{"133491":{"#nid":"133491","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Here Comes the Sun | Shining a Light on Solar Energy","body":[{"value":"\u003Ch1\u003EOnce you notice the sound, it\u2019s hard to unhear.\u0026nbsp;The low, clicking whirr fills every gap of\u0026nbsp;silence in Ajeet Rohatgi\u2019s office. It\u2019s the toys, the\u0026nbsp;delicate wood and metal figurines arranged atop\u0026nbsp;one of the professor\u2019s sagging bookshelves\u2014an airplane,\u0026nbsp;an oil rig, a windmill. They move as long as\u0026nbsp;the sun shines through his glass-block window.\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe toys are simple things, set into motion by palm-sized\u0026nbsp;solar cells, and the process of converting sunlight into electricity\u0026nbsp;seems fairly simple, too: Sunlight hits the cells and is\u0026nbsp;absorbed, then separated by a silicon semiconductor into positive\u0026nbsp;and negative charges, creating a batterylike current of\u0026nbsp;electrons that\u2019s shuttled off to power the adjacent contraption.\u0026nbsp;Presto! But Rohatgi, regent\u2019s professor of electrical engineering\u0026nbsp;at Georgia Tech, knows firsthand that the bigger picture\u0026nbsp;of photovoltaic energy is far more complex.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERohatgi is the director of Georgia Tech\u2019s University Center\u0026nbsp;of Excellence for Photovoltaics Research and Education\u2014the\u0026nbsp;first-ever such center sponsored by the U.S. government\u2014as\u0026nbsp;well as the founder and chief technical officer of Suniva, a\u0026nbsp;manufacturer of solar cells and modules that spun out of his\u0026nbsp;work at the Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese days, his life is defined by photovoltaic research, and\u0026nbsp;he talks about his lab and his \u0026nbsp;students with an affable, fatherly\u0026nbsp;pride. But his career was once on a much different path.\u0026nbsp;After earning his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering\u0026nbsp;from the Indian Institute of Technology, he received a\u0026nbsp;master\u2019s degree in materials engineering from Virginia Polytechnic\u0026nbsp;Institute and then a PhD in metallurgy and materials\u0026nbsp;science from Lehigh University. It wasn\u2019t until he joined the\u0026nbsp;team at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center,\u0026nbsp;where he became a Westinghouse fellow, that his interest\u0026nbsp;in photovoltaic energy surfaced.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI had the option to work in solar or work in integrated circuits,\u0026nbsp;[but] my heart was in PV because I felt it was just a\u0026nbsp;great technology to work on\u2014if I can do something, I can\u0026nbsp;make a difference,\u201d he says, sitting behind a spacious wooden\u0026nbsp;desk in his Van Leer building office. \u201cI got into that, and I\u0026nbsp;stayed in this field because I firmly believe in it, that this can\u0026nbsp;have a very positive impact on so many things\u2014the lives of the\u0026nbsp;people, the environment, national security.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe transformative potential of solar energy is massive, but\u0026nbsp;it\u2019s nowhere close to being effectively harnessed. Sunlight is\u0026nbsp;free and present in unlimited quantities all over the globe, and\u0026nbsp;it can\u2019t be sequestered or fought over like so many other natural\u0026nbsp;resources. And its source should be hanging around for\u0026nbsp;another five billion years or so. \u201cIt\u2019s as if somebody created a\u0026nbsp;fusion reactor for you in a safe place, which is far away,\u201d Rohatgi\u0026nbsp;says of the sun. \u201cWe know solar electricity has no\u0026nbsp;undesirable impact on the environment you just can\u2019t have\u0026nbsp;a better source. It has been designed for us.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERohatgi says that if he could develop a magic box to catch\u0026nbsp;all the sunlight that shines down upon our planet over the\u0026nbsp;course of just one hour, that would be enough to power human\u0026nbsp;life on earth for one year. Taking a more realistic\u0026nbsp;approach, he\u2019s set his sights on producing a solar cell capable\u0026nbsp;of hitting 20 percent\u2014that is, converting 20 percent of the\u0026nbsp;sunlight that falls on the cell surface into usable energy. And\u0026nbsp;in working toward this goal, both at Tech and with Suniva, he\u0026nbsp;is motivated by one mantra: \u201cWe will not make high-efficiency\u0026nbsp;cells just for the sake of high efficiency.