Research activities at the Solar Energy Research Institute With a goal of being the national center f o r excellence within the solar energy research field, the SERI will be spending $85 million this calendar year From that base, SERI has grown, with the pains typical of rapid start-up, into an active and aggressive organization of more than 600 people. In 1979, it will grow to around 700, and administer more than $60 million in solar energy research subcontracted to a broad spectrum of private industries, universities, and others. It will perform an additional $25 million in research activities in its own state-of-the-art laboratories, now occupying temporary quarters in Colorado. Construction of permanent facilities should begin in 1980.
John McKelvey Midwest Research Institute Kansas City, Mo. 641 I O The Arab oil embargo of 1973 led to long lines at gas stations, higher prices for all petroleum products, and a sudden reevaluation by engineers, scientists, and politicians of a variety of alternate energy sources. By 1979, it has also led to active research programs involving such diverse projects as examining agricultural residues, depositing black cobalt film onto nickel substrates, producing strong glass sheets one-tenth as thick as a dime, and examining the social and legal aspects of exploiting the oldest energy source known. That energy source is the sun, and the research projects cited are the barest tip of work now under way at the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) in Golden, Colorado. As federally sponsored solar energy research moves into higher gear this year, hundreds of such projects will be under way at SERI, or at other public and private laboratories throughout the country . SERI, itself, is a product of the 1973 embargo. With the after effects of the embargo still being felt, Congress Feature articles in ES&T hate by-lines, reprewnt the ciews of the authors. and are edited b), the Washington StafJ If you are interested in c,onrrihuting an article, contact the managing editor. 918
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Cover photo. The Omnium G , one of the first pieces of equipment in SERl's outdoor testingfacilitj, is a paraboloid dish collector capable of concentrating solar energy 10 000 times and generating ten?peratures in excess of5000 " F ; it will be tested f o r feasibilitjs f o r industrial power generation
rapidly approved the Solar Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974. Among its provisions was the creation of SERI. After nearly two years of intense competition, Midwest Research Institute was selected in 1977 to organize and manage the new center. It opened that year with a staff of about a dozen professionals.
Agenda SERl's mission is to perform as the lead solar research, development, and demonstration arm of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), both in overseeing federally funded research performed by subcontractors and in engaging in a wide variety of research efforts internally. Its goal is to be the national center of excellence within the solar energy research field. Equally important, SERI is to foster the rapid and economically feasible commercialization of solar energy technologies. All research is carried out with that goal uppermost, both near term and long range. And SERI will monitor U S . participation in joint solar energy demonstration programs in Saudi Arabia and Spain. DOE has assigned 21 major program areas to SERI for fiscal year 1979. Not all fall under the research
0013-936X/79/0913-0918$01.00/0
@ 1979 American Chemical Society
umbrella, which covers three welldefined types of work-basic research into a wide variety of solar energy phenomena, engineering activities aimed a t improving the performance of current technologies, and social/ economic research aimed at developing strategic solar energy utilization plans. Each program area cuts across a spectrum of activities and usually involves three or more of SERI’s six divisions. For example, photovoltaics work in 1979 includes: research and development in SERI’s own laboratories, conducted by the Research Division; monitoring subcontractor R & D on advanced photovoltaic materials, also through the Research Division; economic and market analysis of photovoltaic applications, conducted by the Analysis Division; information dissemination, by the Information Systems Division; and development of photovoltaic standards, by the Technology Commercialization Division. Among key areas most typical of S E R I activities for 1979 are three research programs-photovoltaics, biomass, and industrial process heat. These three areas probably hold the greatest potential for long-term success in solar energy applications. A fourth area, involving economics and the social sciences, provides some insight into the wide range of questions that must be answered if the nation is to get maximum benefit from solar energy.
