| Type | Research Institute |
|---|---|
| Established | 2013 |
| Director | Daniel T. Schwartz |
| Location | , , |
| Website | Official Site |
The Clean Energy Institute (CEI) is a research institute at the University of Washington. Founded in 2013, the institute maintains several facilities across the university's Seattle campus and supports renewable energy technology research, education, entrepreneurship, and outreach. The institute is under the direction of Daniel T. Schwartz, PhD.
The Clean Energy Institute is based in the Molecular Engineering and Sciences building at the University of Washington's Seattle campus. It was founded in 2013 with a $6 million grant from the state of Washington for the purposes of supporting solar power and energy storage research and development. This includes research projects led by the university's own academic labs, private companies, and the government. [1]
The institute's primary research facility is the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds (WCET), which opened in 2017 and was funded by an additional $8 million state grant approved by governor Jay Inslee. Located next to University Village near the main campus, the 15,000 square foot (1,400 m2) facility allows both academic and private sector users to rent lab space, utilize testing equipment, and consult staff for assistance in their research projects. [1] Equipment at the WCET include battery device testers, solar simulators and solar cell testers, a systems integration lab where users can test devices under real-time or simulated power grids to evaluate energy generation and storage strategies, and a roll-to-roll printer which GeekWire described as "one of the most advanced roll-to-roll systems in the world." [2]
The institute also maintains the Research Training Testbed, which is located in the Nanoengineering and Sciences Building on the university's main campus.
The Clean Energy Institute's main research areas include battery and solar photovoltaic technology as well as grid management. [3] The institute has supported projects relating to perovskites, which have often focused on improving the material properties of thin-film perovskite cells as well as exploring the use of high-throughput manufacturing processes for producing such devices. [4] [5] [6]
In 2018, the state of Washington allocated $20 million to construct a new 340,000 square foot (32,000 m2) building on the west side of the UW's Seattle campus called the Center for Advanced Materials and Clean Energy Technologies (CAMCET). The CAMCET building will ultimately house the Clean Energy Institute and the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds as well as the Northwest Institute for Materials Physics, Chemistry, and Technology, and it will include lab and office space for research and collaboration. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2020, and the building is expected to open by the year 2023. [7] [8]
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors.
An atomic battery, nuclear battery, radioisotope battery or radioisotope generator is a device which uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Like nuclear reactors, they generate electricity from nuclear energy, but differ in that they do not use a chain reaction. Although commonly called batteries, they are technically not electrochemical and cannot be charged or recharged. They are very costly, but have an extremely long life and high energy density, and so they are typically used as power sources for equipment that must operate unattended for long periods of time, such as spacecraft, pacemakers, underwater systems and automated scientific stations in remote parts of the world.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Department of Energy and operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, a joint venture between MRIGlobal and Battelle. Located in Golden, Colorado, NREL is home to the National Center for Photovoltaics, the National Bioenergy Center, and the National Wind Technology Center.
In the 19th century, it was observed that the sunlight striking certain materials generates detectable electric current – the photoelectric effect. This discovery laid the foundation for solar cells. Solar cells have gone on to be used in many applications. They have historically been used in situations where electrical power from the grid was unavailable.
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as solar panels. The common single junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and solar tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight to a hot spot, often to drive a steam turbine.
Thin-film solar cells are made by depositing one or more thin layers of photovoltaic material onto a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are typically a few nanometers (nm) to a few microns (µm) thick–much thinner than the wafers used in conventional crystalline silicon (c-Si) based solar cells, which can be up to 200 µm thick. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon.
Sossina M. Haile is an American chemist, known for developing the first solid acid fuel cells. She is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.
ARPA-E, or Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy is a United States government agency tasked with promoting and funding research and development of advanced energy technologies. It is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) is an Engineering Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation to create devices to restore the body's capabilities for sensation and movement. The National Science Foundation has awarded the CNT $~30 million since 2011.
Saiful Islam is a British chemist and professor of Materials science at the University of Oxford. Previously he was professor of materials chemistry at the University of Bath. Saiful is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM).In 2020, he received the American Chemical Society Award for Energy Chemistry for his major contributions to the fundamental atomistic understanding of new materials for lithium batteries and perovskite solar cells.
A perovskite solar cell (PSC) is a type of solar cell that includes a perovskite-structured compound, most commonly a hybrid organic–inorganic lead or tin halide-based material as the light-harvesting active layer. Perovskite materials, such as methylammonium lead halides and all-inorganic caesium lead halide, are cheap to produce and simple to manufacture.
Henry James Snaith is a professor in physics in the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford. Research from his group has led to the creation of a new research field, based on halide perovskites for use as solar absorbers. Many individuals who were PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in Snaith's group have now established research groups, independent research portfolios and commercial enterprises. He co-founded Oxford Photovoltaics in 2010 to commercialise perovskite based tandem solar cells.
The Allen Institute is a non-profit, bioscience research institute located in Seattle. It was founded by billionaire philanthropist Paul G. Allen in 2003. The Allen Institute conducts large-scale basic science research studying the brain, cells and immune system in effort to accelerate science and disease research. The organization practices open science, in that they make all their data and resources publicly available for researchers to access.
Juan Bisquert, is a Spanish physicist known for his contributions to materials and devices for sustainable energy production. He grew up in Dénia, and he is a professor at Jaume I University in Castellón de la Plana. His work on solar cells relates physical principles and modelling of electronic and ionic processes to the interpretation of measurement techniques for the photovoltaic operation.
There are many practical applications for solar panels or photovoltaics. From the fields of the agricultural industry as a power source for irrigation to its usage in remote health care facilities to refrigerate medical supplies. Other applications include power generation at various scales and attempts to integrate them into homes and public infrastructure. PV modules are used in photovoltaic systems and include a large variety of electrical devices.
David S. Ginger is an American physical chemist. He is the B. Seymour Rabinovitch Endowed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. He is also a Washington Research Foundation distinguished scholar, and Chief Scientist of the University of Washington Clean Energy Institute. In 2018, he was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for his work on the microscopic investigation of materials for thin-film semiconductors. He was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012, and was a 2016 National Finalist of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
Slot-die coating is a coating technique for the application of solution, slurry, or extruded thin films onto typically flat substrates such as glass, metal, paper, fabric or plastic foils. The process was first developed for the industrial production of photographic papers in the 1950's. It has since become relevant in numerous commercial processes and nanomaterials related research fields.
Timeline of notable events in the research and development of sustainable energy, including renewable energy, solar energy, and nuclear fusion energy, particularly for ways that are sustainable within the Earth system.
Joshua R. Smith is an American computer scientist and electrical engineer and a professor at the University of Washington. He is known for research on wireless power, backscatter communication, and robotic manipulation.
