Last summer, I wrote two pieces on renewable energy for U.N.C. at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Arts & Sciences magazine, and the publication is now out. “Solar Heroes” is the cover story and includes some beautiful photography by Steve Exum. You can download a PDF copy of the magazine from their website.
The main story, “From Photons to Fuels” covers research into photocatalysis, or water splitting, as well as other forms of solar fuels. It starts like this:
There is a lot to covet in a green, leafy plant. Especially if you are scouting for sustainable solutions to the world’s worsening fossil fuel crisis. For about three billion years, plants and their photosynthetic forbearers have successfully captured sunlight and converted it to energy for their own private use. We humans are scrambling to catch up to plants’ indigenous chemical savvy. We too desire to make renewable energy from photons of light…
Sorry if this comes across as a shameless plug, but I’m really excited about this story because it was the first time I’ve written about a subject that falls within chemistry. A related story covers a solar start-up company in Hillsborough, N.C. that is manufacturing utility-scaled concentrated photovolatic “trees.” It was founded by three UNC professors, two from the astronomy and physics department. One said the PV trees were built on the same premise as a telescope because they were essentially “a giant lens for concentrating light.”
To read more, download the PDF and flip to pg. 12 of the magazine (or pg. 14 of the PDF).
{Note: an earlier version was titled “Chemical fuels,” but I changed it after I had my coffee…}