Professor Paula Hammond’s week at MIT started out like any other—teaching, meeting with students, working on her research. It ended with Hammond and her colleague, Professor Angela Belcher, briefing President Barack Obama on a novel approach to energy storage—batteries that can be grown, not manufactured.
Hammond and Belcher were part of a team of energy researchers at MIT who met with the President on his visit to the MIT campus on October 23rd. Obama also heard from Professors Alex Slocum and Marc Baldo and toured the laboratory of Professor Vladimir Bulović. They were joined in the briefings by two graduate students working with Hammond and Belcher, Rebecca Lynn Ladewski and Lt. Col. John Burpo, who has completed his second tour in Iraq and was an Eni-MIT Energy Fellow in 2008-09.
Hammond had this to say about the President: “He put everyone in the room at ease the moment he walked into the lab. As Angie and I explained different aspects of the science, he would stop us and ask specific questions about the technology.…He wanted to know when these innovations would become companies, start-ups, and ultimately new jobs. It was clear that the President knew the importance of science and engineering both for its practical contributions and its downstream economic value.”
Belcher noted the President’s quick mind and quick wit. Her answer to Obama’s query about her ability to do a billion experiments simultaneously—“yes we can”—prompted the President to note, “Hey, that’s my campaign slogan.”
MIT President Susan Hockfield, Governor Deval Patrick, Senator John Kerry, and Professor Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), joined the President on his tour. After hearing from MIT faculty about several promising research projects in renewable energy, storage, and efficiency, President Obama presented an address on American leadership in clean energy.
Hockfield opened the event, emphasizing the importance of increased and sustained funding for energy research and development and noting that President Obama’s stimulus package and other funding priorities underscore “…his forceful support of federal funding for energy R&D.”
Moniz introduced the President to a packed audience at Kresge Auditorium, which included numerous local, state, and federal officials and many clean-tech entrepreneurs, in addition to many MIT faculty and students. In welcoming the President to MIT, Moniz noted, “The President’s commitment to integrating sound science and critical analysis into the formulation and implementation of policy across the board is profoundly important—and indeed essential for moving us to a sustainable energy future.”
Moniz added, “The President has re-established the United States as a member of the community of nations that are committed to meeting the linked challenges of climate change, economic development, and security.”
In his address, Obama praised MIT’s commitment to energy research, singling out the MIT Energy Initiative and making a strong call for the nation to lead the world in the development of new, efficient, and clean energy technologies. The President’s aspiration: “Nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to produce and use energy. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I’m convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation.”
Describing his tour earlier in the day, the President noted, “Extraordinary research is being conducted at this Institute.” An appropriate exclamation point to this sentence was the President’s signature on equipment in Bulović’s lab that said, “Great work!” Here is an overview of the research that inspired President Obama’s praise.
Solar. Professor Marc Baldo of electrical engineering and computer science demonstrated his work on luminescent solar concentrators, which collect sunlight for solar cells. These concentrators reduce the number of solar cells needed for a given energy output, thereby reducing the cost of solar-generated electricity. The luminescent concentrators can be mounted on rooftops and other space- and weight-sensitive locations that cannot support conventional solar concentrators. Professor Baldo’s research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Wind. Professor Alex Slocum of mechanical engineering demonstrated an offshore renewable energy system (ORES) in which excess power from a wind turbine pumps water out of a storage volume anchored to the seabed. ORES operates by having water flow past a turbine into the storage volume, creating an inverse lake on the bottom of the ocean. This storage system has two purposes: it enables offshore power generation when the wind is not blowing and power is needed; and it can be used for mooring a floating wind turbine. Storage is a key enabling technology for intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind. This research was funded by a seed grant from MITEI.
Batteries and solar cells. Professors Paula Hammond of chemical engineering and Angela Belcher of materials science and engineering and bioengineering demonstrated high-power batteries and thin-film solar cells that were grown and assembled at room temperature using biological processes. The materials involved are inexpensive and nontoxic, and the processing techniques are low cost, water based, and readily commercialized. Their approach addresses one of the main challenges in generating highly efficient solar cells: combining different material components so that they interact with each other on the nanometer-length scales. Their assembled batteries have the same power performance as the very best state-of-the-art batteries. When scaled, these materials—and, more importantly, the next generation of materials—could be used for computers or plug-in hybrid vehicles. Their research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Eni, the MIT Energy Initiative, and the Army Research Office.
LED technology. Professor Vladimir Bulović of electrical engineering and computer science demonstrated quantum dot lighting, which is a replacement for existing incandescent or fluorescent bulbs that combines warm, rich color with the high efficiency of LED technology. The remarkably high white-light efficiency of this device is combined with a life span of more than 20 years, which could change the paradigm of lighting technology. These lights can be fabricated in a simple molding process, enabling manufacturability and large-scale deployment. Artificial lighting consumes 8 percent of all U.S. energy and 22 percent of U.S. electricity. The efficiency of present light sources (primarily incandescent, fluorescent, and high-intensity lamps) can be doubled or even tripled with the LED white light sources that Bulović and colleagues are developing.
This research was performed jointly with Professor Moungi Bawendi of chemistry and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation through MIT’s Center for Materials Science and Engineering, the Army Research Laboratory through MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers. The lighting samples Bulović showed were fabricated by QD Vision of Watertown, MA, an MIT start-up founded by Bawendi’s and Bulović’s graduate students.