The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020 - 5

Guest Editor

The Future of Renewable Energy
Imagine a world where energy is clean, reliable, resilient, and affordable. In
this world, energy distribution is intelligent and autonomous. As a community,
not only do we enable this future through our contributions to science and
engineering, we reside on the front lines of leading the transition.
However, this will require a paradigm shift on how we make, use, and transmit
clean energy. Taking this charge to heart, in this issue we will discuss three
leading perspectives on pathways to this energy future. We will discuss the
future of renewable solar energy through next generation materials, the future
of energy consumption through grid-interactive efficient buildings, and the
future of energy transmission through an autonomous energy grid. This special
issue will provide readers a holistic view into this renewable energy future from
experts who are truly leading the transition. Specifically, we articulate:

Dr. Roderick Jackson
Laboratory Program Manager for
Buildings Research at The National
Renewable Energy Laboratory

The Future of Renewable
Energy Generation:
Next-Generation Materials
for Solar Photovoltaics

The Future of Renewable
Energy Transmission:
An Autonomous
Energy Grid

The Future of Renewable
Energy Consumption:
Grid-Interactive
Efficient Buildings

Opportunities for materials
innovation in conventional PV
can be made through further
science and engineering in III-V
materials, CIGS, CZTS, and CdTebased cells. Additionally, organic
photovoltaics (OPV) and Pb Metal
Halide Perovskites (MHP) have
unique material tunability, low cost
processing, and efficiency potential
that can be exploited to usher in
a new generation of PV. However,
key material characteristics and
durability must be established to
realize true scale in the market.

Consider a large distribution system
with approximately 4.5 million
customers who each own a PV
system, a battery energy storage
system, an electric vehicle, a
smart thermostat, and controllable
lighting. The energy system would
be comprised of approximately
10-20 million controllable devices
capable of producing, storing,
and consuming electricity. The
operational framework would be
required to monitor, control, and
optimize large-scale grids with
variable generation and DERs.
A modernized electricity grid is
needed, and autonomous energy
grids will be discussed as part of
the potential solution.

Because buildings consume 75%
of electricity generated in our
current system, leveraging energy
efficiency, connectivity, advanced
analytic capability, and the ability
to dynamically adjust energy loads,
grid-interactive efficient buildings
(GEB) reflect a new paradigm
of how buildings will enable a
synergistic balance of energy
demand and supply. Critical to
achieving the potential of GEB,
research and development are
needed that integrate advancements
sensing and actuation with
computing and communications
innovation. However, resulting
GEB must be intuitive to operate,
inexpensive to install, cybersecure,
and interoperable across multiple
vendors, equipment types, and
buildings to monitor and control the
physical environment.

The challenges are ambitious to transform our energy future to one that is clean, reliable, resilient, and affordable.
However, with committed professionals like you, we can lead the charge.

HKN.ORG

https://www.nrel.gov/ https://hkn.ieee.org/ https://hkn.ieee.org/

The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020