A decision to work toward a uniform solar permitting process was one of several initiatives approved this week by principal partners of the East Bay Green Corridor, a regional partnership for green technology innovation and job training. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the founding members of the Green Corridor, will contribute to the solar initiative by providing technical and scientific assistance on photovoltaic technologies, said Lab Director Paul Alivisatos, who participated in a meeting of Green Corridor principals in Berkeley last Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded up to $122 million over five years to a multi-institutional partnership headed by Cal Tech and Berkeley Lab to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight. The new energy hub will be called the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis.

Berkeley Lab researchers studied platinum catalysts at the atomic scale under actual industrial reaction conditions and discovered why nanoparticle clusters of platinum potentially can out-perform the single crystals of platinum now used in fuel cells and catalytic converters.

The future of clean green solar power may well hinge on scientists being able to unravel the mysteries of photosynthesis. To this end, Berkeley researchers have recorded the first observation and characterization of a critical physical phenomenon behind photosynthesis known as quantum entanglement.

Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered an inexpensive metal that can generate hydrogen from neutral water, even if it is dirty, and can operate in sea water. Experts agree that hydrogen can play a key role in future renewable energy technologies if a relatively cheap, efficient and carbon-neutral means of producing it can be developed.

Berkeley Lab researchers have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new path to energy production brightens the future for photovoltaic technology by overcoming voltage limitations that plague conventional solid-state solar cells.

Berkeley Lab researchers have found a better way to trap light in photovoltaic cells through the use of vertical arrays of silicon nanowires. This could substantially cut the costs of solar electric power by reducing the quantity and quality of silicon needed for efficient solar panels.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released a new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S., showing that the average cost of these systems declined by more than 30 percent from 1998 to 2008. Within the last year of this period, costs fell by more than 4 percent.

Two young Berkeley Lab and University of California, Berkeley scientists have been recognized by Technology Review magazine as among the world’s top innovators under age 35. Ali Javey was chosen for “painting” nanowires into electronic circuits. Cyrus Wadia was chosen for identifying materials that could be unexpectedly useful in solar cells.

Researchers in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and at UC Berkeley have made efficient, cheap, flexible solar cells by growing dense 3-D arrays of single-crystal semiconductors on a prepatterned aluminum substrate. The nanoscale pillars are embedded in a complementary transparent semiconductor that serves as a window. The solar cells are made bendable by embedding them in clear plastic.