Press conference number two was all about using materials to generate, or save, electricity.

Sarah Kurtz of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory gave a briefing on <a href= “https://www.nrel.gov/ncpv/higheff.html”> high-efficiency solar cells, which are now almost as efficient as conventional coal and natural gas power plants.

Mercouri Kanatzidis of Michigan State University talked about thermoelectric materials which can take waste heat, such as the heat generated by a car’s engine, and convert it directly to energy.

And Fred Schubert of Renssaler Polytechnic University said a few words on the next generation of light emitting diodes (LEDs), which will niftily reproduce the spectrum of natural sunlight using just a fraction of the power consumed by your average light bulb.

Of course, none of these technologies are quite ready for prime-time. Kurtz’s cells are a bit too expensive, Kanatzids’ thermoelectrics a bit too inefficient, and Schubert’s LEDs a little too early in development to really be useful. But taken together they offered a taste of how future materials could help the coming power crunch.

Press conference number two was all about using materials to generate, or save, electricity.

Sarah Kurtz of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory gave a briefing on <a href= “https://www.nrel.gov/ncpv/higheff.html”> high-efficiency solar cells, which are now almost as efficient as conventional coal and natural gas power plants.

Mercouri Kanatzidis of Michigan State University talked about thermoelectric materials which can take waste heat, such as the heat generated by a car’s engine, and convert it directly to energy.

And Fred Schubert of Renssaler Polytechnic University said a few words on the next generation of light emitting diodes (LEDs), which will niftily reproduce the spectrum of natural sunlight using just a fraction of the power consumed by your average light bulb.

Of course, none of these technologies are quite ready for prime-time. Kurtz’s cells are a bit too expensive, Kanatzids’ thermoelectrics a bit too inefficient, and Schubert’s LEDs a little too early in development to really be useful. But taken together they offered a taste of how future materials could help the coming power crunch.