News

Energy Special

Apr. 24, 2007

151 energy 2 — The MIT Cogeneration Plant is a densely packed maze of pipes and heavy equipment.
Eric D. Schmiedl—The Tech

152 energy 1 — Roger Moore shows Tech Executive Editor Rosa Cao G (not pictured) the Combustion Turbine Generator Set in the MIT Cogeneration Plant. The turbine is listed as capable of producing 21 megawatts, just over 1/58th of the power needed to energize a single flux capacitor.
Eric D. Schmiedl—The Tech

153 energy 3 — Part of the MIT Cogeneration Plant's refrigeration equipment, used for supplying cold water to the MIT campus.
Eric D. Schmiedl—The Tech

154 energy 10 — National Aeronautics and Space Administration

155 energy solar — A preview of what MIT's newest house, Solar 7, will look like.
MIT's Solar Decathlon web site: http://web.mit.edu/solardecathlon/index.html

159 energy council — Professor Ernest J. Moniz, co-chair of MIT's Energy Research Council, gives an overview of the Council's report at the beginning of the Energy Forum on Wednesday, May 3, 2006.
David Templeton—The Tech

160 energy 4 — Moore describes the integration of the MIT Cogeneration Plant with power from NSTAR and steam service from Dalkia Steam.
Eric D. Schmiedl—The Tech

Dear Reader,

As you may have noticed, MIT is full of people who are highly committed to energy and sustainability issues, from President Susan Hockfield with the Energy Initiative to numerous student groups involved in almost every imaginable aspect of environmentally-conscious action and innovation. Add to that the professors who have made it their business to pursue research related to sustainability issues, and the Facilities staff who oversee MIT's own energy use, and you begin to get an idea of just how unlikely it would be that we could cover all the worthwhile projects happening on campus.

However, in recognition of Earth Day, and MIT's celebration of Earth Week, we'll try to give you a sample of what MIT is up to, thinking globally, acting locally, and bringing that peculiarly MIT mix of focus, determination, and sleep-deprived competence to the challenges at hand. Inside this section is by no means a comprehensive list of actors and projects, but simply what we happened upon when we poked around in busy waters.

An events calendar is on the right. For a more comprehensive overview of the energy communities at MIT, you can visit: http://sustainability.mit.edu/.

The EcoExpo page provides abstracts of a number of student activities, all of which will be showcased at the EcoExpo on Thursday night (http://web.mit.edu/jialanw/www/ecoexpo.htm).

Happy Earth Week!

Rosa Cao

Executive Editor