What we do at CEET

Affordable, reliable energy is the cornerstone of the modern economy. During the 20th century, increased access to energy produced enormous benefits in health, education, the arts and almost everything else that we take for granted in a modern society. 20th century energy was based primarily on fossil fuels. As we recognize the finite nature of fossil resources, and the impact of their use on the environment, we see that me must do things differently. New technologies, including photovoltaics, wind, and storage, are becoming increasingly attractive from an economic point of view but their deployment at scale is still in its emerging phase. Moreover, there are good indications that the path to energy sustainability is through electrification. However, it is still unclear how this multitude of resources can be integrated within an existing transmission and distribution infrastructure that has evolved over the course of a century, and that is constrained by many technical and regulatory limitations. The Center for Emerging Energy Technologies thus positions itself at the crossroads of new materials and devices, and how to best match these with end uses of energy. We conduct simulation and experiments, on realistic and production infrastructure. Based on simulation and experiment, we optimize systems, devise control algorithms, and even study the interaction between humans and energy services. If there is a need for a new instrument or device, that cannot be obtained commercially, our students and researchers will design and build one. Examples include a sky imaging system for solar resource forecasting, and a small-scale ice storage device. We also work with national labs, industry, state institutions and research organizations on collaborative projects, large and small.