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Welcome Beth Dees and Roger Barker - NSF RETs
Beth and Roger will be working with the Center's UT Austin site for the next month as a part of the NSF Research Experience for Teachers program. They will develop curriculum for when their future lesson plans and will assist with putting together some educational information to be shared on nextgenpv.org.
Beth & Roger (front) joined other members of the team for lunch on their first day with the Center
July 6, 2016
IAB Quarterly Update held on July 12, 2016
The Center held its most recently Quarterly Update with the IAB on on 7/12/16 from 3:00-4:30 PM Central. Presentation documents and a recording of the talks are available to all members on the Member's site.
July 13, 2016
Kurt Barth: Distinguished Lecture Series talk
Kurt, the Associate Director of the CSU site of NGPV, gave a talk entitled, "A Novel Module Architecture Development for Reduced Costs and Improved Manufacturing Efficiencies." The talk focused on a new high reliability, yet low cost, module architecture which has the potential to reduce costs and improve manufacturing efficiencies.
If you misssed out on seeing Kurt give the talk live, we have a video
up on our YouTube channel.
July 28, 2016
Texas A&M officially becomes a research site within the Center!
We are thrilled to announce that Texas A&M has received their official notification from NSF that that their proposal to become a research site within the Center for Next Generation Photovoltaics has been approved. This was an outcome over 2 years in the making and we are very excited to have TAMU and their team on board! Congratulations to TAMU's co-directors, Robert Balog of Texas A&M College Station and Russell Porter of Texas A&M-Central Texas.
July 28, 2016
Colin Meehan (First Solar): Distinguished Lecture Series talk
Colin Meehan, First Solar's Director of Regulatory & Public Affairs, gave a talk entitled, "Power Markets, Regulation and Utility Scale Solar in the U.S." First Solar is the largest supplier of utility scale solar in the country which allowed for unique insight into the various market forces that make utility scale solar compelling throughout the U.S.
If you missed the talk and would like to view a recorded version on our YouTube channel, click here!
August 11, 2016
Dr. Robert Balog (Texas A&M site) explains the electrical characteristics of photovoltaic technology to a group of undergraduate students who were participating in a NSF research experience for undergraduates (REU) summer program. Students characterized a commercial PV module, then used the data to program a dc power supply to emulate the characteristics, which can then be used for further study of power electronic interface circuits and maximum power point tracking principles.
August 15, 2016
TAMU participates in NSF Summer REU Program
Texas A&M and UT partner together to improve solar's reach
These two universities don't often work together... but sometimes you have to set aside historical rivalries! Here is an article from The Eagle, Bryan and College Station, TX's local newspaper, discussing the partnership.
August 26, 2016
Mike Scarpulla: 9/6/16 Distinguished Lecture Series talk
Mike, an Associate Professor at the University of Utah, gave a talk entitled, "Laser Processing of CdTe for Increased Efficiency and Decreased Costs of Thin Film Photovoltaics." The talk covered some of the efforts Mike's group has made to help CdTe continue to decrease in price as estimates suggest unsubsidized grid parity still demands a further halving of the cost per Watt.
A recording of the talk is available here on our YouTube channel.
September 7, 2016
Jim Sites' Distinguished Lecture Series talk on 9/20/16
Jim, a Professor of Physics and the Sr. Associate Dean for Research at Colorado State University's College of Natural Sciences, gave a talk entitled, "Thin-Film Solar Cells." The talk highlighted some results that have helped explain why thin-film technology has been particularly successful.
A video of the talk is available on our YouTube channel. [link]
September 28, 2016
NGPV at Solar Power International 2016
Our Center's Innovation Director, Kristin Fine, has been meeting with existing members and spreading the word about our Center to potential new members at Solar Power International 2016! You can follow along with her trip at her Twitter page, @kristinfine.
September 19, 2016
Harsha Padullaparti's Distinguished Lecture Series Talk: 10/4/16
If you were unable to tune in to Harsha Padullaparti's talk, "Advanced Volt-Var Control Technologies in Utility Distribution Systems," a video has been added to our YouTube channel. You can view it here.
October 6, 2016
Fall Industrial Advisory Board meeting was held on the CSU Campus
Our Fall 2016 IAB meeting was held October 18-19, 2016 on Colorado State's campus in Fort Collins, CO. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the meeting! We hope to see everyone at our next meeting, which be held in Austin on April 17-18, 2017. Please see our IAB Meeting page for further more details and documents from our recent meeting and information on the next one in the near future.
October 20, 2016
Welcome to our newest members, Studies Weekly and the Killeen Economic Development Corporation!
Studies Weekly and the KEDC will work with the researchers at Texas A&M-Central Texas. Studies Weekly is focused on expanding their educational scope to help bring photovoltaics to the K-6 audience that they serve. As we expand the educational outreach of the Center, they are a perfect partner and we are thrilled to have them aboard. KEDC will work with TAMU-CT on some of the big data analysis that is a specialty of theirs. Welcome!
September 1, 2016
Thomas Tynes: Distinguished Lecture Series talk from 11/1/16
Thomas Tynes, the Deputy Director of Policy & Regulatory Counsel for SolarCity Corporation gave a talk which described some of the policy issues, challenges and opportunities related to distributed generation solar for our Distinguished Lecture series. If you were unable to attend or would like to watch again, a video of the talk is available on our YouTube channel.
November 2, 2016
Gabrielle Gaustad's Distinguished Lecture Series talk
Gabrielle, an Associate Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, gave a talk entitled, "Scarcity and Criticality of PV Relevant Materials: Mitigation Strategies." This talk focused on the challenges related to the scarcity and criticality of PV components.
If you'd like to view the talk, a video of it is available on our YouTube channel.
November 16, 2016
Congratulations to Doug Pernik and Drew Swanson!
Two NGPV researchers celebrated career milestones recently. During the final week of November, Doug Pernik passed his Ph.D. defense at UT Austin. Doug is continuing some of the ongoing work at the Center until January.
Drew Swanson who started as an undergrad working within the Center was recently appointed as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University. He will remain at Colorado State University for the time being working on joint research.
December 1, 2016
NGPV alum Taylor Harvey joins Texas A&M-Central Texas faculty
Taylor, a former researcher within the Center and the CEO and Co-Founder of Center member, Lucelo Technologies, has been announced as the new Chancellor's Assistant Professor of Research at Texas A&M-Central Texas.
TAMUCT received a $1.5m grant through the TAMU Chancellor’s Research Initiative to bring Taylor to their campus to engage in their ongoing solar activities. A few photos of the event were posted on our Facebook page.
June 29, 2016
Reuben Collins' Distinguished Lecture Series talk from 6/28/16
Reuben, the Site Director for Colorado School of Mines, gave a talk entitled, “Silicon Photovoltaics: Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond.” The talk summarized the status of today’s silicon based photovoltaic technology, described on-going research in this field and concluded by discussing some of the exciting science that may make its way into silicon solar cells in the future.
A video can be found here.
June 29, 2016
NGPV: Home to award winning students
At the 43rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (June 5-10, 2016), Zhan Wang of Texas A&M University and Amit Munshi of Colorado State University were both awarded with prizes for Best Poster for their respective sections.
Vikas Reddy of the UT Austin site was awarded with the Eastman Graduate Summer Fellowship in Chemical Engineering. This scholarship was open to all 2nd and 3rd year Chemical Engineering students at UT.
Lastly, UT undergraduate researcher Kyle Dalal was awarded with the first Texas ChE Senior Class Gift Endowment for his outstanding accomplishments as a class tutor for CHE 353 Transport Phenomena.
June 20, 2016
Charlie Hemmeline's Distinguished Lecture Series Talk (6/15/16)
Charlie, the Executive Director of the Texas Solar Power Association, gave a talk entitled, "Texas Solar Market Update." The talk provided a big picture perspective on solar in Texas with an overview of the national context, current status of Texas retail and wholesale markets, recent developments, and projections for future growth going forward.
A video of the talk is available on our YouTube channel.
June 15, 2016
Dr. Jennifer Drayton: Distinguished Lecture Series talk from 5/31/16
Jen, a Research Associate within the Physics Department at Colorado State University, gave a talk on, "Teaching Photovoltaics." She discussed her experiences related to teaching a course which was focused solely on photovoltaics and some of the challenges and outcomes that accompanied it.
A video of Jen's talk is available here on our YouTube page.
