban water that saves water, energy and money.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Geological carbon storage in sedimentary and magnesium-silicate rocks. Geochemical and hydrological interactions that optimize the formation of carbonates and the physical trapping of CO2, with a view to enhance reaction kinetics, reduce cost and increase storage security.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering, Precourt Institute
Energy Research Area:
Thermoelectrics, Batteries & Fuel Cells, Electric Grid, Grid Scale Storage, Climate, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation, Renewable Fuels
Nanoscale materials and devices for energy conversion, transport and storage. Future of stationary power: electricity grid and natural gas infrastructure, system integration and innovative technologies, finance, policy and business models. Energy's impacts on climate change.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Solar Thermal
With core expertise in fluid dynamics, computational engineering, and electrokinetic phenomena, we investigate a concept idea for improving efficiency of plasma-based CO2 converters.
Department/Research Program:
Physics, Stanford Institute for Materials & Energy Science
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing, Superconductors
Atomic and molecular manipulation for energy-efficient nanotechnology. Designer materials and nanoelectronics. Local response of novel superconductors. Carbon-based devices.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Grid Scale Storage
Behavior of materials under compression, which can lead to new materials for hydrogen storage and advanced batteries. Hydrogen-rich, crystalline solids. CO2 reaction with magnesium-silicate rock.
Department/Research Program:
Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
Air Quality, Climate, Land Use, Water, Natural Gas, Economic Development & Equity
Energy in the context of sustainability. Balancing water and energy demands.
Department/Research Program:
Geophysics
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Enhanced Oil Recovery
Impact of rock type, porosity, pore fluids, temperature, and stress on seismic wave propagation. How geochemical reactions of CO2 injection change the seismic attributes of rocks. Enhanced oil recovery.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Water Systems
Waste water: making treatment, as well as water and nutrient recovery, a net producer of energy rather than a consumer.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics
Thin films, especially complex metal oxides. Metal-oxide semiconductor anodes for oxidation of water. Low-to-intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. Multijunction nanowire solar cells.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Solar Thermal
Photon-enhanced thermionic emission devices, which use solar heat and light to generate electricity. Self-assembly of nanostructures from the natural protein clathrin for experimental battery electrodes.
Department/Research Program:
Carnegie - Global Ecology, Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Water
Improving methods for use of atmospheric observations of GHG from remote sensors. Underestimation of U.S. methane emissions from oil and natural gas extraction and processing, (as well non-energy sources). Estimation of fossil-fuel CO2 emissions via atmospheric inversions.Water quality monitoring and contaminant source identification.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Air Quality, Bioenergy, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Water, Water Systems
Using anaerobic bacteria to convert organic waste to methane gas for fuel to convert wastewater to drinking water. Possible formation and release of nitrosamine and nitramine carcinogens from amine-based CO2 capture, which is the only currently economical technology for power plant exhaust gases, and techniques to destroy any of these byproducts. Disinfection byproducts in drinking water impacted by shale gas wastewater.
Department/Research Program:
Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Bioenergy
Coal-based power generation involving coal conversion in supercritical water with CO2 capture and aquifer-based sequestration. Coal and biomass utilization in solid oxide fuel cells with CO2 capture. Co-firing coal and biomass during combustion and gasification. Chemical looping combustion with coal and biomass. Coal and biomass conversion in supercritical water for production of liquid fuels.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Molecular analysis of organic extracts from sediments and petroleum. Aspects of petroleum genesis, production and environmental remediation of oil spills.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics, Physics
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
Specialized magnetic nanoprobes. Magnetic signatures of materials with quantum mechanical and strongly correlated electron behavior. Single vortex dynamics in superconductors.
Department/Research Program:
Center on Food Security & the Environment, Earth System Science
Energy Research Area:
Climate, Land Use, Economic Development & Equity
Economic, political and food-security implications of American ethanol. Climate impacts of converting land use to biofuel crops. Sugar and ethanol production as a rural development strategy in Brazil.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics, Solar Thermal
Properties of passivated silicon surfaces prepared using wet chemical techniques. Discovering new, chemically stable nanomaterials for thermionic energy conversion.