\u201d The aim is to\u0026nbsp;develop photovoltaic cells that are both maximally efficient\u0026nbsp;and maximally cost-effective, never compromising quality for\u0026nbsp;cost or cost for quality. And that issue of cost is crucial: Solar\u0026nbsp;needs to be competitive with fossil fuel, the current and longstanding\u0026nbsp;energy paradigm, in order to gain any traction in the\u0026nbsp;marketplace.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen Rohatgi started at Westinghouse in 1977, solar was\u0026nbsp;still a fledgling industry. Just a few years before, in 1975, PV\u0026nbsp;energy had been 80 times more expensive than fossil fuel. And\u0026nbsp;in 1985, when he joined the faculty at Tech, there was nothing\u0026nbsp;happening on campus in the way of photovoltaic research.\u0026nbsp;So he decided to build a lab from the ground up\u2014plumbing,\u0026nbsp;equipment, furniture, everything. After years in industry\u0026nbsp;R\u0026amp;D, he was primed to move fast and write aggressive proposals;\u0026nbsp;he recruited students, raised funds and maintained\u0026nbsp;the ever-expanding lab as colleagues gawked at his speed.\u0026nbsp;Sometimes he wondered why he poured so much time and energy\u0026nbsp;into the project when he could just teach his classes and\u0026nbsp;head home at the end of the day. \u201cIn some ways you\u2019ve created\u0026nbsp;this elephant that you have to keep feeding,\u201d he says of the\u0026nbsp;lab\u2019s early days. \u201cBut if it is done through passion, that\u2019s the\u0026nbsp;main thing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis passion is real. Growing up in India, Rohatgi witnessed\u0026nbsp;the impact of electricity\u2014or, more specifically, a lack thereof\u2014on a first-hand basis. In villages and urban centers alike,\u0026nbsp;electric power regularly shuts off for hours at a time. Although\u0026nbsp;most people have figured out ways to work around the outages,\u0026nbsp;Rohatgi knows solar energy would be a massive boon. \u201cIn\u0026nbsp;many villages, at nighttime, nobody would work. If you could\u0026nbsp;just put one solar panel on the roof they get three, four hours\u0026nbsp;of electricity,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve seen villages where there was nothing\u0026nbsp;there, and now they have small industry coming up, just because they got a few additional hours of electricity. It is\u0026nbsp;changing the lives of a lot of people.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch1\u003EIn 1992, Rohatgi\u2019s lab was established as a\u0026nbsp;University Center of Excellence, which required industry engagement\u0026nbsp;in addition to the educational component:\u0026nbsp;companies come to the lab with a problem, and Rohatgi and\u0026nbsp;his students forge a solution.\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMeanwhile, the lab\u2019s research\u0026nbsp;continued on its steady course to 20 percent; it hit 17, then 18.\u0026nbsp;Rohatgi was feeling good about the progress. But he was baffled\u0026nbsp;when, in 2006, he was approached by NEA, a venture\u0026nbsp;capital firm that doesn\u2019t exactly make a habit of approaching\u0026nbsp;anyone. The firm wanted to help him start a solar company,\u0026nbsp;to start commercially producing the cells his lab had been\u0026nbsp;working so hard to perfect.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERohatgi wasn\u2019t sure\u2014he thought he should get to 20 percent\u0026nbsp;before branching out into a business. But the NEA folks\u0026nbsp;said it was the lowest-risk investment they\u2019d ever make: \u201cThey\u0026nbsp;said whenever they make investment in companies, sometimes\u0026nbsp;people have never even made a device,\u201d Rohatgi recalls.\u0026nbsp;With 25 years of experience and the world\u2019s best solar panels\u0026nbsp;under his belt, it was easy for the NEA to put their trust in Rohatgi.\u0026nbsp;They told him, \u201cYes, granted, you\u2019re not at your goal of\u0026nbsp;20 percent, but \u2026 take our money and get there.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd so, with NEA\u2019s assistance, Rohatgi set about building\u0026nbsp;the team that would launch Suniva in 2007. First up was John\u0026nbsp;Baumstark, now CEO, who came to the company with two decades\u2019\u0026nbsp;experience in business development and management.\u0026nbsp;\u201cI had the connections, I had the knowledge, I had the technology,\u0026nbsp;I had the vision, but he had this team and the idea\u0026nbsp;about running a company,\u201d Rohatgi says. \u201cIt worked out beautifully.\u0026nbsp;The most unique feature of Suniva, the reason it took\u0026nbsp;off so quickly and so fast, is because of this complement\u2014the\u0026nbsp;business team and the technology.