Photovoltaics The direct conversion of sunlight into electricity holds tremendous promise for supplying significant portions of the nation’s energy budget in the next century. But the cost of materials makes such systems prohibitively expensive today-$10 per peak watt for the most economic of them. A major S E R I goal is to drive the cost down to 30-40 cents per watt. Photovoltaics thus is getting the largest single piece of S E R I research funding for 1979. The Institute has allocated about $4.6 million.for internal photovoltaics work, including about $1.9 million for laboratory equipment. An additional $16 million will be subcontracted to other laboratories and industries performing basic research into materials and concentrators that will improve the conversion efficiency of solar cells. This constitutes the major national effort in photovoltaics research. SERI’s photovoltaics laboratory opened in late 1978 and is now focusing activities on materials analysis, particularly on the reliability and sta-
The full list of 21 solar research areas at SERI photovoltaics technology clean fuels from biomass wind energy systems decentralized applications storage systems industrial process heat passive technology solar thermal technology ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) systems planning and analysis information systems international programs university research basic and applied research economic and social science research quality assurance and standards development education and training programs commercialization activities program management test and measurements support services conferences
Funding for the ’79 solar research program *
Areas
In-houw Subat SERI contract (all flgures In mllllonr of dollan)
Photovoltaic $4.6 Biomass 1.5 Wind 1.o Passive technology & 3.5 commercialization Economic 8 social 3.9 sciences Information & 7.1 international programs Advanced solar 2.1 research Storage systems & 1.2 industrial process heat Solar thermal & 2.2 ocean thermal
$16.0
9.3 .8
3.0 1.0
13.5
.5
1.7
As of June. Funding estimates change almost weekly. a
bility of solar cells. Increasing the conversion efficiency of cells, either through developing new materials or finding new combinations of known materials, is a major goal. For instance, some types of gallium arsenide cells show great promise for high efficiency in concentrated sunlight. Achieved through the use of concentrating mirrors, energy levels
equal to 2000-10 000 suns can be achieved, with the intense beam of sunlight focused on cells. But the electrical output of cells currently available or being developed remains limited. One subcontractor (Rockwell) has achieved conversion efficiencies of about 24.7% with a concentrator cell. But the theoretical limit for such cells is about 35%. That limit may never be reached: however, S E R I research is aiming for a conversion efficiency of at least 30%. With a corresponding reducing in the cost of producing such cells, the economic goals may then be attainable. A second avenue of research also is being explored in the SERI laboratory. It seeks to produce thin-film cells, probably of silicon materials, that will have intetmediate efficiencies in the 10% range. Production costs of such cells are potentially low enough to meet the cost-per-watt targets of photovoltaic conversion. An early result from SERI’s photovoltaics research indicates that some forms of silicon may not require the former high purities to reach intermediate efficiencies. That potential arose when S E R I researchers found that silicon studies had largely been sidetracked in recent years, in favor of gallium arsenide and other high efficiency materials. In examining silicon’s potential for intermediate cell use, the researchers found noteworthy voids in past research. Among the avenues now being explored is a casting technique that would produce a continuous thin film of silicon. If perfected, it would eliminate the need for growing high purity silicon crystals, then slicing and reslicing them into thin sections.
Biomass Biomass conversion involves extracting the energy in plant materials-wood, grain, grasses, reeds, straw, agricultural residues, and other natural products. In 1978, S E R I researchers estimated that 13.4 quads of energy appeared as unused biomass residues in the U S . alone. As economically efficient methods are developed for recovering that energy, biomass becomes a significant factor in solar research. In the simplest form, biomass conversion is combustion. Or it can involve increasingly sophisticated technologies such as controlled photosynthesis, liquefaction to produce fuel oils, or pyrolysis to produce oil, gas, or charcoal. It can also include extraction of chemical, digestive methane production, and fermentation or distillation processes. Volume 13, Number 8,August 1979
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Photovoltaic lab. Opened in late 1978, the lab is focusingon the analysis of materials f o r the direct conoersion o f sunlight into electricity
Corrosion data. Analysts are discussing measurement system
SERI’s biomass researchers occupied their first laboratory in the spring of 1979. But basic research into a number of biomass areas began in 1978, in rented facilities. Two technologies rapidly came to the forefront as needing little or no additional research and have been recommended for immediate commercialization efforts. Those areas are air gasification and pelleting. In air gasification, decomposing wood is placed over a low-heat fire. The result is a tarry gas which can be used, with minor retrofitting, in existing industrial boilers. The process is particularly applicable to companies, in such fields as wood products, that already produce biomass residues. Pelleting involves compressing biomass residues into densified fuels which may either be substitutes for, or diluents in, coal-fired systems. Most biomass materials have low specific gravities when dry-0.65 for hard woods; less for everything else. Possible barriers to biomass include difficulties in collection, storage, shipment, and use. Pelleting materials to specific gravities of at least 1 .O eliminate most of those problems. But considerable research remains in other areas. More than $9 million is budgeted by S E R I for subcontract work during 1979. Another $1.5 million will be devoted to in-house research. Among key areas to be examined, both internally and through subcontracts, is the production of chemicals, including hydrogen, and electricity using modified photosynthetic processes or photochemical systems. Other studies include fundamental and applied research into the thermal conversion of biomass to gaseous, liq-
dustrial thermal storage, heat transfer, and desiccant materials testing. In the latter project, researchers are looking at water cooling systems, with desiccants to remove moisture, producing cool, dry air. Solar heat would be used to dry the desiccant, allowing the cycle to be repeated.