Department/Research Program:
GSB - Operations, Info. & Tech.
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Climate, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation, Tax & Regulation
The construction industry's barriers to adopting energy-efficient innovations. Operational management challenges for some cleantech firms. Reducing corporate carbon footprint through operations and supply chain management.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Geothermal, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Unconventional Oil & Gas
How the geologic structures created by faults, fractures and folding affect hydrocarbon recovery and the flow of groundwater. Models for applying hydraulic fracturing to geothermal systems.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing, Thermoelectrics, Photovoltaics
Nanomaterials for energy-efficient electronics, including transistors, data storage, integrated circuits, and sensors. Energy harvesting through thermoelectrics. Carbon nanotubes, graphene, and other 2D materials for electronic and thermal applications. Fundamental limits of current and heat flow at the nanoscale.
Department/Research Program:
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Energy & Behavior, Sensors & Data, Transportation
Using incentive mechanisms and societal networks for reducing congestion-related costs in transportation, both public and private.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics
Quantum confined solar cells, including quantum dots, thin barrier layers and transparent electrodes. Solid oxide fuel cells. Photosynthetic membranes and their catalytic behavior.
Department/Research Program:
Physics
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
New materials such as topological insulators and topological superconductors. Topological phenomena in these topological materials and their interplay with conventional materials such as superconductors and ferromagnets.
Department/Research Program:
Physics, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Superconductors
Unconventional superconductivity. Correlated electron materials, in which the low energy degrees of freedom behave qualitatively differently than a free electron gas. Topological phases of matter.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Sensors & Data, Electric Grid, Energy Markets, Wind
Making renewable energy economical. Reducing wind power costs by improving forecasts and buying replacement power later. Matching solar supply with businesses that have price-sensitive demand.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics
Theory and modeling for new, energy-related materials and nanomaterials. Engineering piezoelectricity in graphene for mechanical control at nanoscale.
Department/Research Program:
GSB - Accounting
Energy Research Area:
Finance & Subsidies, Tax & Regulation
Cost competitiveness of renewable energy sources, including solar PV, wind and biofuels. Economics of CO2 capture by fossil fuel power plants. Design of alternative regulatory and subsidy mechanisms to achieve CO2 reductions.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics, Superconductors
Nonequilibrium phonon dynamics. Thermal transport across interfaces between dissimilar materials. Fundamental laser-matter interactions in solids in the high-field limit.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
END USE/EFFICIENCY
Power electronics, RF power amplifiers, resonant converters, soft switching topologies and design of power converters for operation in harsh environments.
Department/Research Program:
Pediatrics
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Energy & Behavior, Transportation
Applying experimental approaches from public health and medical research to develop family-, school-, and community-based interventions to promote residential, transportation and food-related energy-saving behaviors. Designing "stealth interventions" that harness the motivating characteristics of social movements to promote the overlapping goals of environmental sustainability and health.
Department/Research Program:
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Green Computing
Energy efficient and sustainable building design. Reducing plug loads to achieve net-zero energy buildings. HVAC energy efficiency. Efficient computing and data center energy management.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics
Structure/property of crystalline and polymeric organic semiconductors for photovoltaics. Upconverting nanomaterials. Advanced characterization of materials.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics
Developing monocrystalline germanium III-V solar cell with efficiencies near the best multi-junction cells and manufacturing cost approaching the conventional crystalline silicon technology.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Bioenergy
New methods for delignification of woody cellulosic biomass. Understanding mechanisms plants use to produce complex molecules for future use in synthetic production of energy feedstocks.
