Officials from the U.S. Department of Energy and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology met in Washington last week to review joint energy research projects, including one on clean vehicles led by University of Michigan. SNRE Professor Greg Keoleian, who is part of the project and also directs the school's Center for Sustainable Systems, also gave a presentation to Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Greg Keoleian, a professor of Sustainable Systems at SNRE and director of its Center for Sustainable Systems, was interviewed by SmartPlanet’s Ian Mount regarding plans by Uruguay to become the world’s biggest producer of wind power and one of the planet’s greenest countries.
U-M students in the Sustainable Energy Systems course (NRE 574/ESENG 599/PP 519) had two electrifying guests this past week, as a pair of 2011 Chevy Volts came to campus. The Volts, manufactured by General Motors, were used to demonstrate topics being discussed in the course taught by Greg Keoleian, the Peter M. Wege Professor of Sustainable Systems at SNRE and the director of its Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS). Students had a chance to sit inside the cars, look under the hoods at the battery system and learn more about the special monitoring equipment installed by GM to assess the car's performance. Nearly 40 GM engineers are also taking the course via distance learning.
Three aspiring student entrepreneurs have set their sights on overcoming a major obstacle to electric vehicle (EV) adoption: "range anxiety." Range anxiety refers to the concerns of potential EV buyers about the limited range of these new automobiles and the accessibility of re-charging stations to keep them on the road. University of Michigan students Javier Rivera, Lawrence Han and Ajay Varadharajan believe they can eliminate these concerns by creating an EV network that matches the demand for electric vehicle power with supply.
Researchers from the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Co. have assessed the global availability of lithium and compared it to the potential demand from large-scale global use of electric vehicles. The research findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, conclude that sufficient resources of lithium exist for the next 90 years to supply a large-scale global fleet of electric vehicles through at least 2100. The study's main authors were Paul Gruber and Pablo Medina. They conducted the research as part of a graduate student research project before graduating in 2010 from the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The research partner was Ford Motor Co., the global automobile manufacturer based in Dearborn, Mich.
Andy Winkelman, a doctoral student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been named a Presidential Management Fellow finalist. Presidential Management Fellowships (PMFs) are highly competitive two-year post-graduate fellowships with a federal agency. Fellows are selected for their exceptional leadership qualities, and agencies groom them to be future leaders. Fellows have the opportunity to rotate to other agencies, are eligible for accelerated promotion potential, receive 160 hours of formal classroom training (on leadership, management, policy and other topics), and can receive an immediate appointment to a position in the competitive or excepted service.
Jan. 14, 2011
Greg Keoleian was elected for a two-year term as president of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.
With record-breaking heat on the East Coast threatening health and maxing out the power grid, you might ask yourself if ití¢â‚¬â„¢s time to replace your old central air conditioner. Weighing the financial and environmental costs of buying a new unit vs. keeping the old one for another year can be difficult. A University of Michigan study determined the optimal time to replace a central air unit to save energy, reduce greenhouse gases and lower utility bills.
The University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment is the only graduate environmental school in the nation to combine natural science, social science and design into one shared research and educational enterprise. Nine faculty members representing multiple disciplines are hosting five symposia that address distinct and complex facets of sustainability science.