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The Renewable Energy Initiative explores options, opportunities and solutions for energy security and sustainability through greater reliance on renewable resources and aims at strengthening collaborative efforts towards an integrated renewable energy system. Projects are designed to

• investigate, design and implement steps towards the development and integration of renewable energy generation and fossil fuels displacement, including a comparison of bioenergy, wind and solar power, energy conservation and efficiency, waste management and recycling;

• develop an integrated assessment of sustainable energy resources--including the potential of emission reductions, the options and impacts of land use, agriculture and carbon storage--by integrating methodologies from economics, systems analysis, spatial and climate modeling.

The on-going project “Renewable Energy and Land Use in Illinois” focuses on Illinois and the Midwest, within the larger national and international dimensions of the energy problem. This collaborative effort involves a multi-disciplinary team of experts from the fields of engineering, plant biology, agriculture, economics, geography, atmospheric sciences, and policy studies.

Support for the project comes from the Environmental Council Earth and Society Initiative and in part from an existing grant to ACDIS from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Science, Technology, and Security Initiative.

Key Links at the University of Illinois:

Student Sustainability Committee: Call for Proposals (March 15, 2008)

International Symposium “Fueling Change With Renewable Energy” (program and presentations)

Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research (CABER)

Miscanthus Project

Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI)

Environmental Council

Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security (ACDIS)

Solar Decathlon 2007

Power and Energy Systems Area

Energy and Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago

More Links