Department/Research Program:
Aeronautics & Astronautics
Energy Research Area:
Combustion, Unconventional Oil & Gas, Geothermal, Photovoltaics
Synthesizing wide bandgap semiconductor thin films that are temperature tolerant, chemically resistant and radiation-hardened. Sensor systems for extreme harsh environments, applicable to hydrocarbon exploration, gas turbines, car and plane engines, and geothermal generation.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Unconventional Oil & Gas
Suspension and settling of particles in viscoelastic fluids in hydraulic fracturing to prop open the fractures. Reducing the settling rate of the proppant particles, typically sand. Understanding the properties of the transport solutions, commonly a borate guar gum solution.
Department/Research Program:
Applied Physics, Physics, SLAC
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Superconductors, Renewable Fuels, Solar Thermal
High-temperature cuprate and pnictide superconductors. Photon-enhanced thermionic emission devices, which use solar heat and light. Transition metal oxides as functional energy materials. Multi-scale imaging of energy materials. Diamondoids-nanostructured diamond.
Department/Research Program:
Hoover Task Force on Energy Policy, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Precourt Institute
Energy Research Area:
Nuclear, Finance & Subsidies, Law, Management & Innovation, National Security, Tax & Regulation
U.S. energy policy and its effects on domestic and international political priorities, national security, the economy and global climate. Proposal for a revenue-neutral tax on carbon. Results of low-carbon energy research at U.S. universities. Making nuclear power safer globally, both in terms of accidents and nuclear weapons proliferation.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics, Renewable Fuels
Transmission electron microscopy to study effects of radiation damage on the size and distribution of quantum dots in solar cells. Doping titanium dioxide nanowires for enhanced photoelectrochemical performance.
Department/Research Program:
Law, School of
Energy Research Area:
Law, Tax & Regulation
Gas mileage standards. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement. Interaction of law and science in the arena of climate change. Planning ocean uses, including renewable energy projects such as wind, wave and tidal energy.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Solar Thermal
Material processing and fabrication technology for solar concentrators based on graded-index and optical meta-materials to improve output and lower cost in thermal solar and photovoltaic cells.
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry, SLAC - Photon Science
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Renewable Fuels
Determining the electronic structure of transition metal complexes, which are utilized in oxidation catalysis and fuel cells to facilitate and control oxygen activation and reduction. Hydroxylation of methane (and other simple hydrocarbons) using copper and iron to produce methanol, which could reduce oil dependence and GHG emissions.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics
A mathematical model for charge transport in semiconducting polymers for insights into the limits of charge mobilities in organic electronic devices. The kinetics and thermodynamics of protein self assembly for potential applications including photovoltaics and energy storage.
Department/Research Program:
Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Water Systems, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Bioenergy
Metabolic processes of anaerobic microorganisms and their application in bioenergy. Microbes that convert electricity, CO2 and water into fuels (or precursors) without the use of biomass. Microbial conversion of sewage to methane.
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Photovoltaics, Renewable Fuels
Bioinspired redox catalysts by discrete metal complexes on surfaces, for CO2 capture and reduction of O2 to water in ambient-temperature fuel cells.Strategies to make interfaces in dye-sensitized solar cells less chemically reactive. Electro-catalysts for renewable fuels and chemicals.
Department/Research Program:
Geological & Environmental Sciences
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells
Atomic-scale structure and dynamics of the ion conducting oxide ceramic materials at the heart of solid oxide fuel cells, with the aim of optimizing performance and lowering cost.
Department/Research Program:
BioEngineering, Chemical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Bioenergy, Renewable Fuels
Hydrogen from biomass by developing a synthetic enzyme pathway to produce hydrogen from NADPH. Developing an oxygen-tolerant iron-based hydrogenase for a photosynthetic microorganism to produce hydrogen from sunlight.
Department/Research Program:
Management Science & Engineering, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Energy & Behavior, Heating & Cooling, Transportation, Climate, Integrated Modeling, Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Law, Management & Innovation, Tax & Regulation
Energy efficiency technologies, policies and behavior. Energy and climate change policy analysis. Electricity and petroleum markets analysis. Implementation of California's global warming solutions act (AB32).
