Perspectives on Promoting Regional Renewable Energy Research and Development

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Energy Forum Zagreb, Croatia November 21, 2008

Perspectives on Promoting Regional Renewable
Energy Research and Development Mildred
Dresselhaus Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Cambridge, MA
Collaborators George Crabtree, ANL Michelle
Buchanan, ORNL Gang Chen, MIT
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Outline
Perspectives on Promoting Regional Renewable
Energy Research and Development

• Introduction the energy challenge
• Strategies for impact
• Outlook to the future

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Demographic Expansion
Population (Billions)
Oceania
Oceania
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The World Energy Demand Challenge
energy gap 14 TW by 2050 33 TW by 2100
EIA Intl Energy Outlook 2004 http//www.eia.doe.g
ov/oiaf/ieo/index.html
Hoffert et al Nature 395, 883,1998
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Growing world energy needs
Energy demand and GDP per capita (1980-2002)
Primary energy per capita (GJ)
2000 13 TW 2050 30 TW 2100 46 TW
(Hoffert et al Nature 395, 883,1998)
40 of the worlds population is in the fast
developing regions.
GDP per capita (purchasing power parity)
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The Environmental Challenge
Climate Change 2001 T he Scientific Basis, Fig
2.22
J. R. Petit et al, Nature 399, 429, 1999
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
2001 http//www.ipcc.ch N. Oreskes, Science 306,
1686, 2004 D. A. Stainforth et al, Nature 433,
403, 2005
Tipping points on temperature and CO2 level
indicate urgency
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The ENERGY REVOLUTION (The Terawatt Challenge)
14 Terawatts
30 Terawatts
Source International Energy Agency
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Energy Alternatives and Growing Needs
Fossil
Nuclear
Renewable
Fusion
solar, wind, hydroelectric ocean tides and
currents biomass, geothermal
energy gap 14 TW by 2050 33 TW by 2100
10 TW 10,000 1 GW power plants 1 new power
plant/day for 27 years

• no single solution
• Diversity of energy sources
• Different solutions are relevant for each country
• Increasing energy utilization efficiency and
  energy conservation are vital components

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General Observations of WIREC 2008 (Washington
International Renewable Energy Conference 2008)

• 9000 participants from 113 countries including
  103 ministers. The largest conference on
  renewable energy to date.
• Participants were optimistic about the future of
  renewable energy.
• Delegates showed an appreciation of the scale of
  the energy problem, of global climate issues, and
  of the increasing energy needs of a growing world
  population.

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WIREC pledges
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WIREC pledges (continued)
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Outline
Perspectives on Promoting Regional Renewable
Energy Research and Development

• Introduction the energy challenge
• Strategies for impact
• Outlook to the future

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The Sun Our Ultimate Energy Source Energy in
Sunlight and Heat

• 1.2 x 105 TW delivered to Earth
• 36,000 TW on land (world)

Earths Ultimate Recoverable Resource of oil 3
Trillion (Tera) Barrels 1.7 x 1022 Joules 1.5
days of sunlight
San Francisco Earthquake (1906) magnitude
7.8 1017 Joules 1 second of sunlight
Annual Human Production of Energy 4.6 x 1020
Joules 1 hour of sunlight
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Solar Energy Challenges
500 - 3000 C heat engines electricity
generation process heat
50 - 200 C space, water heating
natural photosynthesis
artificial photosynthesis
.0002 TW PV (world) 0.30/kWh w/o storage
1.4 TW biomass (world) 0.2 TW biomass sustainable
(world)
0.006 TW (world)
1.5 TW electricity (world) 0.03-0.06/kWh
(fossil)
11 TW
2 TW space and water heating (world)
Major scientific and technological challenges
must be met to reach these goals.
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Why Nanostructured materials are an important
strategy forenergy-based applications

• New desirable properties are available at the
  nanoscale but not found in conventional 3D
  materials, e.g., materials parameters dependent
  on size in the quantum limit
• Higher surface area to promote catalytic
  interactions
• Independent control of nanomaterials parameters
  which depend on each other for 3D materials.

