The energy giant BP has chosen the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as recipients of a $500-million grant for research on the development of alternative energy sources.
The grant will create the Energy Biosciences Institute, which California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said would be the largest institute in the world dedicated to creating energy from biological sources. The governor has proposed adding $40-million in state financing to the institute, along with $30-million for another sustainable-energy project at the national laboratory, which is a federal facility managed by the University of California.