Can concentrating sunlight with mirrors be developed into a less expensive and more efficient solar energy technology? Scientists and engineers from four Triad universities are working with industry on a project aiming to find out.

The consortium of four universities are N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University. The university researchers are working with two Triad companies, 3A Composites of Colfax and Slane Marine in High Point, as well as 3M (NYSE:MMM). They also are in discussions with Cool Energy Inc. of Boulder, Col.

The goal is to develop a low-cost solar concentrator that will make producing electricity from sunlight more economically viable. Photovoltaic cells have been around for more than 40 years but that technology is still relatively expensive despite decades of development, the consortium says.

The team is researching ways to use concentrated sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The project was one of three finalists for a $100,000 grant from the four schools’ Triad Interuniversity Planning Project, or TIPP. Each finalist had previously received a $20,000 one-year TIPP planning grant.

“We were betting in the planning phase that an acre of mirrors could be constructed more cheaply than an acre of efficient photovoltaics, and that the higher temperature of waste heat from concentrator systems will open routes for reclaiming some of it as electricity,” the team said in its proposal.

The team will be evaluating four power conversion technologies, all of which could improve upon the efficiency of solar energy technologies.

Faculty members on the team are:

  • From N.C. A&T and the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering: Dr. Shanthi Iyer, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (A&T) and Department of Nanoengineering (JSNN).
  • From the University of North Carolina at Greensboro: Dr. Liam Duffy, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Dr. Ray Purdom, Director, Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching in Greensboro.
  • From Wake Forest University: Dr. Richard Williams, Department of Physics; Dr. Keerthi Senevirathne, WFU Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability; Dr. David Carroll, WFU Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials; Dr. Abdou Lachgar, Department of Chemistry.
  • From Winston-Salem State University: Dr. Lei Zhang, Department of Chemistry, and Mr. Wyndham Wilkinson, Plastics Manufacturing Consultant.