Translational Science for Energy and Beyond.
A clear challenge for the coming decades is decreasing the carbon intensity of the global energy supply while simultaneously accommodating a rapid worldwide increase in power demand. Meeting this challenge of providing abundant, clean energy undoubtedly requires synergistic efforts between basic and applied researchers in the chemical sciences to develop and deploy new technologies. Among the available options, solar energy is one of the promising targets because of the high abundance of solar photons over much of the globe. Similarly, decarbonization of the global energy supply will require clean sources of hydrogen to use as reducing equivalents for fuel and chemical feedstocks. In this report, we discuss the importance of translational research-defined as work that explicitly targets basic discovery as well as technology development-in the context of photovoltaics and solar fuels. We focus on three representative research programs encompassing translational research in government, industry, and academia. We then discuss more broadly the benefits and challenges of translational research models and offer recommendations for research programs that address societal challenges in the energy sector and beyond.
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, United States.
James R
JR
McKone
Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University , Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States.
Debbie C
DC
Crans
Harwich Partners LLC, formerly the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy , Washington, D.C. 20585, United States.
Cheryl
C
Martin
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) , Golden, Colorado 80401, United States.
John
J
Turner
GE Global Research , Niskayuna, New York 12309, United States.
Anil R
AR
Duggal
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, California 91125, United States.
Harry B
HB
Gray