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If humans could use sunlight to power cars, homes and businesses, we wouldn't need fossil fuels.
But first, we need better solar cells, Dr. Gregory Parsons said. And they must appeal to thrifty consumers.
“Right now, you can go buy solar cells, but they're very expensive,” Parsons said. “You want to be able to make them cheaper.”
Parsons, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is studying ways to cut the costs of solar cells and make them more efficient. Among his projects: developing a photovoltaic device that can control how electric charges are transferred. The charges typically lose some of their energy at those junctions, and Parsons wants to eliminate that energy loss.
The research is important because more and more people will seek out solar energy to power their lives over the next half-century, Parsons predicted.
“You need the basic technology now in order to meet the demand that's going to be out there in 30, 40, 50 years,” he said.
Parsons also leads the NC State Nanotechnology Initiative, an interdisciplinary group that wants to coordinate nanotechnology research across the university. Parsons hopes the initiative will expand team-building among researchers and build partnerships with local companies, as well as help researchers land bigger grants.
Many see the small-scale science — a nanometer is about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair — revolutionizing pharmaceuticals, computers and countless other areas, including renewable energy.
So instead of waiting for others to develop better energy technologies, Parsons said, “I think our state should be thinking about homegrown solutions to the energy problem.”
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