NREL: Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion Funds 12 Solar Research Projects

CRSP is the newest research center of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory. The center concentrates on ways to directly convert the sun's energy to clean, low-cost electricity and fuels, a research area called solar photoconversion.

The 12 CRSP projects will be funded for up to two years by contributions from CRSP corporate members and matching funds from the state of Colorado.

Nine projects begin this fall and three will begin in January 2009. Eight of the 12 projects will receive $100,000 and the rest will receive between $75,000 and $99,818 for a total of $1,168,711.

The four collaboratory institutions are the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), Colorado State University (CSU) and NREL. The University of Wyoming is participating in one project.

"These projects represent the leading edge of research into both new ways to generate electricity and liquid and gaseous fuels directly from the sun and improving our approaches toward these goals," said NREL Senior Research Fellow Arthur Nozik, who serves as scientific director of CRSP.

"Exploring the fundamental nature and performance of advanced photoconversion materials and experimenting with new approaches are essential if we are to greatly increase the efficiency and lower the cost of solar photon conversion and decrease our reliance on fossil fuels," said Nozik.

The 12 projects are funded under the center's shared research program in which CRSP corporate members participate in a review panel that selects pre-competitive shared research projects. Corporate members receive non-exclusive licenses to any resulting intellectual property.

The program is designed to leverage this intellectual property to develop large-scale proprietary research for CRSP member companies and help the technologies efficiently enter the marketplace for commercial use.

CRSP is also pursuing federal grants that could initiate additional basic or applied research that advances solar energy.

The 12 selected solar projects are:

• Integrated Electrical and Optical Characterization of Silicon Thin Films - NREL and CSM, $99,818.
• Redox-Tunable Polymers for OPV active layers - NREL and CSU, $100,000.
• Group IV Nanowire Photovoltaics - CSM, $100,000.
• InVitro Evolution of RNA-Inorganic Catalysts for the Conversion of CO2 to Alcohols - CU, $100,000.
• Optimizing Cu2ZnSnS4-based Photovoltaic Devices for Thin Films - CSU and Wyoming, $75,000.
• Group IV Quantum Dots for 3rd Generation Photovoltaics - NREL and CU, $95,000.
• Probing Critical Interfaces in 2nd and 3rd Generation Photovoltaics with Nonlinear Optics - NREL and CU, $100,000.
• Spatially-resolved Spectroscopic Studies of Small Ordered Crystals of Semiconductor Nanocrystals - NREL and CSU, $100,000.
• Nanoscale Engineering of Functional Metal Oxides for Photocatalysts and Photovoltaics - CSM, $98,893.
• Plasma Processing for Improved Understanding and Control of Film Properties and Interfaces with Organic/Polymeric/Hybrid Solar Cells - CSU, $100,000.
• Fundamental Studies of Polyoxometallage-Based Nano-Materials for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting - NREL and CSM, $100,000.
• Development of an Economical Catalyst for Water Oxidation (solar fuels) - CU, $100,000.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).