SPEAKER INFORMATION

David Ginger
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Washington

Abstract

From both an environmental and a geopolitical perspective one could argue that developing alternative energy sources is the most important technological challenge facing society today. There are also profits to be made in energy: three of the five most profitable companies in the world are energy companies. This talk will focus on solar photovoltaic cells as an alternative energy source. Solar photovoltaic cells directly convert sunlight into electricity. Although the solar cell industry is undergoing unprecedented growth (~ 50%/year), conventional silicon solar cells are still too expensive to compete with conventional fossil fuels. Furthermore, there are major challenges to manufacturing solar cells in the quantities needed to make an impact on the energy problem. One possible route to overcoming the obstacles of both cost and large-scale manufacturing is in using polymer (plastic) semiconductors to make solar cells. Although today's plastic solar cells are less efficient than their silicon counterparts, it is widely believed that because of their lower manufacturing costs, we are roughly only a factor of two away from commercially viable efficiencies using plastic semiconductors (if stability and packaging can also be improved). This talk will review conventional solar photovoltaic technologies, and then focus on the prospects, challenges, and market opportunities of alternative solar cell technologies such as those based on plastics, colloidal nanocrystals (quantum dots), and other emerging ideas.

Biography

David S. Ginger earned dual B.S. degrees in chemistry and physics with honors and highest distinction from Indiana University in 1997. He received a British Marshall Scholarship and an NSF Graduate Fellowship and completed his Ph.D. in physics with Neil Greenham in the Optoelectronics group at the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2001. After a joint NIH and DuPont Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University with Chad Mirkin, he joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Physics. He is a Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. He was selected to receive the prestigious Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The following year he won the highly competitive CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to advance his work on the underlying mechanisms that are important for understanding the fundamental processes involved in solar cells and light emitting diodes. His research centers on the physical chemistry of nanostructured materials with applications in optoelectronics, particularly solar cells and sensing. Ginger can be reached at

Dr. Thomas J. (Tom) Starrs
Managing Director, Solar, PPM Energy

Dr. Thomas J. (Tom) Starrs is Managing Director of Solar Power for PPM Energy, Inc. Based in Portland, Oregon, PPM is a market leader in providing clean energy solutions across North America, including wind power, gas storage, and energy management services. Tom joined PPM in May 2007 to lead the company's entry into the solar power business. Prior to PPM, Tom worked for the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, where he served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Chief Operating Officer, and then Chief Executive Officer. In some of his earlier lives, Tom was a senior executive for one of the world's largest solar photovoltaic manufacturers, the founder of his own renewable energy consulting firm, and an attorney with the environment and natural resources section of Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie.