Stanford's last major foray into this area was "The Global Climate and Energy Project"... a major sponsor was ExxonMobil. As you might guess, that didn't really do much in the way of producing renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels... more like a green PR initiative. Somehow I don't think oil companies are thrilled about everyone driving EVs and seeing their market share collapse.
I rather doubt this one will be any better. A better option would just be to put $1 billion into a company dedicated to catching up to China on mass-scale monocrystalline PV wafer production for durable, high-efficiency PV panels for both rooftop solar and large-scale installations. Unfortunately neither California's natural gas industry nor the investor-owned utilities are thrilled about that either. Rooftop cuts directly into utility revenue, and replacing natural gas power plants with solar + storage plants makes Sempra and friends very sad.
The United States is more of a petro-state than most people realize, and a rapid transition to renewables (i.e. 3% reduction in fossil fuel production per year, matched by an equivalent increase in renewable energy production per year) is too much economic disruption to contemplate, it seems - although that is what is needed if you wanted to address the climate problem. American academics are not going to do anything on their own about this, as they don't control the funding.
https://gcep.stanford.edu/about/exxonmobil.html
I rather doubt this one will be any better. A better option would just be to put $1 billion into a company dedicated to catching up to China on mass-scale monocrystalline PV wafer production for durable, high-efficiency PV panels for both rooftop solar and large-scale installations. Unfortunately neither California's natural gas industry nor the investor-owned utilities are thrilled about that either. Rooftop cuts directly into utility revenue, and replacing natural gas power plants with solar + storage plants makes Sempra and friends very sad.
https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2018/04/21/the-weekend...
The United States is more of a petro-state than most people realize, and a rapid transition to renewables (i.e. 3% reduction in fossil fuel production per year, matched by an equivalent increase in renewable energy production per year) is too much economic disruption to contemplate, it seems - although that is what is needed if you wanted to address the climate problem. American academics are not going to do anything on their own about this, as they don't control the funding.