Overview and mission

FY26 MITEI priority updates 

Encourage and help MITEI's members to fund more energy research with MIT faculty 

In FY26, MITEI emphasized increasing the research engagement of existing MITEI member companies and recruiting new members, particularly those interested in building a research relationship. Google signed as a new Future Energy Systems Center member in FY26, and MITEI is discussing research-level memberships with both existing member companies and key prospects. Taken together, these memberships could support a significant number of new sponsored projects. 

MITEI’s regular process of engagement with its corporate members includes facilitated meetings with faculty, scheduled events covering many technologies, and customized workshops involving teams of principal investigators. In FY26, MITEI also identified new opportunities for working with members. In September 2025, MITEI launched the Data Center Power Forum to address issues related to data center energy supply, grid and demand management, infrastructure, and policy/economics. In early 2026, MITEI also started the Future of Fuels study focused on sustainable biofuels and e-fuels for long-haul transportation. MITEI Director William H. Green is leading the Consistent Lifecycle and Economic Assessment Recommendations (CLEAR) initiative, an engineering community effort organized with Elsa Olivetti (Materials Science and Engineering) to standardize approaches to techno-economic analyses and lifecycle assessments for energy technologies.  

As part of the Future Energy Systems Center, MITEI has also defined a focus area on long-duration energy storage, a topic of wide interest to MITEI members and well-aligned with already-funded Center projects and MIT’s research expertise. The Center has also deepened member engagement through the release of technology dashboards on the MITEI member site. For key energy technologies, these dashboards synthesize data from reliable sources and results from Center projects to examine the advantages and trade-offs of key energy technologies. (Read more under Research accomplishments.) 

Address the data center problem 

In 2023, data centers consumed about 4.4% of the total electricity supply in the United States. With the rapid expansion of the use of artificial intelligence and burgeoning number of data centers being built, future data center energy demand is projected to exceed the power supply. In September 2025 at Energizing@MIT: MITEI’s Annual Research Conference, we launched the Data Center Power Forum, a new member interest group focused on the urgent energy needs arising from the rapidly growing electricity demand for data centers. The Forum is a joint effort with the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), which is providing expertise on policy, markets, and economics. The Forum leverages MITEI’s established expertise and leadership in convening multiple energy sectors to focus on the timely and complex issues that are affecting many companies involved in siting, development, or long-term support of data centers and their operations. Eight existing Future Energy Systems Center members joined the Forum in FY26. Three quarterly Forum meetings were held between January and May, focusing on topics such as data center flexibility, the interconnection of new energy supplies, policy choices for a new load paradigm, and more. 

Organize better assessments of the technical and economic feasibility of energy technologies and their lifecycle emissions 

Under the leadership of MITEI Director William H. Green and Elsa Olivetti (Materials Science and Engineering), the CLEAR initiative is a MIT effort to lead the broader engineering community in establishing protocols for consistent techno-economic and lifecycle assessments of emerging energy and climate technologies. Devising best practices for these analyses is critical for supporting investors and policy makers in making data-backed decisions on which new technologies merit support. Several renowned researchers from universities in the United States and overseas and from national laboratories serve on the CLEAR steering committee, and leading companies have supplied technical experts for CLEAR subcommittees. The CLEAR initiative is supported by five energy and power companies based in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Revitalize energy education at MIT 

As the leader of MIT’s energy education efforts, MITEI manages several programs to prepare the next generation of innovators, policy makers, and researchers to collaborate on solutions to global energy challenges. MITEI engages with about 25,000 online learners each year and with hundreds of MIT students involved in member-supported sponsored research, graduate scholarships, MITEI’s Energy Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), energy-related clubs, and the undergraduate minor.  

In FY26, MITEI gained approval from the Institute’s curriculum committee to streamline core requirements for the Energy Studies Minor (ESM) and refresh the electives. The changes have already resulted in increased interest in the ESM, and by early FY27 we expect to be able to easily identify undergraduates who are already close to fulfilling the requirements of the ESM and may just need some encouragement to complete the remaining courses. MITEI continues to provide support for the development of new energy-related courses, the hiring of teaching assistants for ESM courses, and energy-related programming for MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP). During the 2026 IAP, more than 500 MIT students and community members learned about today’s energy challenges through activities and courses either run by or financially supported by MITEI. In FY26, we also moved our open online courses to a new hosting platform and launched a new course utilizing a modeling tool developed at MITEI. To serve the burgeoning need for summer job opportunities for undergraduates, we significantly expanded FY26 summer UROPs. We also offered MITEI UROPs the opportunity to engage with other UROPs working on climate and sustainability topics. (Read more in Education accomplishments.) 

Engage more broadly with MIT campus 

Although MITEI already funds researchers in more than 20 units across MIT, a major priority has been further strengthening connections with MIT community members and raising awareness of MITEI’s mission across campus. MITEI’s speaker series, MITEI Presents: Advancing the Energy Transition, was first launched for the MIT community in FY25 and has continued to gain traction with increased average audience numbers year over year. The series has attracted marquee speakers such as International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol. We continue to increase our non-research collaborations with other DLCs and campus groups. In FY26, we co-hosted the annual congressional seminar with the Climate Project, Climate Policy Center, and MIT Washington office; had breakfast and lunch collaboration meetings with the Climate Project, the MIT Energy and Climate Club, the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and other units; and coordinated with the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium on data center topics.  

On campus and beyond, MITEI’s outreach efforts foster dialogue within the research community and across the academic, industry, and government sectors and provide the public with context on current energy issues. MITEI’s Energy of the Future campaign, launched in FY25, produces video and written interviews with students who contribute to advancing the energy transition. We also spotlight these students in social media and campus poster campaigns. MITEI’s digital annual impact report highlights accomplishments of the previous year, and we promote information from the report in social media and through a campus poster campaign to increase awareness of MITEI’s mission and work. In FY26, we completed the first season of the MITEI podcast, What if it works?, which featured conversations with MIT faculty and researchers working on energy solutions. The MITEI communications team also published 21 original news articles. Across print and digital platforms these articles highlighted MITEI events; MIT energy researchers, students, and their work; and MIT-spinout companies with ties to MITEI. MITEI articles are frequently republished by MIT News, providing broader reach. (Read more in Outreach accomplishments.)