Advanced Photovoltaics
Information related to the PV field can be found at Heliotactic Press, and I recommend visiting Photovoltaics CDROM, a web education tool for solar energy conversion.
Solar Energy:
Facts and Figures
In order to meet the demands of our global society in the future, what can we do?
Present and Future
Natural Fusion · Solar Decathlon
The Natural Fusion project at Penn State has seen a very successful experience on the National Mall in in Washington D.C. this October 2009! Congratulations to the team for taking 3rd place in both Engineering and Lighting Design! What an amazing design-build process for all of us.
Visit the Natural Fusion Facebook and Twitter Pages:
We also experienced a fantastic visit by Mr. Ed. Begley Jr. on Sept. 25th of 2009. Mr. Thomas Rauch and I got to take Mr. Begley around State College via bicycles, and then capped off the day with a tour of the NF home and a wonderful speaking engagement on sustainability. He even stopped by the home at the Mall in October!
TRNSYS · Training Workshop
Date in the Summer of 2010 TBD. Contact us if you are interested in attending the workshop!
Contact Information if you would like to contact our group for outreach, consulting, or otherwise.
The Sun
The Sun provides about 120,000 terawatts (a trillion watts! TW : 1012) of power (or energy burn rate, power is just energy per time unit) to the Earth's surface. How does this comepare? Well, the average power consumed by humans on Earth in 2001, when we had 6.6 billion people, was about 13 TW!
What would we need?
At minimum estimates, our global energy demands will double to 28 terawatts (a trillion watts! TW=1012 Watts) by 2050, and the sun is uniquely prepared to offer us that amount of energy in a carbon-neutral form.1,2 If we consider using only available solar cell technology, having 10% photoconversion efficiency, how much land area would we need for 20 TW?
PV area = 500,000 km2 (193,000 mi2)
But what does such a scale really mean? Well, in the USA, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System (begun in 1956) is 75,376 km (46,837 mi) long.3 If we make minimal estimates of two lanes and two shoulders on that road, the areal coverage would be 995,000 km 2 (384,171 mi 2. Now imagine the quantity of concrete required to finish that job!
1. Basic Research Needs for Solar Energy Utilization. (2005) U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
2. N. S. Lewis, Chemical Challenges in Renewable Energy. California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
3. DOT Homepage for D. D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System
Photovoltaic Devices
Most commercially available photovoltaic (PV) devices used to collect sunlight and convert it into electricity operate with conversion efficiencies between 10-20%. This means that for every 100 packets of light collected (photons), only 10-20 electrons will be generated and collected to perform work on our technological devices. This is not bad, the practical limit for traditional PV device efficiency is close to 28% (largely due to thermodynamics).
My efforts include outreach and recruiting for the undergraduate programs of the Department of Energy & Mineral Engineering. Interested candidates (new undergrads, high school students and parents included) should feel free to contact me by email or phone with questions, or to discuss the exciting and diverse undergraduate opportunities within EME.