Energy Transition

Evaluation of land resources by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization suggest availability of arable land itself is not a major constraint on food production at least through mid-century, assuming continued yield improvements. There are, however, some wild cards that could vastly impact agriculture in the coming decades.

Nourishing People

Professors Jake Jacoby, Valerie Karplus, Tom Malone, and John Sterman discussed their COP21 experiences on a panel moderated by MITEI Deputy Director Rob Stoner.

MITEI Lunch and Learn on the United Nations Climate Change Conference—COP 21

An Institute-wide study, organized under the MIT Energy Initiative, is being conducted of the potential future role of U.S. natural gas. Prominent in this assessment is analysis of various categories of gas resources and of their supply costs considering potential technical change in production methods.

Analytic Support for the MIT Natural Gas Study

The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is leading a study of renewable electricity futures for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and has enlisted the MIT Global Change Program for analytical support. In addition to the MIT component of the effort, the NREL study involves a set of subject matter experts as well as a broad set of stakeholders including financiers, utilities, system integrators, and equipment manufacturers.

Analytic Support for NREL's Renewable Electricity Futures Study

This project involves the development of an improved facility for economic analysis of the issues discussed below, which involve changing feedstock quality, fuel demand, and processing and related technologies. The main vehicle for the research is a set of enhanced versions of the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. It is being applied to studies of the implications for fuel markets under evolving regulatory regimes.

Analysis of Evolving Energy and Fuels Markets

This project is evaluating the fundamental interactions between human and terrestrial systems through agriculture and land use, driven by forces that are global in nature and moderated by climate and atmospheric composition. It aims to address the global consequences of human interactions on earth systems, and the consequent feedbacks on the economy.

Global Effects of Human and Terrestrial Interactions

The electric power industry is changing rapidly, with more customers increasing demand and asking for improved response times and more renewable technologies. To prepare our power systems for the next generation, we need to improve both long- and short-term investment planning for generation technologies and systems. This project will aid that effort by developing new data designs that can be used to create methods for optimizing large engineering systems.

Decision making under coupled multi-timescale uncertainty: Advanced electric power systems planning

This project aims to provide improved understanding of the complex interactions between climate change and conventional air pollution, which are linked because greenhouse gases and conventional air pollutants result from shared generation processes, they interact chemically in the atmosphere, jointly affect climate, and the impacts of these environmental changes have multiple and potentially non- marginal effects on economic activities.

Integrated Assessment of Multiple Greenhouse Gases, Climate Impacts, and Pollution

Within the MIT Integrated Global System Model (IGSM) framework, economic activity is simulated with the Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model and terrestrial biogeochemistry is simulated with the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM).

Dynamic Modeling of Emissions from Land-Use Activities

Federal standards for fine particulate matter and tropospheric ozone have become increasingly stringent over the past several decades. States preparing attainment plans will be challenged with accounting for the regional and longer-range transport of these pollutants and their precursors and with the higher marginal costs of additional permanent or annual emissions reductions in the future.

Analysis of Dynamic, Flexible NOx and SO2 Abatement for Power Plants in the Eastern US and Texas

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