DOE lab unveils new solar research center

May 28, 2015 | By

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has opened their Solar Energy Research Center (SERC), thanks to $59 million in funding from various sources.

Credit: Berkeley Lab

SERC will conduct research on photovoltaic (PV) and electro-chemical solar energy systems, including those that could improve plant activity and transportation fuels.

"We believe the opening of this building will provide a significant boost to solar fuels research," said Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos in a statement. "It puts our researchers, from various disciplines, together in a single space, close to UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab colleagues studying similar challenges."

The lab is located in the three-story, 40,000 square-foot Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) building, which is a DOE hub led by the California Institute of Technology, with Berkeley Lab as a major partner.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of California campuses at Irvine and San Diego are also partners of JCAP, which also receives funding from the California Energy Commission and DOE's Office of Science.

"JCAP's current mission is to demonstrate a scalable, sustainable device that can generate fuels from sunlight and air at least 10 times more efficiently than plants," said Berkeley Lab's JCAP head, Frances Houle, in a statement.

In April, JCAP was renewed for another five years supported by $75 million in funding from DOE.

"In the renewal," adds Houle, "we will build on progress made since 2010 to fulfill our mission to address the key challenge of replicating what plants can do: generate complex hydrocarbons from air and sunlight under mild conditions."

The $59 million in new funding for the new lab came from the University of California, the California Public Utilities Commission, appropriations from the State of California, and private support from the Simons Foundation, Sea Change Foundation, and Mark Heising and Liz Simons.

For more:
- visit this website

© 2015 FierceMarkets, a division of Questex Media Group LLC. All rights reserved.

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/doe-lab-unveils-new-solar-research-center/2015-05-28