Major corporations, led by ExxonMobil, GE, and Schlumberger are underwriting a multi-million dollar program, collaborating with Stanford University in an unprecedented initiative to develop global energy systems with low greenhouse gas emissions.

The Global Climate and Energy Project (G-CEP) is an alliance of scientific researchers around the world and leading companies in the private sector. Stanford University, as manager of the project, will identify pre-eminent scientific researchers who will work with the private sector sponsors to conduct research into low greenhouse gas emission energy technologies of the future. The project is unique in that results will be shared globally with scientists, governments and other private institutions in order to accelerate the development of these technologies. To date $225 million has been formally dedicated to help fund the project: ExxonMobil plans to invest up to $100 million; General Electric, $50 million; and Schlumberger, $25 million. E.ON, Europe’s largest privately owned energy service provider, has signaled its intention to contribute $50 million and join G-CEP, along with other academic and corporate sponsors from Europe. The combined amount is equal to the total of all the corporate-sponsored research at Stanford over the past 10 years.

Stanford President Dr. John Hennessy said the university expects to involve additional global companies in the automotive and technology industries as the research progresses.

“We are convinced the Global Climate and Energy Project will make significant academic and private sector contributions to the development of practical technologies to address the potential long-term risk of climate change,” said ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Lee Raymond. “Our investment in G-CEP is a demonstration of our long-held belief that successful development and global deployment of innovative, commercially viable technology is the only path that can address long-term climate change risks while preserving and promoting prosperity of the world’s economies.”

“The challenge before the world is to find energy systems that will meet rising demand and at the same time lower greenhouse gas emissions,” said Scott Donnelly, Senior Vice President of GE Global Research. “There is no one organization or institution that can meet this challenge alone. It will take unprecedented partnerships, such as G-CEP, to discover the technologies that will power the world in the future. We are proud to be involved in this very important collaboration, which is a natural extension of the critical research we have been conducting in hydrogen, fuel cells, solar and wind technologies.”

Stanford engineers and scientists, who will conduct a significant portion of the research, will be joined by additional renowned institutions around the world to work with the private sector sponsoring companies in North America, Europe and Asia. G-CEP will be different from other privately sponsored research initiatives, as scientists will have the intellectual freedom to explore a wide array of energy technologies and solutions.

Dr. Lynn Orr, who will step down as the dean of Stanford’s School of Earth Sciences to become the G-CEP project director, said the initiative would educate talented people who can help shape the development of the world’s new energy systems, and bring together representatives of academia, government and industry to create a research portfolio of energy systems that have low greenhouse gas emissions. Among the energy sources, systems and uses that will be considered are:

Orr added that Stanford would hold formal legal title to all technology and information derived from this Project, as well as formal legal title to all patents sought. He said that it is one of the Project’s fundamental tenets that the university will make the results of the research widely available to the scientific and engineering community.

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