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Energy Research Center

 

The Planet Needs New Sources of Energy

The Energy Research Center creates a sustainable future.

Give to the Energy Research Center

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The world needs new sources of clean and renewable energy to combat climate change and its devastating effects on our planet. The Energy Research Center helps create them.

The Energy Research Center engages undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and visiting scholars in innovative renewable energy research. Projects like the fuel cell plant — which produces 15 percent of the energy, electricity and heat on campus — were researched by mechanical engineering and electrical engineering students. The university’s subtropical rainforest, which uses recycled water from the fuel cell power plant to irrigate its lush landscape, is another example.

The center also provides important links between academia and industry. For example, it annually hosts the California Renewable Energy and Storage Technology (CREST) conference, bringing together academia and local agencies involved in energy research and management to exchange ideas and visions for a greener California. Conference speakers have included representatives from Southern California Gas Company, California State Lands Commission, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine and the Department of Energy’s Federal Program Office. 

Your gift fuels the examination and promotion of new or alternative energy sources, conservation and sustainability practices, and efficiency in energy utilization. Funding helps defray conference costs, including invitations to guest speakers; supports student involvement in research projects; and helps initiate new renewable energy and storage technology projects.