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese days, Rohatgi splits his time between his lab on Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;campus and the Suniva offices in Norcross, Ga., a suburb of\u0026nbsp;Atlanta. The lab and Suniva have separate R\u0026amp;D departments,\u0026nbsp;but they share knowledge and talent\u2014and the company\u2019s\u0026nbsp;close relationship with the Institute isn\u2019t its only distinguishing\u0026nbsp;factor. Suniva has pioneered a number of unique\u0026nbsp;technologies, including ion implantation (long used in making\u0026nbsp;chips, but never before in photovoltaics), which improved\u0026nbsp;the efficiency of their cells by one percent and reduced the total\u0026nbsp;number of steps needed to build a cell by two.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s huge, and it reflects Rohatgi\u2019s key approach: to improve\u0026nbsp;the quality and cost of his end-products by improving\u0026nbsp;the process by which they are created. Suniva works with what\u0026nbsp;he calls \u201cthe DNA of the whole value chain,\u201d improving the efficiency\u0026nbsp;and function of every element involved in the solar\u0026nbsp;cell, from raw material to manufacturing processes. \u201cIf I make\u0026nbsp;more efficient solar cells I need less material, and if I make\u0026nbsp;more efficient solar cells I need fewer panels to install,\u201d Rohatgi\u0026nbsp;says. And when solar panels are smaller and more\u0026nbsp;efficient, it means more of them could potentially be installed\u2014on the roof of a factory, say, or a private\u0026nbsp;home\u2014maximizing the amount of energy produced.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERohatgi thinks his products will be able to hit 20 percent\u0026nbsp;soon, and he predicts the price of solar energy is about to\u0026nbsp;match that of fossil fuel. That means solar may finally start\u0026nbsp;catching on in the broader consumer market. (In some states,\u0026nbsp;thanks largely to government subsidies, it already has. Lower\u0026nbsp;manufacturing costs\u2014aided by lower wages, made possible\u0026nbsp;in part by more lax labor laws\u2014mean it\u2019s closer to happening\u0026nbsp;in China than anywhere else, though there are a few big markets\u0026nbsp;across Europe.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERohatgi says he can now make a cell in the lab that could\u0026nbsp;yield up to 23 percent\u2014but if he\u2019s learned one thing since\u0026nbsp;starting Suniva, it\u2019s a reverence for manufacturing. The most\u0026nbsp;stunning advancements in the lab hardly matter if you don\u2019t\u0026nbsp;have the means to replicate them in the real world in a scalable,\u0026nbsp;cost-effective way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch1\u003EAs Rohatgi has been guiding Suniva\u0026nbsp;to produce better solar cells, Suniva has been teaching him\u0026nbsp;about running a successful business. The importance of building\u0026nbsp;a solid team was an early lesson.\u003C\/h1\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can have the world\u2019s greatest technology, but if you\u0026nbsp;don\u2019t know how to run the business, it would not go anywhere,\u201d\u0026nbsp;he says. \u201c[You need] the full package, from the\u0026nbsp;scientist to the entrepreneur.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJohn Baumstark was the first addition to the Suniva team,\u0026nbsp;but the employee roster has since grown to almost 200,\u0026nbsp;including a number of Rohatgi\u2019s former students and other Tech alumni.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELike Rohatgi, Vijay Yelundur, MSE 97, PhD MSE 03, was\u0026nbsp;impressed by the potential of solar energy at a young age.\u0026nbsp;\u201cWhen I was around 6 years old, we took a trip to Yellowstone\u0026nbsp;National Park, and I saw someone using a solar cooker. And\u0026nbsp;I became fascinated with the idea of using sunlight to cook\u0026nbsp;food or to produce power,\u201d he remembers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter wrapping up his undergraduate degree, Yelundur was\u0026nbsp;eyeing grad school and picked the one subject he thought\u0026nbsp;could hold his interest: solar energy. His father ran across an\u0026nbsp;article about Rohatgi\u2019s program in a trade journal and mentioned\u0026nbsp;it to his son, who had no idea there was a solar research\u0026nbsp;group in the basement of Tech\u2019s double-E building. Rohatgi\u0026nbsp;became his thesis adviser, and Yelundur was one of Suniva\u2019s\u0026nbsp;earliest hires, joining the company as a senior engineer. He\u0026nbsp;now serves as manager of the Manufacturing Innovation\u0026nbsp;Center.