Energy

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Energy
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Current Energy Needs vs future demand
1 terawatt (TW) 1 x 1012 watts
World energy consumption in 2001 13.0 TW By
2050 the estimate energy need is 28 TW
Where do we get the additional 15 TW?
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Coal?
Enough reserves to meet US demands for 100s of
years Problem What to do the CO2 produced? Bury
it? CO2 sequestration Lake Nyos in Cameroon,
1986, 1200 people died
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Nuclear?
LS Power 750 MW coal fired power plant 1000 MW
1 GW 1000 GW 1 TW If you built a 1GW nuclear
plant Needed 10 TW of energy 10,000 GW Need
10,000 nuclear power plants over 50 year
period 10,000/18,000 days 0.5 power plant/day
1 plant every 2 days Where to store waste?
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Renewables
Wind 2-3 TW Hydroelectric 1.6 TW Geothermal
11.6 TW but involves the whole US Solar 600 TW
from the sun hitting the Earth
Nate Lewiss site http//nsl.caltech.edu/files/en
ergy6.pdf
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Different types of Solar Cells
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) Emerging
technology, uses inexpensive titanium dioxide as
the base material Easy to manufacture
Conventional silicon based system uses expensive
silicon as the base material
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How a DSSC works
Our research is focused on developing less
expensive dyes and new TiO2 surfaces for the dye
sensitized solar cell
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Structure of the dyes
TiO2
Syntheses of new dyes andnew TiO2
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Summer Research at UNI
Research Avenues for Iowa Science Educators
(RAISE) 6 week program at UNI, 3,300 stipend
plus lodging or commuting expenses Chemistry,
biology, physics, earth science,
astronomy Summer 2010 deadline approx December
2009 http//www.uni.edu/raise/ Contact Dawn
Del Carlo Department of Chemistry University of
Northern Iowa Cedar Falls IA 50614 Email
dawn.delcarlo_at_uni.edu