The MIT Energy Initiative: Sustainable Energy and Terawatt-Scale Photovoltaics
Google Tech Talk November 5, 2009 ABSTRACT This MITEI on the Road event will open with a brief overview of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) by Daniel Enderton, Executive Director of MITEIs Sustainable Energy Revolution Program (SERP). This overview will highlight the extensive depth and breadth of research, education, campus energy and outreach activities underway as part of the Initiative. Mr. Enderton will give particular focus on the SERP program, with highlights of successful past projects in storage, promising new projects in geothermal and the impact philanthropy is having on renewable energy research at MIT. Following this, Professor Tonio Buonassisi of Mechanical Engineering will give a presentation describing the key technical challenges to scaling commercial PV technologies to the terawatt level. The speaker will present a vision for the role of university engineering and science towards surmounting these challenges, drawing from personal experience in the solar industry, national laboratories, and academia. Increased solar cell conversion efficiencies, novel materials, and decreased capital equipment costs will be discussed as a means to achieve rapidly scalable manufacturing, highlighting the role of innovation. technologies and how they will help drive down the cost of solar technology to be competitive with petroleum-based alternatives, while Mr. Enderton will give an overview of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and information on other renewable energy …
Tags: Initiative, renewable energy research, energy initiative, conversion efficiencies, TerawattScale, Sustainable, Photovoltaics, Energy
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“Building more cars” is a part of capitalism-consumerism planet killing. Urban community must leave their encouraged selfish individualist values: private housing with stupid loan cutting and automobilization lifestyle. A systematic resource sharing (e.g. compact block houses and public? communication/transport) is the only solution to support multibillion population.
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I agree with you 100%, :-) Two things… the “consumer” has been designed without their knowledge. Check out this guy Edward Louis Bernays an see what horrible gift he gave to the world. Now check this out about the USA and how we used to regulate bussiness’s previously in history. more specificlly read the part about “Charter Revocation”… :-) Also if you dont know what a “Futurist” is you should check it out. :-)
I do not understand your message. I’m telling that capitalists build inefficient urban infrastructure over the whole world. I live in former USSR and can compare between socialist and capitalist household. The extensive pollution laws in the 1st world do not stop the individual house grass-cutting lifestile. May be you do not know but this planet killing consumerist lifestyle should be very profitable — the more you consume the better for companies.
so,its no problem if the food you eat in your large block house is farmed by a company that knows the labor is cheaper in the 3rd world then where ever you live, and that they wouldnt have to follow the pollution laws where you live because the 3rd world doesnt have any yet, which allows the company to make more profit off the food you eat in your block house?
“Building more cars” is a part of capitalism-consumerism planet killing. Urban community must leave their encouraged selfish individualist values: private housing with stupid loan cutting and automobilization lifestyle. A systematic resource sharing (e.g. compact block houses and public communication/transport) is the only solution to support multibillion population.
Hm. Let’s have another look at this. I don’t hae a problem with dead dinosaurs helping me to get my speeding ticket. I just live next to two of the busiest streets in my city, and it’s no fun. The same goes for my hometown, with its steel mill, cokeing plant, etc.. air pollution is bad.
If we were using highly efficient filters, I wouldn’t care about fossils.
However, they’re clearly depleting and we need other options. Solar is one worth pursuing. Fusion is an other. Both need breakthroughs.
I’ve watched who killed the electric car and I like conspiracy theories, whatever has been on Coast to Coast, Riley Martin, Alex Jones and what have you and things of that nature. I just don’t like to mix conspiracy theories and science.
i dont want to waste any more of my time go invest some of your time in informing yourself, go watch some debates, documentaries(who killed the electric car, an inconvenient truth etc.), etc.
How are electric cars more efficient? They aren’t, in fact they cost a lot more to make and to operate. How expenses are only initial? Does that means that you don’t have to change tires on electric cars and that solar panels are eternal? Solar panels degrade over time and batteries degrade over time. Think about how much does it costs to replace your cell phone battery… and multiply it by 1000.
Other green sources of electricity also contribute to the electrical energy grid, electric cars are more efficient even without a whole industry powering to increase its effiency. Fossil fuel cars dominates because fossil fuel cars was in a position within the market to overtake the electric car. Expenses are only of the initial, if there was an industry as large and as promoted as fossil fuel cars the ratios of the pros of the electric car youll find increases from a well established list
The fossil fuel car dominates because electric cars are horrendously expensive and polluting too. Just think about recycling batteries and all the coal you have to burn to generate electricity to charge said batteries. And no, you can’t charge the battery of an electric car with photovoltaics unless you’re ready to wait a month per charge or spend $200.000 for enough panels to charge it in a day. And you have to burn a lot of coal to make solar panels too. And to recycle them when they fail.
um the electric car was available on the market around 80-100 years ago and now the fossil fuel car dominates, all this photovoltaic technology needs is some prescence on the market
Einstein discovered the photoelectric effect in the ‘40 and carbon nanotubes have been discovered in ‘52. Just think at how little they were able to accomplish in more than 50 years of research in this area from the point of view of energy production. And this is not the first energy crisis we go thru. There are tons of stuff that would work if only high purity, defect free, huge nanostructures (crystals, tubes, what have you) were cheap and would require little energy to make.
Yes, probably. However, every PV material needs to be sealed tight from the environment, so the health problems shouldn’t be such a big issue.
The defect rate on the other hand should decrease as nanoengineering advances.
This is what I heard recently as well.
It was related to building an elevator into space to harness Helium from the moon.
Carbon nanotubes/nanowires/whatever are not cheap to produce because they are very prone to defects and suspect asbestos-like carcinogens. That is, because of their shape they can puncture the lungs and lodge themselves permanently in the tissue.
Carbon-nanowires could also used as photon collectors. They’ve a very high chance to be mass produced and to be very cheap.
Also, EM energy that’s coming from the Sun is so enermous, that nothing Earth based (wind, water) can outpace it on the long term. (Except fusion.)
I don’t know and I never claimed otherwise but fusion is pretty interesting. The numbers are right, in principle there is proof that it works and the technology behind it is progressing steadily.
ok, I’m not saying I agree with you, but how do you think we should power the world?
You have to take into account that it accumulated for millions of years in plants, animals, and ultimately into oil and we’ve consumed a good portion of it a century. With photovoltaics you can get at most what is coming day by day, which is a lot less than you need to maintain your lifestyle. But you might say: “I need a lot less”, well then enjoy your new photovoltaics based dark ages. I’m not buying into it and I ultimately think is a huge corporate wall street like scam.
“It’s” not “its”. Learn to spell you dumb fuck. Photovoltaics and wind power become even more expensive when you make large use of them because the best locations are already taken.
Lol, almost all energy we have on earth comes from the sun.
Please explain how harnessing the biggest energy source is a joke.
Unless the above statement was a joke then ignore this comment
Its expensive because no one uses it . Dumb fuck!
Photovoltaics is a joke. People consider it only because politics dumps huge amounts of cash into it. It sounds good, it’s horrendously expensive and has no practical value.
politics hurt solar energy solution