June 1, 2016
Nicholas DeWeerd: Distinguished Lecture Series talk (5/17/16)
Nick, a PhD candidate in the Strauss-Boltalina group at Colorado State, gave a talk entitled, "Organic Photovoltaics: A 2016 Update." His talk focused on four of the main objectives of the organic PV space.
If you were unable to attend the talk, we've archived a video of it at our YouTube channel here.
May 18, 2016
Russell Porter Confirmed as VP for Research and Economic Development at Texas A&M-Central Texas
Russell Porter, our Site Co-Director for Texas A&M, was confirmed by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents as the new Vice President of Research and Economic Development at Texas A&M-Central Texas.
Congratulations to Russ on this significant achievement! Read more on the announcement here.
May 5, 2016
UT Austin site to host two "Research Experience for Teachers" teachers this summer
The program will start on July 5, 2016 and run for 1 month. More information about the planned program and how to apply can be found here.
[Click link for information]
May 1, 2016
NGPV Distinguished Lecture Series continues: Jason Kephart
On April 19, 2016, Colorado State University Research Scientist Jason Kephart gave a talk entitled, “Band Alignment of Front Contact Layers for High-Efficiency CdTe Solar Cells.” You can view this talk on our YouTube channel.
Jason recently defended his PhD thesis and has remained on at CSU in a Research Scientist position. Congratulations, Jason!
April 20, 2016
Fall Industry Advisory Board meeting to be held at Colorado State.
Our Fall 2016 IAB meeting will be held in Fort Collins, CO on October 18-19, 2016. The highlights of the meeting will include researchers presenting their findings on Center projects and the IAB voting on the ongoing research.
Additional information will be provided at a later date on our IAB Meeting page.
April 7, 2016
Spring 2016 Industrial Advisory Board meeting was held at UT Austin
Our Spring 2016 IAB meeting was held in Austin, TX on April 5-6, 2016. The highlights of the meeting included the researchers recapping their findings on their Center projects from the last year via a poster session as well as the IAB selecting the projects that will be researched over the course of the next year.
A copy of of the meeting's agenda can be found here. A special thank you to Dean Sharon L. Wood of UT Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering and President Marc A. Nigliazzo of Texas A&M-Central Texas for joining us and sharing a few words.
April 7, 2016
Kristin Fine, new Innovation Director
Please join us in welcoming Kristin Fine to NGPV! Kristin joined the Center as our new Innovation Director in February. She has extensive experience working in fundraising with both industrial and public sector entities and has immediately become an integral part of our team! Welcome, Kristin!
March 15, 2016
Brian Korgel gives webinar on Printed PV Technology
On March 1, 2016, Center Director Brian Korgel gave a talk entitled, “Who Wants Some Solar Rocks, Paper, (Scissors) and T-Shirts?” The talk focused on some of the latest innovations involving printed PV tech and highlighted some of the challenges and opportunities that are facing the technology.
The talk has been archived on our YouTube channel and can be viewed here.
March 2, 2016
NGPV Public Seminar Series Public Talks Continue
On February 16, 2016 at 4:00 PM Central, industry expert and proposed Texas A&M site Co-Director, Robert Balog, gave a talk entitled, “Photovoltaics Balance of Systems - Opportunities and Challenges.” Thank you, Robert!
[Click here to view an abstract for the talk]
February 18, 2016
IAB Quarterly Update was held on January 25, 2016
Our Spring Quarterly Update took place on January 25, 2016 at 10:00 AM Central time. We have recorded the presentations and they will be placed online for our members to view at a later date. Thank you to the Center members and researchers who participated!
January 26, 2016
NGPV Job Opportunity
NGPV is hiring an individual to help with Center membership services and operations. The job posting will be closed on January 13, 2016 at COB.
Learn more and apply here!
January 4, 2016
NGPV Public Seminar Series Continues
On January 19, 2016 at 4:00 PM Central, industry expert and Colorado State site Director, W.S. Sampath, gave a talk entitled, “Thin Film CdTe Photovoltaics for Sustainable Electricity Generation.”
The presentation is available to view in its entirety on our YouTube channel.
January 4, 2016
Looking for older news?
Further news articles from 2015 can be accessed from the bar at the top of the page or by clicking here.
January 1, 2016