The United States is struggling to find its appropriate energy strategy for the next 50 years. Many see the need for increased supply of electricity from nuclear and from renewable sources, decreased burning of coal, and growing dependence on natural gas from abundant shale deposits. Implementation of wind turbines and solar photovoltaic arrays is increasing, especially for the former. But, the associated challenges for wind and solar are profound, e.g., siting to maximize the efficiency of each and storage to smooth or shift in time the supply of electricity to the grid. These plans and challenges are similar to those in China, which calls for increased collaboration between the two largest users of energy in the world.
One area of cooperation could be in education and research. We have developed a new interdisciplinary PhD program in Energy Science and Engineering between the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Building collaborations between this new doctoral program and similar directions at a few universities in China could be one way to foster greater cooperation between these two large countries in issues related to energy supply and use.