The Review

Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Maddie Thomas The university was given approximately $3 million to research solar panels as an energy source.

To join in the fight against global warming and climate change, the university and Newark are increasing research toward solar power as an alternative energy source both for the university community as well as for commercial and residential areas of the city.

As part of President George W. Bush's Solar America Initiative, the university has been awarded approximately $3 million from two federal grants dedicated to expanding research on solar power, including methods to develop cost-effective panels that generate maximum amounts of energy.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Web site, the goal of the Solar America Initiative is to make solar energy cost competitive with traditional forms of electricity by 2015.

The Institute of Energy Conversion at the university was awarded a $1.48 million grant by the Solar America Initiative to continue research on improving the manufacturing and efficiency of solar power technology.

Steven Hegedus, scientist in the Institute as well as a professor of electronic and computer engineering at the university, said the Institute was picked by the Solar America Initiative because it is the most capable organization for researching the expansion of solar power technology as an alternate energy source.

"We were picked because our proposal had the right blend of attacking the right problems limiting the performance of solar energy and of our good industrial support," Hegedus said. "We have good ideas to solve the right problems with the right team."

Currently, the Institute of Energy Conversion is working on a "second generation" of solar cells, called "thin film cells," he said. Compared to the current crystalline silicon solar cells, thin film cells are less expensive and easier to manufacture, Hegedus said.

Aiming Zhou, of the university's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, is researching rooftop solar panel technology and its potential for successful use in Newark. As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, Zhou said the state of Delaware has set a goal of using 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2019, with 2 percent coming from solar power.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools