Tag: Solar energy

At FAU, an interdisciplinary team of researchers is working on developing solar-powered airships. An interview with Christoph Pflaum, professor of Computer Science.

Organic electronics can make a decisive contribution to decarbonization and, at the same time, help to cut the consumption of rare and valuable raw materials. To do so, it is not only necessary to further develop manufacturing processes, but also to devise technical solutions for recycling as early on as the laboratory phase. Materials scientists from FAU are now promoting this circular strategy in conjunction with researchers from the UK and USA in the renowned journal “Nature Materials”.

Researchers from five Bavarian universities have been working in the research network “Solar Technologies Go Hybrid (SolTech)” since 2012 on new concepts for transforming solar energy into electricity. The Free State of Bavaria recently awarded the consortium a further 1.7 million euros in funding. In our interview, Prof. Dr. Dirk Guldi explains what the consortium has already achieved and where the focus will lie in the coming years.

Flying is the most damaging mode of transportation for our climate. However, work is already underway to investigate technical alternatives to conventional aircraft. For example, airships with highly efficient solar cells and extremely light batteries on board. Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum from FAU, together with Prof. Dr. Agnes Jocher from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the FAU student Tim Riffelmacher, have investigated which route a solar airship would have to take in order to fly from London to New York as quickly and as climate-friendly as possible.

Green hydrogen could play a key role in the energy transition. However, electrocatalytic splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen requires huge amounts of electricity. Materials scientist Dr. Pablo Jiménez Calvo is conducting research into an alternative method known as photocatalysis.