Taking on critical solar energy challenges
Posted: October 06, 2011
Arizona State University’s role in accelerating advances in solar energy technology is expanding.
The university was recently named the lead institution for a new national research center supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy that will work to harness solar power in more economically viable and sustainable ways.
The Engineering Research Center for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies – or QESTT – is directed by Christiana Honsberg, a professor in the School of Computing, Electrical and Energy Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
Along with other ASU engineers and research partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Delaware, Honsberg will pursue breakthroughs in using quantum mechanics to increase the energy-conversion efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells.
More than 40 companies in the energy industry have also signed on as partners in the effort to bring new photovoltaic technologies to the marketplace.
The center will also help train the next generation of energy engineers and entrepreneurs.
KAET-Channel 8 Horizon program