U. Minnesota takes grant to make solar energy
paint
U. Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Nov 02, 2008 -- Minnesota Daily/UWire
Imagine a paint that would harness the sun's energy and turn it into
electricity.
Though that's not a reality yet, materials science professor Eray Aydil said
it's a viable vision -- but there are discoveries that have to be made
first.
The National Science Foundation solar energy initiative has set aside $5
million to fund collaborative basic research aimed at making breakthroughs
in solar energy use -- which started at a Saturday workshop at the
University of Minnesota.
Hosted by the University's Institute for Mathematics and its Applications,
the workshop introduced a mixed audience of scientists to the challenges of
developing more efficient and cost effective solar energy technology.
At the workshop, Aydil discussed the potential of the sun to be a major
sustainable energy source. Covering an area the size of Texas with existing
solar cells could supply the global energy demand, he said.
The trouble is that current solar technology is too expensive to compete
with coal and fossil fuel.
Cost is coming down -- solar-generated electricity should equal the cost of
electricity from the grid by 2015 -- but Arthur Nozik, Department of Energy
senior research fellow, said that's not cheap enough to quickly make the sun
a major energy source.
Although there's enough fossil fuel to last another hundred years, the need
for carbon-free energy is more immediate. "Along the current path, we won't
be generating enough carbon-free energy to meet climate-change goals," he
said. For that, he said "we need a revolution." Collaboration may be the key
to spurring that revolution.
Addressing the audience of chemists, materials scientists and
mathematicians, Henry Warchall, NSF Applied Mathematics program director,
said the NSF solar energy initiative is trying to "stir the pot". "The idea
is to mix up the community," he said.
In science research, he added, the new ideas usually come at the boundaries
of established disciplines, where the areas overlap. NSF has always funded
basic research, but now it's starting to encourage research in areas of big
need, one of which is sustainability, Warchall said.
This can be thought of as a pilot project, to see whether combining three
communities that didn't work together before can be helpful, he added.
Collaborative research isn't unusual -- more and more important problems
require a multi-disciplinary approach, IMA director Fadil Santosa said.
What's unusual about this, Aydil said, is the involvement of mathematicians.
Mathematicians are good at modeling physical processes, Warchall said, and
it's good to bring in people from varying fields to solve a problem.
Alex Marker , a research fellow at Schott North America , which produces
solar technologies, was one of a small minority of industry researchers at
Saturday's workshop. The Solar Energy Industries Association aims to make
solar energy the source of 12 percent of the country's electricity demand by
2020, a goal Marker said is reasonable. Increased use of solar technology is
inevitable, but a breakthrough might make it faster, he said.
Though the industry is working hard to make small improvements to existing
technology, he said, "It's nice to see the NSF putting some money into idea
generation."
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