Thomas Steyer’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, along with Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE), is awarding eight faculty seed grants totaling more than $2.2 million for promising new research in renewable energy.

“These awards will enable researchers to demonstrate ‘proof of concept’ and carry out much-needed early experimentation and analysis,” said TomKat Center director Stacey Bent, professor of chemical engineering.

The TomKat Center was created with a donation from Stanford alumni Tom Steyer – billionaire co-managing partner at Farallon Capital Management – and his wife, Kat Taylor. The center’s goal is to harness the skills and creativity of Stanford’s leading science, technology, and policy experts to transform the earth’s energy systems for a sustainable future. The university launched PIE and the TomKat Center on Jan. 12, 2009.

The grants will fund several projects, like Enhanced Photovoltaics, Consuming Renewable Power, Regenrative Fuel Cells, Evaluating Ecosystems, and Environmental Impacts in the Southwest.

“Any of these research projects individually may provide a big push in the right direction,” Bent said. “Taken together, they may truly shift our thinking about how to tackle the barriers toward significant penetration of large-scale solar power.”

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