Thirteen members of RASEI secured funding from the Department of Energy to participate in inter-disciplinary team science to address a range of challenges associated with combating climate change.
In recent decades the scientific endeavor has expanded our knowledge and deepened our understanding of many of the imposing problems that face society. With this improved insight comes an appreciation that many of these issues are multi-faceted, far-reaching, and complex. The climate crisis is the toughest challenge for this generation and is an exceptionally intricate, systematic and multi-layered puzzle. In order to address this challenge in a holistic fashion we need teams of innovative scientists, from across a broad range of scientific and engineering fields, to work together in an inter-disciplinary fashion.
The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), a joint institute between CU Boulder and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has prioritized becoming a hub for multi-disciplinary teams focused on climate solutions to work together. Development of this ecosystem anable teams to expand their collaboration across the entire RASEI community, extending to engagement with other academic, national labs and industrial partners along the Front Range. Through fostering a team environment, developing a culture of sharing and integration, RASEI aims to accelerate fundamental discoveries and their translation to applications and solutions that can be deployed to all communities in need.
In August of 2022 the Department of Energy (DOE) released $540 million of funding for research into clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing, $400 million of which is to establish and continue multi-disciplinary team science at Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs). Across the nation 43 EFRCs were funded, with 13 RASEI members involved in six of these Centers.
The EFRC program was established by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) in 2009 to address the fact that global demand for energy is rapidly expanding, and the way in which energy is collected, stored and used needs to change. The goal of an EFRC is to bring together creative, multi-disciplinary scientific teams to tackle the toughest scientific challenges preventing advances in energy technologies. At the core of an EFRC's mission is to train the next generation of the scientific workforce, both in advanced technical techniques, and also in team science and developing the skills needed to work together to tackle large-scale problems. These Centers are initially funded for four years at about $4 million per year. If the Centers are successful, they can apply for renewed funding at the end of the first four years. Centers can only be renewed once.
For the 2022 funding announcement, two of the RASEI-infused EFRCs, one of which is based at NREL, were renewals of existing Centers, and the other four awards were to establish new research teams. You can find out more details about the different Centers in the summary boxes below.
The RASEI community is energized to be involved in these exciting collaborative opportunities, and the chance to work together across these teams as part of the RASEI community. Colorado’s U.S. Representative Ed Perlmutter captured this enthusiasm in his quote as part of the funding announcement:
“NREL and CU Boulder, among others, continue to lead our nation in their cutting-edge research and development of a variety of clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing. Their work is essential in the fight to combat climate change and achieve important climate and clean energy goals in the future”
If you would like to keep up with the progress these teams make, check out the RASEI website or signup to our monthly newsletter.
Research in this Center will impact society through the development of more efficient ways of making critical complex molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and advanced materials. Current approaches require the input of chemical or thermal energy and produce chemical byproducts and waste, but BioLEC is pioneering new methods that use light to drive the reactions, significantly reducing the amount of input energy required and the volume of chemical waste generated, a significant pollutant stream affecting climate change.
RASEI Members involved
- Obadiah Reid
- Garry Rumbles
Institutes Involved
- Princeton University - Lead Institution. PI: Greg Scholes
- Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment
- North Carolina State University
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Arizona State University
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Michigan State University
- University of California Los Angeles
- Cornell University
CCCC
Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle
This EFRC was newly established
Research in this Center will impact society through the development of new ways to capture polluting CO2from the atmosphere and convert it into high-value building blocks that can be used in chemical manufacturing. CO2 is a key greenhouse gas and a significant contributor to climate change. Even if we were to completely halt CO2 emission today, climate change would continue to impact the globe. We need to find effective methods to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and converting it to a high-value commodity will drive industrial adoption of new processes.
