Prof. Dunbar Birnie of Rutgers University

The transportation sector uses an enormous amount of fossil fuel and seems ripe for conversion to electricity – marked by the success of Tesla and now a greatly expanded fleet of plug-in vehicles from nearly every major manufacturer. Still, many people grumble about the carbon footprint for electricity generation itself, which emphasizes the need for continuing to install solar everywhere that it is practical. This talk will examine several opportunities (and their respective difficulties) for adding PV in ways that are useful for vehicle propulsion: (1) workplace solar canopy parking structures with plug-in availability, (2) solar roadways, and (3) solar directly built into vehicle roof and body panels. The last may seem most obvious, but the power generation rates and typical energy needs for driving are not well matched, so plug-in charging will remain a major energy input as we transition to a future with more pervasive electrification of transportation.

Biography:

Dr. Birnie received his BS and PhD degrees from MIT and is deeply involved in solar innovation at many levels. His class on “Solar Cell Design and Processing” integrates innovation and practical engineering knowledge to help students evaluate new solar inventions as daily class discussion topics. Prof. Birnie has been modeling and measuring how solar power overlaps with the emergence of electric transportation through his “Solar-2-Vehicle Project”. Through various NSF funding he has worked extensively on dye sensitized solar cells and improving the nanoporosity channels that are important for enhancing efficiency. Present device-level work is aimed at wide-band-gap thin-film semiconductors to pair with silicon for application in 1-sun tandem architecture modules.

Address:Rutgers University, Materials Science and Engineering, , Piscataway, United States, 08854

Prof. Dunbar Birnie of Rutgers University

Biography:

Address:Piscataway, United States