The Center for Energy Innovation:An interdisciplinary project of the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative

The Need for Interdisciplinary Approaches in Energy

In recent years environmental issues have begun to emerge as ever more powerful drivers of policy, business, and technology decisions. A subtle sea change has occurred, where environmental concerns are no longer isolated to naturalists and preservationists. Environmental issues have come to the fore as some of the largest companies such as GE, Dow, and BP have begun to align core business strategies around environmental missions. As awareness has become mainstream, investment has followed. Venture investment in “Clean Technology” was the fastest growing segment of the venture capital market in 2005 and projected to reach 10% of venture capital investment by 2009 . The global drivers of this interest and demand are not going away any time soon.

However, the needs are complex, and the solutions require understanding of science, regulation, business, and law. As a leading institution in each one of these categories, the University of California at Berkeley has an enormous opportunity to define a curriculum that plays on the strengths of its interdisciplinary nature, and produces leaders and innovation necessary to solve these challenges.

Today, UC Berkeley is home to a number of programs and labs that are each working on these challenges in their own way—groups like the Energy & Resources Group (ERG), Berkeley Institute for the Environment (BIE), the Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL), Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (LBNL), the Building Science Group (BSG), the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC), and more. The resources already exist at Berkeley to study each element of the sector. But a chasm still exists between the university and the private sector and disciplines tend to approach these issues from singular perspectives, without much cross-disciplinary collaboration. Too often innovations that may have a multitude of applications never make it out of the lab, because there is no one there to communicate their value. This is a void that can and should be filled by support for interdisciplinary studies. Several courses need to be created to fill the gap between science and commercial interests, to draw together students from different backgrounds to share and collaborate, and to teach the complexities of one of the most interdisciplinary sectors in the world – energy.

Project mission:

The environmental challenges we face as a society today are driving increased interest, research, and investment in new energy solutions. As one of the world’s leading science and technology universities and home to one of the nation's leading business schools, UC Berkeley is positioned to take a leadership role in the future of the energy industry. Interdisciplinary practitioners are needed. We are proposing a program that will connect current resources and attract these practitioners through courses, scholarships, fellowships, internships, speakers series, field trips, and community building events. The program will produce a new kind of leader and accelerate the pace of energy innovation.

Potential impact:

We propose that a multi layered program be created out of the Haas School of Business and in conjunction with ERG, the College of Engineering, Boalt Hall, The Goldman School of Public Policy, Environmental Science, Policy & Management, College of Natural Resources, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that builds on existing resources and fills in the gaps. The program would provide 5 elements:

1. Support for interdisciplinary study: Joint masters in business and any partner program.
2. Additional interdisciplinary courses on Energy Innovation and Project Development, and Energy Finance.
3. Speakers and events that bring practitioners into the university arena and connect like minded students, faculty and researchers.
4. An Energy Symposium: to bring together the leading researchers, innovators, companies, and investors to discuss common challenges and bridge the gap between UC Berkeley and the private sector.
5. Fellowships to support initiatives that speed the transfer of ideas from lab to market.

Required resources:

1. Total project needs: $270,000