2010 MRS Spring Meeting Reveals Integration of Various Materials Developments
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2010 MRS Spring Meeting Reveals Integration of Various Materials Developments www.mrs.org/S10 With 42 symposia highlighting energy, functional materials, nanomaterials, and soft materials, the 2010 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, held in San Francisco on April 5–9, drew over 4500 attendees from around the world. Meeting Chairs Anne C. Dillon (National Re newable Energy Laboratory), Robin Grimes (Imperial College London), Paul McIntyre (Stanford University), and Darrin J. Pochan (University of Delaware) also provided tutorials as well as professional development opportunities, an equipment exhibit of over 120 exhibitors, seminars on U.S. government funding for materials research, and the inaugural Innovation Forum that brought together researchers with industry leaders and venture capitalists. The Meeting featured plenary speaker Siegfried Hecker of Stanford University and honored MRS award recipients Warren C. Oliver of Nanomechanics, Inc. in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and George M. Pharr of University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratory for their joint inaugural Innovation in Materials Character i zation Award as well as Mark C. Hersam of Northwestern University for Outstanding Young Investigator. Also, the
Kavli Lectureship was presented to Harry Atwater of the California Institute of Technology. Energy Energy systems analyst Paul Denholm of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory opened his Symposium X presentation with the question of whether wind and solar energy can be major contributors to a reliable energy system. The U.S. electric grid, as dominated by fossil fuels, is very reliable and low cost. Extensive analysis, he said, has demonstrated the feasibility of deriving up to 20% of the country’s electricity from wind and solar with little cost penalty, significant emissions reductions, and no impact on reliability. These sources would replace some of the energy derived from nonrenewable sources. More recent studies have demonstrated technical feasibility of up to 30% dependency on renewable energy sources. Unfortunately, the scenario of deriving more than 30% energy from wind and/or solar has not yet been explored in detail, as it appears that the benefits of renewable energy begin to decrease due to limited correlation of sup-
The 2010 MRS Spring Meeting Exhibit featured 120 international exhibitors who displayed a full spectrum of equipment, instrumentation, software, publications, and services for the materials research community.
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ply and demand. In Texas, for example, electricity is sold at very low cost to utilities during low demand periods since it otherwise would need to be thrown away since certain power plants cannot be completely turned off. One solution, Denholm said, would be to make the system much more flexible than it is currently. In addition, enabling technologies may be required. Storage may be an important option, but is one of many options to increase the utilization of renewable electricity sources. In addition to the systems challenges discussed by Denholm, during th
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