Welcome!
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)
Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI)
Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security (ACDIS)
Energy and Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago
Search This Site
Selected news & events (more):
April 22, 2009: Tom Ulen, The (Daunting) Policy Choices in Addressing Global Warming, IGPA Brownbag Series, noon, 1007 W. Nevada, Urbana [more]
April 22, 2009: Anthony Star, The Center for Neighborhood Technology and its work with the Illinois Smart Grid Initiative, ISTC Sustainability Seminar, noon, 1 Hazelwood Dr, Champaign [more]
April 20, 2009: Jonathan Mielenz, Consolidated Bioprocessing for Improved Biomass Fuels and Chemicals Production, Seminar on Bioenergy Topics, ACES Library, 4 pm [more]
April 17, 2009: John C. Bailar, Solar Hydrogen Generation from Water, Inorganic Chemistry Seminar, 112 Chem Annex, 4 pm [more]
April 16 - 17, 2009: Sustainable Biofuels and Human Security: Brazil and Southern Africa, International Hewlett Conference, Levis Faculty Center [more]
April 16, 2009: Amory B. Lovins, Energy & Resource Sustainability in The Twenty-First Century, 6:15 pm 141 Wohlers Hall [more]