Solar to Fuels

In March 2010, I instigated, designed and ran an interdisciplinary research project to consider emerging energy technologies, their implications for broader society, and the resource, social, environmental and political barriers to their implementation. This CNS-ASU project, in collaboration with Gary Dirks of ASU's LightWorks, focused on the generation of fungible fuels from direct sunlight. The project clarified the social and political understandings latent in the technological system in order to explore how such energy generation might change the way we live and work. Critical barriers and carriers of the technology were explored as were the fundamental issues around convergence, timing and political will. The findings of a workshop, held in March of 2010, can be found here.

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