What's New Under the Sun? Challenges of Solar Thermal Energy Utilization

Todd Otanicar

Chair and Professor, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering

Boise State University

Solar energy is growing at a rapid pace in the US and abroad. This has largely been driven by the rapidly decreasing cost of photovoltaics, which convert sunlight to electricity directly. Alternatively solar energy can be converted to thermal energy. Thermal energy can be converted to electrical energy, but the temperature of the thermal energy highly influences the efficiency of this process with higher temperatures increasing the efficiency. Operating at high temperatures brings significant challenges for the materials. While low temperature thermal energy can be easily harvested it is not useful for producing electricity efficiently, but can be used for a variety of industrial processes. Our lab at Boise State is looking into these types of issues for both high and low temperatures. This talk will focus on those challenges and the research efforts to overcome them.

Bio: Dr. Todd Otanicar is a professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering and a licensed professional engineer specializing in heat transfer and solar energy. His work has been supported by NSF, ARPAE, DOE, and US Bureau of Reclamation. He likes long painful mountain bike rides and being the brother Amy never knew she needed.