Home > Press > Caltech-led Team Gets up to $122 Million for Energy Innovation Hub
Abstract:
Caltech will partner with Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab. and other CA institutions to develop method to produce fuels from sunlight
As part of a broad effort to achieve breakthrough innovations in energy production, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman today announced an award of up to $122 million over five years to a multidisciplinary team of top scientists to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight.
The hub will be directed by Nathan S. Lewis, George L. Argyros Professor and professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), to be led by Caltech in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), will bring together leading researchers in an ambitious effort aimed at simulating nature's photosynthetic apparatus for practical energy production. The goal of the hub is to develop an integrated solar energy-to-chemical fuel conversion system and move this system from the bench-top discovery phase to a scale where it can be commercialized.
"The Energy Innovation Hubs have enormous potential to advance transformative breakthroughs," says Deputy Secretary Poneman. "Finding a cost-effective way to produce fuels as plants do-combining sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide-would be a game changer, reducing our dependence on oil and enhancing energy security. This Energy Innovation Hub will enable our scientists to combine their talents to tackle this bold and highly promising challenge."
Lewis, who will lead the multi-institutional team, says, "The sun is by far the largest source of energy available to man, but we must find a way to cheaply capture, convert, and store its energy if we are to build a complete clean energy system. Making fuels directly from sunlight presents an exciting opportunity to focus the efforts of teams of leading scientists onto developing the breakthroughs that are required to obtain a safe and secure energy future for all nations."
The hubs are large, multidisciplinary, highly collaborative teams of scientists and engineers working over a longer time frame to achieve a specific high-priority goal. They are managed by top teams of scientists and engineers with enough resources and authority to move quickly in response to new developments.
On the Caltech campus, the center will be housed in the Jorgensen Laboratory building.
"Caltech is honored to be chosen by the Department of Energy to lead its new Energy Innovation Hub, and I am confident that this bold public-private partnership envisioned by President Obama will ultimately help develop significant clean energy solutions and create green jobs," says Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau. "Caltech's history of solving the most difficult, multidisciplinary, scientific problems, and the strong commitment to energy innovation through our new Resnick Sustainability Institute, make us uniquely suited to help make fuels from the sun an efficient and economical part of our nation's energy strategy."
JCAP research will be directed at the discovery of the functional components necessary to assemble a complete artificial photosynthetic system: light absorbers, catalysts, molecular linkers, and separation membranes. The hub will then integrate those components into an operational solar fuel system and develop strategies to move from the laboratory toward commercial viability. The ultimate objective is to drive the field of solar fuels from fundamental research, where it has resided for decades, into applied research and technology development, thereby setting the stage for the creation of a direct solar fuels industry.
Other members of the hub leadership team include: Bruce Brunschwig (Caltech); Peidong Yang (UC Berkeley/Berkeley Lab); and Harry Atwater, Caltech's Howard Hughes Professor, professor of applied physics and materials science, and director of the Resnick Institute, which will work in conjunction with the new center to foster transformational advances in energy science. Atwater and Lewis are both founding board members of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute based at Caltech.
The JCAP Proposal Leadership team included Heinz Frei and Elaine Chandler of Berkeley Lab, as well as Eric McFarland of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Jens Norskov of the SLAC National Accelerator Lab. Also involved at Caltech will be Harry Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry; Jonas Peters, the Bren Professor of Chemistry; and Michael Hoffman, the James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science.
In addition to the major partners, Caltech and Berkeley Lab, other participating institutions include SLAC, Stanford University; UC Berkeley; UC Santa Barbara; UC Irvine; and UC San Diego.
Selection was based on a competitive process using scientific peer review. The selection process for the Fuels from Sunlight Hub was managed by the Department of Energy Office of Science, which will have federal oversight responsibilities for the artificial photosynthesis Hub.
The hub will be funded at up to $22 million this fiscal year. The hub will then be funded at an estimated $25 million per year for the next four years, subject to congressional appropriations. More information on the hubs can be found at: www.energy.gov/hubs/
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Jon Weiner
Copyright © Caltech
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Jobs
Could quantum technology be New Mexico’s next economic boon? Quantum New Mexico Coalition aims to establish state as national hub April 1st, 2022
SEMI Partners with GLOBALFOUNDRIES to Offer Apprenticeship Program Aimed at Building the Electronics Talent Pipeline August 11th, 2020
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Reports Inducement Grants under NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4) March 29th, 2019
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes April 5th, 2024
Academic/Education
Rice University launches Rice Synthetic Biology Institute to improve lives January 12th, 2024
Multi-institution, $4.6 million NSF grant to fund nanotechnology training September 9th, 2022
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Environment
Billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving baby food containers: Exposure to plastic particles kills up to 75% of cultured kidney cells July 21st, 2023
Energy
Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024
Shedding light on unique conduction mechanisms in a new type of perovskite oxide November 17th, 2023
Inverted perovskite solar cell breaks 25% efficiency record: Researchers improve cell efficiency using a combination of molecules to address different November 17th, 2023
The efficient perovskite cells with a structured anti-reflective layer – another step towards commercialization on a wider scale October 6th, 2023
Research partnerships
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024
'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024
Solar/Photovoltaic
Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024
Shedding light on unique conduction mechanisms in a new type of perovskite oxide November 17th, 2023
Inverted perovskite solar cell breaks 25% efficiency record: Researchers improve cell efficiency using a combination of molecules to address different November 17th, 2023
Charged “molecular beasts” the basis for new compounds: Researchers at Leipzig University use “aggressive” fragments of molecular ions for chemical synthesis November 3rd, 2023
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
Premium Products | ||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||