 "Photo: Maddie Thomas")
To join in the fight against global warming and climate change, the university and Newark are increasing research toward solar power as an alternative energy source both for the university community as well as for commercial and residential areas of the city.
As part of President George W. Bush's Solar America Initiative, the university has been awarded approximately $3 million from two federal grants dedicated to expanding research on solar power, including methods to develop cost-effective panels that generate maximum amounts of energy.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Web site, the goal of the Solar America Initiative is to make solar energy cost competitive with traditional forms of electricity by 2015.
The Institute of Energy Conversion at the university was awarded a $1.48 million grant by the Solar America Initiative to continue research on improving the manufacturing and efficiency of solar power technology.
Steven Hegedus, scientist in the Institute as well as a professor of electronic and computer engineering at the university, said the Institute was picked by the Solar America Initiative because it is the most capable organization for researching the expansion of solar power technology as an alternate energy source.
"We were picked because our proposal had the right blend of attacking the right problems limiting the performance of solar energy and of our good industrial support," Hegedus said. "We have good ideas to solve the right problems with the right team."
Currently, the Institute of Energy Conversion is working on a "second generation" of solar cells, called "thin film cells," he said. Compared to the current crystalline silicon solar cells, thin film cells are less expensive and easier to manufacture, Hegedus said.
Aiming Zhou, of the university's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, is researching rooftop solar panel technology and its potential for successful use in Newark. As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, Zhou said the state of Delaware has set a goal of using 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2019, with 2 percent coming from solar power.
Through the use of software such as the Geographic Informative System, he said the Center studies aerial and satellite images of sectors of all of the rooftops in Newark in order to determine which buildings in the city are suitable for rooftop solar panel installation.
"We have different criteria about what is suitable for installation," Zhou said. "We look for rooftop obstruction such as chimneys, trees and high rises near the house. The house should also be south facing because panels need to face south to produce maximum energy with the sunshine."
Rooftop solar panels, which have an average lifespan of approximately 25 years, use a technology known as photovoltaic electricity, which converts sunlight directly into electricity, he said.
"When sunlight hits the PV panel, PV cells inside the panel can collect solar light, which is high in energy," Zhou said. "They convert electrons released from the PV cell which causes a constant electronic current."
Factors influencing the amount of energy generated by the panels include the amount of sunlight present on a given day, as well as elements such as rain, snow and pollen, all of which can block the panels from absorbing sunlight. Panels need to be wiped free of these elements, in order to generate necessary amounts of electricity.
Newark was chosen for the Center's study due to its easy accessibility to the Center, which is located on campus, and because of its small size of approximately 30,000 residents.
"This allows us to investigate piece by piece, community by community," Zhou said.
Last year, Hegedus said he installed a solar panel system on his own roof, making his house the first house in Newark to use rooftop solar energy.
"I figured I should put my money where my mouth is," he said. "I wanted to reduce my impact in that regard to fossil fuel admission."
Although the official installation cost was an estimated $20,000, Newark paid for half of the cost, as part of an incentive from the state of Delaware's Green Energy Program. Hegedus said despite their cost, his rooftop solar panels have been a worthwhile investment.
"Our electrical bills are tremendously reduced, some months more than others," he said. "Last May we had an electrical bill that was essentially zero. As far as other things I could have done with my money, it's the best thing I could have done. I'm very proud of my solar system."
Mayor Vance A. Funk III said he is a strong advocate of solar power as an alternative energy source. Last June, he had solar panels installed on the roof of his office building, which he refers to as "an excellent investment."
"We save between 30 and 40 percent of our electrical consumption through the use of solar panels," Funk said.
He said he encourages the use of solar energy throughout Newark, because it allows residents to decrease their ecological footprint and make a direct impact in the effort to reduce global warming. Funk hopes as a result of the research underway at the Institute of Energy Conversion and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, other residents in the Newark community will be influenced to install solar panels on their own homes.
"Our community has always been ahead of the learning curve in terms of environmental concerns," he said. "Because of all the researching being done at the University of Delaware, we are more knowledgeable about what's going on than other communities."
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