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore founding Suniva, Rohatgi says, he was largely divorced\u0026nbsp;from the business side of the solar industry. His\u0026nbsp;education had prepared him for a career in research, sealed\u0026nbsp;off in a lab wrangling samples and hypotheses, so he\u2019s had to\u0026nbsp;play some catch-up. Increasingly, though, his students are suffering\u0026nbsp;no such gap, thanks in part to Institute initiatives like\u0026nbsp;the InVenture Prize, the University-Industry Demonstration\u0026nbsp;Partnership and Enterprise to Empower, all of which foster\u0026nbsp;entrepreneurship as a component of academic research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen you don\u2019t know about these things it looks so difficult,\u0026nbsp;but once you know [more, it\u2019s] not that difficult. In fact,\u0026nbsp;once I found out about [the process of starting a business], I\u0026nbsp;was like, \u2018Oh, seeing how it\u2019s done, it\u2019s not that complicated,\u2019\u201d\u0026nbsp;Rohatgi says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of talk about this on campus\u2014that\u0026nbsp;you should train the students from the very start, that it is not\u0026nbsp;very difficult to learn things about business, but that you just\u0026nbsp;have to have a different aptitude. It\u2019s a great thing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd, unlike in Yelundur\u2019s\u0026nbsp;day when the PV lab was out of\u0026nbsp;sight and out of mind, the center now occupies a more visible\u0026nbsp;space on campus: the ground floor of the Van Leer building,\u0026nbsp;facing the Tech Green. Rohatgi can take a few steps out of his\u0026nbsp;office and see the 86-kilowatt array of Suniva panels installed\u0026nbsp;on the roof of the state-of-the-art Clough Undergraduate\u0026nbsp;Learning Commons. The panels are set to produce up to\u0026nbsp;120,000 kWh per year, offsetting more than 80 tons of carbon\u0026nbsp;dioxide. In 1996, just before the Olympic games, Rohatgi\u0026nbsp;and his crew installed what was then the world\u2019s largest solar\u0026nbsp;array on the roof of the Olympic natatorium (now the CRC),\u0026nbsp;but that was different\u2014they were someone else\u2019s panels. He\u0026nbsp;becomes giddy describing what it\u2019s like to see his own work out in the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you get an opportunity to take something you built \u2026 out\u0026nbsp;in the real world, there\u2019s nothing more exciting,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u0026nbsp;was a thrill for me to see the panels, the cells from my factory\u0026nbsp;being installed \u2026 because if I am doing it [in the lab], that\u2019s\u0026nbsp;nice, but nobody knows. But now when they\u2019re out in the field,\u0026nbsp;it\u2019s a different sense of pride and satisfaction. It\u2019s really, really\u0026nbsp;nice to even have this opportunity that is right in front of\u0026nbsp;my office. It\u2019s very satisfying.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis story originally appeared in Volume 88, Issue 2, of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERohatgi is director of the University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaics Research and Education as well as founder and chief technical officer of Suniva.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Rohatgi is director of the University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaics Research and Education as well as founder and chief technical officer of Suniva."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2012-06-01 14:06:56","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:22","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-06-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"133501":{"id":"133501","type":"image","title":"Ajeet Rohatgi","body":null,"created":"1449178659","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:39","changed":"1475894541","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:21","alt":"Ajeet Rohatgi","file":{"fid":"194740","name":"timthumb.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/timthumb_4.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/timthumb_4.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":76690,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/timthumb_4.jpeg?itok=JNFPvf0c"}}},"media_ids":["133501"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtalumnimag.com\/2012\/05\/here-comes-the-sun\/","title":"Here Comes the Sun (via Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine)le)"},{"url":"http:\/\/gtalumnimag.com\/","title":"Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"8271","name":"alumni magazine"},{"id":"35011","name":"georgia tech alumni magazine"},{"id":"479","name":"Green Buzz"},{"id":"167183","name":"solar energy"},{"id":"166856","name":"Suniva"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:rachael.maddux@alumni.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ERachael Maddux\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumni Magazine\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}