IGERT: The Solar Economy (SEIGERT)

太阳能经济一体化研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)项目支持普渡大学与特拉华大学、德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校、桑迪亚国家实验室、国家可再生能源实验室、弗劳恩霍夫太阳能系统研究所、柏林亥姆霍兹材料与能源中心、莫纳什大学和几个行业合作伙伴合作，制定可持续太阳能经济教育和研究的多学科、多机构研究生培训计划。我们用“太阳能经济”这个术语来指代未来的状况，即电力、交通、供热、化工和食品所需的几乎所有能源都建立在可持续的阳光供应基础上。为了实现这一未来状态，这一IGERT主要植根于在与其他太阳能利用和谐共存的背景下，寻找跨学科的技术解决方案，以应对太阳能发电和太阳能燃料的最重要挑战。为了确定突破性的技术解决方案并彻底了解太阳能经济的复杂性，将产生大量跨学科解决方案，并对其全系统影响进行快速评估。IGERT为整合教育和培训建立了新的愿景和计划，将向来自不同背景的人揭示这一系统的复杂性，以应对未来的关键能源挑战。从化石燃料向新的太阳能经济的过渡需要对美国的基础设施进行重大改变，并重新定义我们的劳动力所需的技能集。IGERT计划将通过开发讲座、课程模块、培训模块和模拟工具来满足这一需求，这些模块和模拟工具将定义可再生能源跨学科教育和培训的新范例。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

The Solar Economy Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) project supports the development of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional graduate training program of education and research in a sustainable solar economy at the Purdue University in collaboration with University of Delaware, University of Texas at El Paso, Sandia National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy, Monash University and several industrial partners. We use the term "solar economy" to refer to a future state of affairs where nearly all the energy needed for electricity, transportation, heat, chemicals and food is based on sustainable supply of sunlight. To enable such a future state, this IGERT is primarily rooted in finding interdisciplinary technical solutions to the most important challenges of sun-to-electricity and sun-to-fuel within the context of harmonious coexistence with other uses of solar energy. In order to identify breakthrough technical solutions and gain a thorough insight into the complexity of a solar economy, a large number of interdisciplinary solutions will be generated and rapidly assessed for their system-wide impact. The IGERT establishes a new vision and program for integrating education and training that will reveal the complexity of this system to individuals from the diverse backgrounds necessary to address the future key energy challenges. The transition away from fossil fuels to a new solar economy necessitates major changes to the U.S. infrastructure and redefines the skill set required by our workforce. The IGERT program will address this need by developing lectures, course modules, training modules, and simulation tools that will define a new paradigm for interdisciplinary education and training in renewable energy. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.