Citizens of the Earth

Alternative Energy – Think Power

This is the dawn of a new industrial revolution: a global transformation creating cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy to power advanced civilization. Necessity is the mother of invention and it is at the world’s top institute of technology that the energy solutions of tomorrow will be conceived.

Scientific progress into the harnessing of renewable energy sources is critical to ensure a healthy, safe and sustainable future.

Today, at GTEP’s central research facilities, research is impacting hydrogen technologies and fuel cell research; advanced batteries and energy storage; photovoltaics, optics, biofuels, and energy conservation; efficient buildings and smart grid technology; as well as advanced computational research for energy applications.

In addition, scientific explorations continue into:

• Direct conversion of solar energy to electricity and chemical fuels
  Control of material and chemical processes at the level of quantum mechanics; impacting catalysis, photochemistry, molecular biology, and device physics that are critical to solar energy conversion and storage.

• From biological feedstocks to portable fuels
  Biological systems give proof-of-concept to what can be achieved by nanotechnology. The manipulation of energy, entropy, and information within the nanosytems of life instruct us how to develop similarly sophisticated energy technologies.

• Knowledge gaps in energy storage
  Without effective energy storage, renewable energy such as wind and solar will not significantly displace conventional methods for generating. Similarly, current battery technologies are limited, creating technological barriers on the potential of electric vehicles.

• Energy use and transmission
  Introducing phase change materials for thermal energy conversion; strong light-matter interaction and collective charge behavior for light emission nearing theoretical efficiency; and radically different combustion chemistry of alternative fuels.