A Sustainable Energy Workshop was hosted successfully by the Initiative for Sustainable Energy (ISE) at Brown University over three days (October 25 – 27, 2023). The Workshop was sponsored and facilitated by the Office of the Vice President for Research at Brown. Over one hundred colleagues from Brown and across the country joined the Workshop to identify scientific frontiers and challenges in renewable and sustainable energy research needed to achieve a net-zero-carbon energy future.
Each day began with a plenary session, and then broke into two parallel tracks to explore the following topics:
1. Offshore wind (Led by Profs. Rod Beresford and Stephen Porder)
2. Non-fossil carbon transformation (Led by Prof. Andy Peterson)
3. Emerging solar photovoltaics (Led by Prof. Nitin Padture)
4. Batteries using sustainable materials (Led by Prof. Yue Qi)
5. Electrochemical redox catalysis for energy conversion and usage (Led by Prof. Shouheng Sun)
6. CO2 removal from the atmosphere (Led by Prof. Brad Marston)
These topics represent distinct strengths with ‘critical mass’ at Brown, and are primed for elevation to the next level, especially with collaboration with our colleagues from other institutions.
The following outcomes were pursued as part of the Workshop:
(a) determine the key scientific questions pertaining to the above six topics;
(b) identify research strengths and gaps that need to be addressed in order to advance current science and technologies;
(c) describe key research activities that would need to begin in the near term; and
(d) establish potential collaborations among scientists from universities, national laboratories, and industry.
The plenary speakers included Dr. Peter F. Green (The National Renewable Energy Laboratory), Prof. Shirley Meng (University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory), and Prof. Jennifer Wilcox (Department of Energy & University of Pennsylvania). In each topics track sessions there were several invited talks, and the participants had the opportunity to make short informal presentations (to share new results, make a point, etc.) and liven up the discussion.
The workshop dinner featured a plenary talk by Prof. Kim Cobb, Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.
A poster session in the broad area of sustainable energy was held to showcase the research of Brown students and postdocs in the area of sustainable energy. The audience were Brown students, postdocs and faculty members, and several external folks from academia, industry, and government labs. Several poster prizes were awarded.
The Workshop organizers were: Profs. Nitin Padture (Co-Chair), Yue Qi (Co-Chair), Rod Beresford , Stephen Porder, Andrew Peterson, Brad Marston, and Shouheng Sun. The facilitators were Ms. Betsy Stubblefield Loucks and Dr. Edel Minogue. The Workshop was staffed by Ms. Michelle Chan and Beth James, and a student intern Gayathri Sundaresan.