RASEI Members Involved
- Wilson Smith
Institutes Involved
- University of California, Irvine - Lead Institution. PI: Jenny Yang
- California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
- Caltech
- Case Western Reserve University
- Elizabeth City State University
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- University of California, Davis
- Univeristy of California, Los Angeles
- Univesity of California, Merced
- University of Central Arkansas
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Louisville
- University of Michigan
CEDARS
Center for Electrochemical Dynamics And Reactions on Surfaces
This EFRC was newly established
Research in this Center will impact society by providing fundamental understanding that will guide the design of future devices to produce Hydrogen fuels that will enable the transition away from fossil fuels. A critical component of devices that convert water to hydrogen fuel is the catalyst, where the reaction takes place at a complex surface buried in the device. The structure of this interface and the nature of the reaction is only poorly understood. Using state-of-the-art analytical and computational methods this team will develop improved understanding of this surface reaction that will inform the next generation of interface design.
This EFRC is led by NCAT, one of the largest HBCUs in the nation and a materials hub for the center, in collaboration with laboratories and universities across the nation. As such, the multidisciplinary research will provide the next-generation workforce with a unique skill set by which to join the effort of clean hydrogen production at terawatt scales.
To help combat the climate crisis we must move away from carbon-based fuels, such as oil and natural gas. Development of technologies that enable scalable H2 production will provide a route to decarbonize our energy economy.
RASEI Members Involved
- Tanja Cuk
- David Jonas
Institutes Involved
- North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) - Lead Institution. PI: Dhananjay Kumar
- Dartmouth College
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Cornell University
- Pennsylvania State Universty
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CHOISE
Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy
This EFRC was renewed
CHOISE Website
Research in this Center will impact society through the development of advanced materials that interact with light, leading to more efficient and robust solar panels and faster light-based communications networks. Research around perovskites, a class of crystal materials based on a naturally occurring minerals, have shown huge potential to enhance the efficiency, reliability, and manufacturability of solar panels in the future. This team focuses on the understanding and application of perovskite-based materials.
RASEI Members involved:
- Matt Beard (NREL)
- Joe Berry (NREL & CU Boulder)
- Joey Luther (NREL)
- Seth Marder (CU Boulder & NREL)
- Steve Barlow (CU Boulder)
- Mike Toney (CU Boulder)
Institutes involved:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - Lead Institution. PI: Matt Beard
- Duke University
- San Diego State University
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Chicago
- University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
- University of Toledo
- University of Utah
SPECS
Center for Soft Photo-ElectroChemical Systems
This EFRC was newly established
Research in this Center will impact society by improving the efficiency of electrical systems, everything from solar panels to batteries and long-term storage devices. The fundamental mechanism of an electricity supply is the transfer of electronics from one location to another. In almost all cases this involves the transport of charge or matter across an interface. If this is not efficient, energy is lost. This Center will use state-of-the-art tools to probe these transfer processes in soft materials, such as conducting plastics. The knowledge gained from these studies will guide the design of the next generation of soft and flexible electronics.
RASEI Members Involved
- Stephen Barlow
- Seth Marder
- Elisa Miller
- Obadiah Reid
- Garry Rumbles
Institutes Involved
- University of Arizona - Lead Institution. PI: Erin Ratcliff
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Emory University
- Purdue University
- Stanford University
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- University of Kentucky
- Georgia Institute of Technology
EPN
Ensembles of Photosynthetic Nanostructures
This EFRC was newly established
Research in this Center will impact society through the development of light-powered nanoreactors, capable of converting solar energy into chemical products, including building blocks for pharmaceuticals and advanced materials, and splitting water to produce hydrogen. Current nanoreactors are significantly less efficient than theoretically calculated. The aim is to understand and address this discrepancy, as well as uncover new reactivity.
RASEI Members Involved
- Gordana Dukovic
Institutes Involved
- University of California, Irvine - Lead Institution. PI: Shane Ardo
- University of Colorado Boulder
- California Institute of Technology
- California State University, Long Beach
- City University of New York
- Medgar Evers College
- Colorado State University
- Columbia University
- Fort Lewis College
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Sandia National Laboratories
- University of Michigan
- Yale University