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Environmental Science & Technology
uid, and solid fuels and the use of biomass materials in fuel cells to produce electricity.
Industrial process heat American industry uses about 40% of all energy consumed in the U S about half of that in the 300 to 400 OF temperature range of typical solar collectors. But the life cycle cost of such systems has continued to make them prohibitively expensive for most applications. SERI’s research activities here are again multi-pronged, in anticipation of significant long-term benefits. A 10acre Solar Energy Research and Application in Process Heat (SERAPH) facility is under construction and will be occupied in late 1979. This research and demonstration facility will be used to examine a variety of solar collectors, new materials, and other items developed for industrial use. Research also will delve into the problems of solar concentrators, looking for ways to economically manufacture and mass-produce good quality equipment. A recent milestone in that work was reached in a SERI materials laboratory when an adherent black cobalt film was successfully deposited onto a nickel substrate. The combination seems to provide an improved absorber coating with applications in industrial solar concentrators. The same lab is attempting to produce low-cost thin sheet glass mirrors, as little as 0.3-mm thick, for use in concentrating collectors. Use of such glass would eliminate the expensive high-temperature curving processes currently used to make such mirrors for thicker glass. Other research efforts include in-
Economics and social sciences While falling outside the traditional laboratory-oriented concept of research, work in these fields is vital to the success of solar energy as an alternate energy source. S E R I has already completed a number of essential studies, including an examination of how selected states are using incentive programs to promote solar energy applications. In that study, economists and others look at such financial incentives as income tax credits and property tax reductions, state-funded research and development programs, land use, and state testing and certification programs. Among the study’s conclusions are that program implementation is as important as the size of the incentive and that administrators must have the flexibility and discretionary power to modify programs as technologies change. The study found that a well-administered program of small incentives is as effective at promoting solar energy use as larger, more unwieldy programs. The study also pinpointed a number of specific problem areas which require attention. Among the latter are the following considerations: the right to sunlight conflicting standards and codes among states having them (no federal standards exist for solar equipment)
the potential conflict between consumer protection the promotion of innovative products the encouragement of low-cost home-built solar energy systems. Answers to such questions and thousands more will be sought through S E R I research in these areas. As recently as 1973, solar energy’s contribution to the national energy budget was insignificant. Now D O E and SERI face the massive task of both modifying old technologies and developing new ones to correct that situation. But there is an unresolved question: How much energy should solar technologies provide?
Prognosis Estimators usually look ahead to the year 2000. Projections for solar use range 5-50% of all energy consumed in the U S . in that year. Certainly the upper-range estimate would appear to be unrealistic. In 1978, the U S . consumed about 1 5 quads of energy. Estimates for consumption in the year 2000 range all the way from the high 70s to 150 quads. It is difficult, if not impossible, to forecast a percentage of solar contribution under such conditions. However, it is realistic to look forward to some attainable goals in other terms. Dr. Paul Rappaport, Director of S E R I and Vice President of Midwest Research, did just that in a recent presentation. “ I am optimistic that we can obtain 10 to 15 quads of solar energy,” he forecast for the year 2000, “with a planned national program for its development.” With 1979 well under way, research at SERI and elsewhere is moving toward that goal.
John McKelvey is President and Chief Executice Officer of Midwest Research Institute. H e guides operations in more than SO scientific and technical disciplines performed by a research and support staff of ocer 1000 people. Included under his direction is the Solar Energy Research Institute ( S E R I ) located in Golden, Colorado. S E R I is the research and administratice focal point f o r U S . solar energy research sponsored through the Department of Energy.
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