Oct. 1, 2008

Bright future for solar power

Making solar panels that are as cheap and easy to install as paint or carpet may sound like a pipe dream. To U of C chemistry professor Curtis Berlinguette it is not only possible, it is one of the key steps in reducing humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels.  In his lab in the basement of Science A is where some of the world’s most advanced work is taking place to make this a reality.

“The only way we are going to meet large-scale demand for carbon-free energy is by making solar cells that can be painted onto buildings with inexpensive, readily-available materials,” says Berlinguette, the newly-appointed Canada Research Chair in Energy Conversion. “We are developing molecular compounds that harness light efficiently, but don’t require the ultra-high purity silicon or rare and toxic metals that are used in current solar cell technologies.”

Berlinguette holds one of the U of C’s newest Canada Research Chair (CRC) positions that was announced Tuesday by the federal government. Faculty of Medicine researcher Deborah Anne Marshall was appointed to the new Canada Research Chair in Health Services and Systems Research.

Berlinguette joined the Department of Chemistry in September 2006, returning to his hometown after a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University and completing his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University in 2004.  He is also a member of the Energy & Environmental Systems Group of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy, and a holder of an Alberta Ingenuity New Faculty Award.

His research team is developing “dye-sensitized solar cells” that use cheap materials to capture the sun’s energy.

“Titanium dioxide – a white substance found in consumer products ranging from paints to sunscreens – is a semiconductor like silicon, but is not very useful in a solar cell on its own because it reflects most incident sunlight.  When we mix it with light-harvesting dye molecules, however, we form a dark, conducting material that effectively absorbs sunlight to generate electricity,” he explains. “The sun provides a lot of energy, but it is very diffuse.  The bottom line is that solar modules need to cover a high surface area to generate sufficient power for most applications, which is why we are focused using cheaper materials to make these devices.”

Because the sun doesn’t shine all the time, his lab is also collaborating with fuel cell researchers to develop ways of storing sunlight by efficiently producing pure hydrogen fuel from water using electricity produced by solar cells.
“While the hydrogen we currently use for fuel cells is derived primarily from fossil fuels, we are developing methods to efficiently strip hydrogen from water to help us reach a clean ‘hydrogen economy’.”

Tuesday’s announcement included a total of $6.7 million in CRC funding for the U of C, including the renewal of six previous CRC positions. Berlinguette was also awarded $601,493 from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s Leaders Opportunity Fund to purchase equipment for his Synthesis and Characterization of Solar Energy Conversion Materials lab.

For more information, visit: www.chairs.gc.ca