MIT centers, laboratories, departments and programs provide a multi-faceted approach to solving the world's energy challenge.
Solar
Solar energy — widely distributed, truly renewable and free from geopolitical implications — has enormous long-term potential as a large-scale, carbon-neutral source of power. In a single hour, more solar energy strikes the surface of the Earth than is provided by all of the fossil energy consumed globally in one year.
The global market for photovoltaic systems is now expanding by 35 percent per year but large-scale use of solar energy will require a dramatic reduction in the cost-to-efficiency ratio. Significant research is needed to satisfy the requirements of scale up, cost and reliability. Novel manufacturing processes promise to enhance performance while lowering costs. More dramatic advances may come from developing nascent technologies based on inorganic and organic photovoltaic materials. It will be important to develop technologies — perhaps using biological catalysts — that use solar energy to produce chemical fuels. The intermittency of solar energy requires that large-scale energy storage be developed if solar is to become a large contributor to overall energy supplies. Further, we need appropriate regulatory and policy support structures for solar energy development.