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• Catalysts offer promises of exponential impact
• Catalysts allow common energy-related processes
  to occur.
• Catalysts have an exponential dependence
  exp(-Ebarrier/kT)
• Development of efficient inexpensive catalysts
  will be key.
• Modeling and simulation will play a significant
  role.

• Inspired by quantum chemical calculations, Ni
  surface-alloyed with Au (black) is used to reduce
  carbon poisoning of catalyst, as verified
  experimentally.

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Theory can introduce new concepts for materials
design

• There is a need for low-temperature, highly
  efficient and durable catalysts for large scale
  hydrogen production.
• New catalyst structures and compositions are now
  being predicted a priori using quantum chemistry
  and molecular dynamics.
• Single metallic layers of one metal embedded
  within a matrix of another metal produce
  low-energy hydrogen scission and recombination.
• Nickel within platinum can attach atomic hydrogen
  weakly like copper and gold, while dissociating
  molecular hydrogen rapidly like platinum and
  rhodium.
• This study may lead to breakthroughs in hydrogen
  production, storage and combustion in fuel cells.

• Theoretical calculation of molecular hydrogen
  undergoing dissociation over near-surface alloys.
  
• Small purple spheres hydrogen
• Blue spheres platinum atoms
• Red spheres nickel atoms
• Bicolor blue and red spheres platinum atoms
  whose electronic properties have been
  dramatically altered by the underlying nickel.

J. Zhang, et al, Angew. Chem. Int Ed. 44, 2132
(2005) Makrikakis, group, U.of Wisconsin
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High Throughput Combinatorial Screening
Combinatorial Materials Screening
Series Process vs. Parallel Process
(one at a time)
(up to a thousand at a time)
High throughput combinatorial screening methods
are widely applicable for optimizing alloying of
nanostructures for enhancing specific materials
properties

• Wide applicability in energy research for both
  experiment and theory

Gremaud et al. Adv. Mater. 19, 2813 (2007)
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Moores Law for semiconductor electronicsneeds
to be extended to energy
The huge global energy requirements focus
attention on scale and time frame.
Semiconductor Research Corporation
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200 Years of Luminous Efficacy for Various
Lighting Technologies
Jeff Y. Tsao, Solid-State Lighting Lamps, Chips
and Materials for Tomorrow, IEEE Circuits
Devices 20(3), 28-37 (2004).
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Moores Law for Photovoltaic Cells
Cell production (MW)
This growth rate must be accelerated in magnitude
and time to reach 1.5 TW by 2050
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Conclusions about Strategies

• Make serious investment in renewable energy
  research and development now (2008-2020) to have
  implementation by 2050
• Develop Near-term (2-5 years), Mid-term (5-10
  years), Long term (more than 10 years) Energy
  Strategies with periodic review
• Establish collaborations between countries with
  know-how and countries with potential for
  development of a particular technology.
• Give serious attention to develop some
  transformational large impact technologies.

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Outline
Perspectives on Promoting Regional Renewable
Energy Research and Development

• Introduction the energy challenge
• Strategies for impact
• Outlook to the future

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Energy a BIG Complex System
Technology
Science
Sociology
Economics
Politics
Industry

• no one dimensional solutions will work
• transition to renewable energy requires the
  introduction of transformational technologies and
  confluence of all elements working together

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Summary and Policy Issues

• Sustainable world energy supply is likely to be a
  mix of transformational renewable energy
  technologies
• Emphasis must be given to the magnitude of global
  energy needs and the urgent time factors.
  Resources are required.
• Strong interplay between basic and applied
  sciences and the promotion of interdisciplinary
  science are keys to success.
• We need to train the next generation of
  scientists and engineers to solve energy-related
  problems, and give them enough resources for
  success
• Collaborations between academia, government and
  industry are a key factor
• The challenges and constraints are global and
  complementary among different countries
• International collaboration and networking must
  be encouraged and supported

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END