Seeing the light in energy use

Abstract

As photonics researchers work from home, and as we enter the first stages of re-entry into our laboratories, the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of two things: 1) meeting global challenges requires globally scalable solutions and 2) infrastructure is important. The current health pandemic, uppermost on everyone’s mind at present, is a cautionary reminder of other worldwide challenges—foremost being the need to promptly begin an energy transition to a future steady-state of net-zero carbon energy use and eventually to secure large-scale methods for stabilizing our planet’s temperature. What does photonics have to do with this transition? Growth in solar energy is one of the biggest good news stories about photonics science and technology that almost no one seems to be remarking!