By Rivka Borochov
The time couldn’t be more critical, explains the fund’s overseer, Weizmann photovoltaic researcher Prof. David Cahen. He says that today’s solar energy engineers can only implement solutions at par with the latest research. And that’s been scarce since the 1980s.
“In 1983 the rug was pulled from under scientists from around the world, and mainly in the US when oil prices dropped after US hostages in Iran were freed,” says Cahen. “Many people left the field, but some die-hards like me continued. And as a result, now, when the new energy crisis becomes apparent, we need to go to the engineers to find solutions. But they can only build on what is known in basic science. We need a wider scientific basis for future technologies.”
The grant, provided by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, will be earmarked to advance basic solar energy research over the next three years in Israel, giving academics enough fuel to leap over current scientific hurdles. International researchers are invited to apply to join the Israeli teams, and Cahen hopes to see interest from Chinese and Indian researchers in particular.
Crossover research
The funded research mainly will focus on biofuels, photovoltaics and optics, says Cahen, whose lab’s claim to fame was creating the research that stabilized second-generation solar energy panels in the 1980s and ’90s.
Researchers expect to publish joint papers in crossover fields -- genetics and plant chemistry, physics and engineering -- and funnel the results of their research into solutions that could be applied in similarly shared directions in engineering.
Cahen expects it will draw from the research of at least 10 percent of the Weizmann staff and will also piggyback on ongoing research in several consortiums in Israel, including the Weizmann’s Alternative Energy Research Initiative, the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) and the Israeli Center of Research Excellence (ICORE) in alternative energy.
The Technion group -- which focuses on the applied engineering side in complement to Weizmann’s basic research -- includes Efrat Lifshitz, who works on nanocrystal quantum dots to absorb sunlight in the visible range as well as the infrared and UV ranges; Nir Tessler, who leads a group on organic photovoltaic material; and Gitti Frey, who is pioneering organic electronics.
In the area of biofuels, the researchers intend to focus on finding new ways to break down the tough lignin and cellulose of plant matter so it can more efficiently be made into fuel. This can be done through hormones or genetic engineering.
In photovoltaics and optics, the researchers hope to create new kinds of materials, like solar paint, to help collect more energy from the sun. In optics, the researchers aim to apply the field’s most cutting-edge materials and design available in areas of plasmonics, nanostructures and meta-materials.
Cahen says that some teams will work in all three areas simultaneously to achieve one best solution: artificial photosynthesis.
“Alternative energy is one of the most important, as well as one of the most exciting, fields of research today,” he says. “We know that a whole array of energy options will be needed to replace today’s nonrenewable and polluting fossil fuels. All of our present efforts are essential to ensure our energy future.”
Israel’s brightest
Historically, Israel has an impressive record in solar energy innovation. There was Moshe “Rudi” Bloch, who pioneered solar energy ponds at the Dead Sea, and Lucien Bronicki, who developed a turbo generator for solar energy systems with Harry Zvi Tabor and founded the renewable energy company Ormat.
“His trade secret was that he was very good at making turbines based on organic fluids developed by Amnon Yogev, who used to be at the Weizmann,” says Cahen. Prof. Moshe Levi worked with Yogev to pioneer several concentrated solar energy processes in the 1980s and 1990s.
Levi Yissar built the first solar water heater prototype, and the late Prof. Israel Dostrovsky built the solar tower laboratory at the Weizmann Institute.
Other names recognized worldwide in contemporary circles include Prof. Jacob Karni from the Weizmann, who developed solar thermal energy technology commercialized through HelioFocus, AORA Solar, and NewCo2Fuels; Ben-Gurion University’s Prof. David Faiman, who pioneered concentrated solar technology now applied in the clean-tech company Zenith Solar; Prof. Avi Kribus from Tel Aviv University, working on solar power generation processes; and Michael Epstein of the Weizmann, who continues to take the lead in solar thermochemistry development.