Basic Research Needs for Solar Energy Utilization: report of the Basic Energy Sciences Workshop on Solar Energy Utilization, April 18-21, 2005

Abstract

This report of the Basic Energy Sciences Workshop on Solar Energy Utilization identifies the key scientific challenges and research directions that will enable efficient and economic use of the solar resource to provide a significant fraction of global primary energy by the mid 21st century. The report reflects the collective output of the workshop attendees, which included 200 scientists representing academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and abroad, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Solar energy conversion systems fall into three categories according to their primary energy product: solar electricity, solar fuels, and solar thermal systems. Each of the three generic approaches to exploiting the solar resource has untapped capability well beyond its present usage. Workshop participants considered the potential of all three approaches, as well as the potential of hybrid systems that integrate key components of individual technologies into novel cross-disciplinary paradigms.