Department/Research Program:
Energy Research Area:
Department/Research Program:
Energy Resources Engineering
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Enhanced Oil Recovery
Numerical modeling of flow and transport in porous rock with emphasis on unstable multiscale dynamics. Application areas include CO2 sequestration and reservoir simulation.
Department/Research Program:
Program on Energy & Sustainable Development
Energy Research Area:
Air Quality, Economic Development & Equity, Energy Markets, Management & Innovation
Game simulating California's markets for electricity, reneweble energy and CO2 permits to inform policy. How institutional factors affect the diffusion of technologies, from central electricity generation to cook stoves. National oil companies.
Department/Research Program:
SLAC
Energy Research Area:
Transportation, Batteries & Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics
Structural characterization of materials used for energy conversion and storage, especially graphenefor thin films for solar cells, and also lithium-sulfur batteries for electric cars, high-temperature proton exchange membrane for fuel cells.
Department/Research Program:
Geophysics
Energy Research Area:
CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Geophysical characterization of the chemical and physical changes that a rock formation undergoes upon the injection of fluids for storage, as with sequestration of CO2, or for the production of fossil energy, i.e., hydraulic fracturing and formation damage.Unpredicted rock alterations can lead to ground contamination, ineffective stimulation and seismic activity.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing
Tiny, highly efficient semiconductor laser for optical data interconnects that use light to communicate with higher speed and smaller energy consumption than conventional electrical interconnects
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Green Computing
Magnetic nanotechnology, spintronics and integrated inductors, with applications in energy conversion and storage.
Department/Research Program:
Biology, Carnegie - Plant Biology
Energy Research Area:
Bioenergy
The plant growth hormone brassinosteroid, which regulates cell elongation, photosynthesis, flowering, light response, and stress tolerance. This research could lead to increasing crop yield for biomass.
Department/Research Program:
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Energy Research Area:
Energy Markets, Law, Tax & Regulation
Climate and electricity policy. Performance of the emerging global market for GHG permits and offsets.
Department/Research Program:
Chemistry
Energy Research Area:
Batteries & Fuel Cells, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Developing organometallic and organic catalysts. Oxidative conversion of natural gas into liquid fuels without CO2 release. Transition metal catalysts for direct-hydrocarbon fuel cells.
Department/Research Program:
Materials Science & Engineering, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
Energy Research Area:
Buildings, Transportation, Climate, Integrated Modeling, Land Use, Economic Development & Equity, Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation, Tax & Regulation
Analysis of global climate change policy options. Energy efficiency analysis. Energy technology assessment. Integrated assessment. Models for strategic planning. Venture capital formation for energy technologies. GHG emissions and economic implications of new shale gas supplies. Market valuation of renewable power plants' ecological benefits.
Department/Research Program:
Economics, Program on Energy & Sustainable Development
Energy Research Area:
Energy & Behavior, Electric Grid, Water, Energy Markets, Finance & Subsidies, Management & Innovation, Tax & Regulation
Energy market design and monitoring. Emissions permit market design, analysis and monitoring.Transmission expansion policy, design and analysis. Methods for least cost integration of intermittent renewable resources. Energy supply and water supply interactions. The impact of pricing and information provision on energy demand.
Department/Research Program:
Electrical Engineering
Energy Research Area:
Photovoltaics
Multijunction photovoltaic cell using nanowire-based subcells connected in parallel and a plasmonic electrode serving both as a lateral spectral filter and as a light concentrator.
Department/Research Program:
Geophysics
Energy Research Area:
Land Use, CO2 Capture, Storage & Conversion, Natural Gas, Unconventional Oil & Gas
Reservoir geomechanics with emphasis on shale gas and tight gas reservoirs, hydraulic fracturing, the occurrence of induced and triggered earthquakes, and the feasibility of long-termgeologic sequestration of CO2.
