For decades, America’s energy R&D enterprise has favored incremental progress over transformational change. Though there’s been much talk of “leapfrog” and “next-generation” technologies, most innovations in the recent past and on the horizon aren’t game-changing in nature. Incrementally more efficient light sources, solar cells, food-fuel crops, and electric batteries will not transform America’s energy future fast enough to free us our energy dilemma within this generation. And if our generation fails to transform our energy future, the prosperity of future generations is in serious doubt. It is becoming abundantly clear that we must use alternative thinking and create tomorrow’s energy paradigms today – paradigms that favor systems-level transformational change over incremental progress at lower levels.
Unfortunately, the risks associated with transformational change are often more than just technical or financial. Transformational change requires alternative thinking that crosscuts organizational and jurisdictional boundaries, often includes old - previously discarded - ideas made possible by recent technological advances or new financial, political, or social realities, and ideas that are counterintuitive and difficult to visualize - especially for those working “in the box”. Often, transformational ideas are considered too radical and risky by insiders and experts who are institutionally, politically, and financially invested in existing paradigms and associated R&D programs. For these reasons, I’ve observed that most transformational ideas originate with outsiders rather than insiders.
That’s why I believe universities like USU are poised to have a monumental impact on America’s energy future. Unlike industry and government-owned labs, universities are not encumbered by the pressures to conform to predetermined pathways set by parent organizations. While other labs are expected to focus on low-risk, or politically-correct priorities fitting neatly within a limited market or jurisdictional boundary, universities can think more freely. Universities also have a steady flow of energized fresh faces with new ideas undeterred by barriers of the past. Young people offer fresh perspectives and are typically more willing to take both research and commercialization risks championing new, idealistic, out-of-the-box ideas that are disruptive and challenge the status quo. And universities have a pool of faculty knowledgeable, well-grounded in the fundamentals, and up-to-date in virtually every scientific and engineering discipline. At USU , we recognize this opportunity and have put in place the tools necessary to harness the assets residing at elab and our partnering institutions.
We also believe cooperating with others is better than competing, especially when new R&D market space is being created. This is especially true in the U.S, where large, well-capitalized “lead” government labs have direct, well-connected conduits to federal sponsors and the current federal energy R&D business model favors them over individual researchers with “outside-the-box” ideas residing at universities and in the private sector. That’s why we are working to develop partnerships with national laboratories as well as other universities, utilities, energy companies, private sector labs, and energy users to bring new (and even old) research ideas forward together.
So I invite you to look over our R&D agenda to see if there are areas of common interest. Maybe you have components, materials, applications, research or business expertise that dovetails with our research agenda - or you’ve identified other transformational research areas you’d like to discuss with us. Either way, we’d love to hear from you.