Sustainable Energy Pathways Through Education and Technology (SEPTET)

美国国家科学基金会可持续能源途径（SEP）项目将支持新墨西哥大学Olga Lavrova教授及其合作者的研究项目。该项目的目标是将能源收集的基础研究与创建可视化工具相结合，以提高社会对能源使用的认识。在这个项目中，Lavrova教授和她的合作者将利用新的材料组合和新的材料生长技术开发新的多功能和宽带能量收集器。首先，这项研究将带来一种定量的能量收集新方法。可以用来抵消美国人口的能源需求。第二，研究小组将把能量收集器整合到现有或新开发的城乡电力基础设施中。目标是显著减少日常消耗和/或浪费的能量。系统级运行的详细数值模型将导致能源采集器运行的长期模型，各种环境设置下能源采集器的经济可行性和生命周期分析。最后，Lavrova教授和她的合作者将为公众创造一些高度可视化的工具，这将提高公众对能源和可持续发展情况的认识。面向公众的可视化的一个例子是实时交互行为能源应用程序。社会结果将直接源于上述可视化和教育工作，并将导致与能源消耗相关的全球行为的变化。经济效益将来自技术发展（新设备提供每瓦美元的新经济模式）以及通过实施本项目建议的新基础设施而节省和避免的发电量。环境效益将源于发电的直接减少，从而导致温室气体排放的减少。同时，通过从当前的电力基础设施中移除和/或简化某些元素，通过消除与移除或减少的组件相关的制造环境影响，环境足迹将进一步减少。广泛的教育和推广运动将确保可持续的劳动力发展方法，从年轻的毕业生到重新进入的专业人员，或重返文职职业的退伍军人，从而提供持续劳动力的结果。如果成功的话，这个项目的变革性影响将是把能源研究的基础领域从微瓦到兆瓦级纳入一个共同的模型。从这样一个大的图景中，研究人员和电力公司都可以评估当前的能源生产和消费状况，并解决短期和长期尺度上的改进问题。该项目还将引导社会对能源生产和消费的新理解，从而改变能源消费者的行为，以提供可持续的生活方式。这种方法将影响从单一建筑到公用事业到全球能源平衡，从而改变目前世界范围内缓解能源危机的方法。

The NSF Sustainable Energy Pathways (SEP) Program will support the research project of Prof. Olga Lavrova and her collaborators at the University of New Mexico. The objective of the project is to combine fundamental research on energy harvesting with creating visualization tools for raising social awareness about energy usage. In this project, Prof. Lavrova and her collaborators will develop new multi-functional and broadband energy harvesters, utilizing novel material combinations and novel material growth techniques. First, the research will lead to a quantitatively new approach to energy harvesting. which can be used to offset the energy demands of the US population. Second, the team of investigators will incorporate energy harvesters into existing or newly developed urban and rural power infrastructure. The goal is to significantly reduce the amounts of energy being routinely consumed and/or wasted. Detailed numerical models for system-level operation will lead to long-term models of energy harvesters operation, economical feasibility and life-cycle analysis of energy harvesters in various environmental settings. Lastly, Prof. Lavrova and her collaborators will create a number of highly visual tools for the general public, which will increase public awareness of the energy and sustainability picture. An example of general public oriented visualization will be a real-time interactive behavioral energy application.Social outcomes will stem directly from the visualization and education work described above, and will lead to changes in global behavior as relevant to energy consumption. Economic benefits will stem from both technical developments (new devices providing new economic models for $/W) as well as savings and generation avoided by implementing new infrastructures suggested in this project. Environmental benefits will stem from the direct reduction of generated power, thus leading to reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, by removing and/or simplifying certain elements from the current electrical infrastructure, environmental footprint will be reduced even further by removing the manufacturing environment impact associated with removed or reduced components. A broad educational and outreach campaign will ensure sustainable approach to workforce development, starting from young graduates to re-entry level of professionals, or veterans returning to civilian careers, hence providing an outcome of continuous workforce.The transformational impact of this project, if successful, will be in bringing the fundamental fields of energy research from micro-W to MW scales into one common model. From such big picture, both researchers as well as electric utilities can assess current states of energy generation and consumption, and address improvements on a short-term and long-term scales. The project will also lead to new societal understanding of energy generation and consumption, thus transforming behavior of energy consumer in a way as to provide sustainable lifestyle. Such approach will have an impact from a single-building to utility-wide to worldwide energy balance, hence transforming current worldwide approach to relieving energy crisis. .