Case Western Reserve University’s Great Lakes Energy Institute (GLEI) was created in 2008. Since, GLEI has attracted nearly $10 million in gifts, including support from the Cleveland Foundation, the Milton and Tamar Maltz Professorship in Energy Innovation, and the Thomas W. and Nancy P. Seitz Professorship in Advanced Materials and Energy. From GLEI’s inception, CWRU has also increased its level of energy-related research four-fold. This research is directly supported by GLEI’s work in promoting collaborations – including industry and university partnerships – for the pursuit of winning major energy funding and educating students. To date, energy research at CWRU has won over $25 million.
In addition to its activities in energy research, GLEI plays an integral role in connecting energy faculty and assets at CWRU with the wider world. Examples include hosting a monthly energy speaker series, which draws together industry, academia, and the public for strong research discussions in various applications of energy. As well, this bridge building includes supporting conferences such as ARPA-E’s Energy Summits and IEEE’s EnergyTech (2011 & 2012). Sponsored by Eaton, NASA, and FirstEnergy, EnergyTech 2011 drew over 200 attendees, including keynotes from the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) at DOE, ARPA-E, NSF, and Draper Laboratories.
GLEI’s mission is to enable the transition to advanced sustainable energy generation, storage, distribution and utilization, through coordinated research, development, and education. Multiple advanced energy sectors comprise this research, much of which coalesce under the umbrella of utility scale power. These sectors include, among others, grid and storage, wind energy, and solar power.
