Penn is launching a $10M center for energy policy

Thanks to a $10 million gift from Penn alumnus Scott Kleinman and his wife, Wendy, Penn will launch a center for energy policy this fall, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“One of the center’s missions is to accelerate existing energy research in engineering, arts and science, business, and law to focus on policy applications,” according to the report.

The center will be led by Mark Alan Hughes, a professor at Penn’s School of Design and former advisor to Mayor Michael Nutter. Hughes built the city’s Greenworks sustainability plan, which aims to make Philadelphia the “greenest” city in the world. He was also the the policy arm head of Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI) in its earlier days, when it was called the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster.

The Navy Yard-based CBEI, run by Penn State, is another flashy local initiative focused on energy research. The federally-funded project is charged with the mission of developing ways to make buildings more energy efficient, though it has run into some recent hurdles.