University President John Hennessy announced the launch of the Precourt Institute of Energy on Monday.
The three lead donors whose contributions are financing the creation of the institute are Stanford alums. Energy executive Jay Precourt, the namesake of the new institute, donated $50 million, and university trustee and managing partner of Farallon Capital Management Thomas Steyer and spouse Kat Taylor gave $40 million.
The balance was contributed by Douglas Kimmelman, senior partner of Energy Capital Partners, Michael Ruffatto, president of North American Power Group Ltd., and the Schmidt Family Foundation.
The institute will embrace the university's Global Climate and Energy Project, The Precourt Energy Efficiency Institute, which was founded in 2006, and the new TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, which is to be established with the couple's gift.
Lynn Orr has been named the director of the new institute. A professor in energy resources engineering, he previously was director of Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project.

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energy savings on industrial units
most industrial units such a recprocating pumps, compressors and engines use a crankshaft the uses sleeve or friction bearings. the ASME in Germany 2006 presented a paper that indicated that one could save 5.4 % of the energy requirement by using roller bearings. likewise a pump company has indicated that roller bearings have more efficiency than sleeve bearings. however since most mafg. have a backlog of orders there is no incentive to produce a more efficient unit at this time since they sell all they produce. energy efficiency seems like a good talk thing but no action. if implimented it could result in billions of dollars a year in savings. why isn't there some incentive. milpump@harborside.com
could you letme know. Th
Energy Independence
We need to do everything in our power to become energy independnet.
Of the money we have seen thrown around thus far let me ask you this, that 168 billion that our country borrowed to give away to us in the form of an "economic stimulus package" ...did it do a darn thing to create jobs or stimulate our economy? NO, nothing. And we borrowed the money from China.
This past year the high cost of gas nearly destroyed our economy and society. More people lost jobs and homes as a direct result of that than any other factor in our history.
Fannie and Freddie continue to get all the blame. Of all the homes I have seen lost in my area SW FL and believe me I have seen many, none were due to an adjustable mortgage. They were due to lack of work.
Families went broke at the pump alone. Then added to that most saw record rate hikes at their utility companies. The high cost of fuel resulted in higher production and shipping costs that were passed on to the consumer, in most cases higher prices for smaller packaging.
Consumers tightened their belts, cut back, went out to eat less or stopped totally. Drove around on tires that needed replacing longer, some even quit buying medicines they really need.Unfortunately cutting back and spending less results in even more layoffs. A real economical catch-22.
And, as we are doing the happy dance around the lower prices at the pumps OPEC is planning to cut production to raise prices. They are even getting Russia in on the cutbacks. Oil is finite. We have used up the easy to get to reserves already. It will run out one day.
We have so much available to us. Solar and Wind are free sources of energy. Of course to get the harnessing process set up is somewhat costly it is still free energy.
It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to charge and drive an electric car. The electricity to charge the car could be generated by solar or wind at least in part and in most cases totally.
If all gasoline cars, trucks, and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. What a powerful resources we have neglected.
Jeff Wilson has a profound new book out called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com Powerful, powerful book! Also, if you think electric cars are way out there in some futuristic lala land please check out the web site for a company Better Place. http://www.betterplace.com/ they are setting up infrastructures in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland as well as the state of Hawaii to accommodate electric car use.
I think we need to rethink all these bailouts and stimulus packages. We need to use some of these billions to bail America out of it's dependence on foreign oil. Create clean cheap energy, create millions of badly needed new green collar jobs and get out from under the grip foreign oil has on us. What a win -win situation that would be for America at large