The Trienens Institute Deploy Pillar
Oct 24, 2024 10:12 AM
One of the Trienens Institute Six Pillars of Decarbonization, the Deploy pillar aims to develop and test hydrogen production, use, and storage
The Trienens Institute Generate Pillar
Generating Low-Carbon Energy for A Growing Population
Arleigh Truesdale | November 18, 2024
Since 1980, worldwide electricity consumption has more than tripled to meet the needs of the of over eight billion people who now inhabit the planet. Growing with the global population are demands for energy sources that deplete natural resources, create carbon emissions, and contribute to climate change.
In a single hour, more energy in the form of sunlight strikes the Earth than was needed to power all of global society for an entire year at the beginning of the 21st century. And while new development and technology continues to raise global energy demands, scientists and engineers are refining the process of capturing the most abundant natural energy source: the sun.
The original source of renewable energy, solar is a critical part of the clean energy portfolio as it does not produce greenhouse gas emissions or other pollutants. With multi-decade lifespans, solar panels have a minimal carbon footprint and are made from materials like aluminum, glass, silicon, and other increasingly recyclable materials.
Solar energy is already part of the national landscape—spanning acres of farmland and city rooftops. But generating enough energy to shift towards solar as a main power source will require a new generation of technology that is affordable, accessible, reliable, and resilient in harsh environments.
“We have to secure our energy in the decades and centuries to come by incorporating naturally abundant renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Sources like fossil fuels and nuclear technically may be limited in quantity, at least on the century time scale,” said Mercouri Kanatzidis, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry. “Our goal is to efficiently harness solar energy for the long-term benefit of humanity and the economy.”
With a history of cutting-edge solar cell innovation, Northwestern researchers are leading the charge to innovate and develop increasingly efficient and reliable technologies. Brought together by the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy’s Generate pillar, Northwestern will develop a new class of solar energy production with high-efficiency, stable solar cell materials to power the next generation.
Generate is one of the Trienens Institute’s Six Pillars of Decarbonization, which are aimed at leading interdisciplinary research in decarbonization.
“When it comes to such large-scale problems like meeting global energy needs, there’s a need for cross-disciplinary work: solutions aren’t going to happen in siloed laboratories,” said Dayne Swearer, assistant professor of chemistry, who co-leads the Generate pillar with Kanatzidis. “Northwestern is highly effective in supporting collaboration that allows us to make real progress.”
A legacy of solar technology
Northwestern researchers drastically changed the trajectory of solar cell innovation by popularizing the use of the group of compounds called perovskites. Now a material class at the forefront of energy discovery, perovskite was once overlooked.
Since the very first paper on perovskite solar cells came out of Northwestern twelve years ago, the field has expanded exponentially. Perovskites are easy to work with and widely accessible, which has made it possible for rapid innovation from a large group of diverse researchers.
From 2009 to 2020, the Trienens Institute was home to two Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) led by Michael R. Wasielewski, Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry and founding director of the Trienens Institute. The two EFRCs, Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research (ANSER) then the Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP), housed researchers who developed fundamental knowledge around the molecules, materials, and methods needed to create efficient technologies for solar fuels and energy production.
For more than fifteen years, researchers led by Tobin Marks, Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering, have focused on polymeric—think plastic—solar cells that are light-weight, low-cost, and easy to deploy. Empowered by Generate pillar funding, a team is now working to combine polymer cells with perovskite cells to create more robust and efficient tandem solar cells.
Most recently, the growing solar energy ecosystem has also led to competition between leading institutions hoping to break records and set new standards for solar technology. Earlier this year, Trienens Institute Executive Director Ted Sargent led a study that set a new world record for power conversion efficiency.
New funding is vital to the advancement of the field. Brought together by the Trienens Institute, the Generate Pillar is bringing together laboratories from across the university to earn this support and continue to build on the solar energy legacy at Northwestern.
Entering a new era of power generation
Solar technology has advanced rapidly, but there is still much work to be done. Today, the solar cells that are most widely available only capture a certain amount of the sunlight that flows through them. These ‘single-junction cells’ use just one layer of materials attuned to high-energy light. But lots of valuable light passes through and is lost.
Now, new cells are being designed with multiple, cascading layers of cells that each absorb different types of light to maximize the amount of energy captured. “When that is possible, the efficiency and capacity of solar technology is raised to enormous levels,” said Kanatzidis.
It will also be critical for the next generation of solar technology to be stable and to withstand environmental conditions so they are a worthwhile investment for the average consumer.
“Even under current technologies, electricity markets throughout the world are finding it profitable to expand their energy generation with solar power, being the most significant capacity expansion source,” said Mar Reguant, professor of economics. “Market design and public policies will play a key role in ensuring that solar power can take over quickly and orderly.” Reguant will apply her energy market expertise across all six pillars.
The long-term goal for Generate pillar researchers is to develop technological solutions that can be deployed rapidly and widely to produce abundant, sustainable electricity. Once excess electricity is being produced with solar energy, it could be harnessed for other decarbonization efforts and processes being developed across the other Six Pillars of Decarbonization at the Trienens Institute.
For example, “energy generated by this pillar gets plugged into the Store pillar, focused on long duration energy storage and batteries, or leveraged by the Transform pillar to turn waste and renewable feedstocks into decarbonized chemicals,” said Swearer. “If we do our job right, which will take a lot of work beyond Northwestern, advanced solar technologies will play a key role decarbonizing our society.”