A $25 million gift to Yale’s West Campus will found an institute to study solar and other forms of renewable low-carbon energy technology.

The gift from Thomas Steyer ’79 and his wife, Kathryn Taylor, will establish the University’s Energy Sciences Institute, which will focus on both short and long-term approaches to lowering carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. By developing partnerships with members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering & Applied Science and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the Institute will serve a “collaborative” role, according to a press release this afternoon.

“Yale is a great university which is close to my heart,” Steyer said in the release. “Clean energy advances are critically needed not only to address the environmental and health concerns associated with fossil fuels, but also because clean energy is the cornerstone for U.S. economic advancement and national security.”

Building on existing research in related fields at Yale, the gift will allow Yale to hire a director and new faculty members for the institute. Altogether, the University will set aside 40,000 square feet of laboratories on West Campus for the Institute’s research.

The gift comes over two months after the end of Yale Tomorrow, the University’s five-year capital campaign that raised $3.881 billion.