Researchers Work to Make Future Smart Grid Safe and Secure
Researchers working on a future power grid for the nation envision a network similar to the Internet. Under this scenario, users and utility companies interact to share and swap energy from distributed systems, much like computer users tap into the web to transfer files.
Much of the research under way through the center focuses on creating an “Internet for energy” that, according to the FREEDM website, “will transform the power industry in a similar way that the Internet transformed the computer industry from the mainframe computer paradigm to the distributed computing we have today.” Part of that vision assumes a growth in renewable energy use and creating the ability for energy users “to not only be a customer, but to also act as an innovator of energy.”
SDSC’s Trestles Supercomputer Speeds Clean Energy Research
A team of Harvard University researchers has been allocated time on the Trestles supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego to perform computational calculations with the goal of creating the next generation of organic solar cells as an inexpensive and efficient source of energy.
The ultimate goal of Aspuru-Guzik’s research is to reduce global dependency on fossil fuel-based economies by developing renewable energy-related technologies such as organic photovoltaics to provide inexpensive solar cells, polymers for the membranes used in fuel cells for electricity generation, and how best to assemble the molecules to make those devices.
