A University of Toledo-led team received an $18.6 million state grant to create facilities to develop and test solar power cells, the governor's office announced yesterday.
"It would be nice to say this was a wonderful Christmas gift," UT President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs said. "But this was not a gift. This was an earned recognition of some people's very hard work."
During the next three years, UT will get a total of $9 million from the Third Frontier Project, a $1.6 billion state program for nurturing a technology-based economy.
Partners Bowling Green State University and Ohio State University will split the remainder.
The grant will establish the Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization Center at UT, a research organization dedicated to improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of generating electricity from the sun's rays.
"It really covers the full stream of solar-cell development - from new materials that haven't even been thought of yet to installing the demonstrated technologies," said Robert Collins, a UT physics professor.The grant almost doubles the university's annual $4 million to $5 million research budget in photovoltaics, a field that faculty have explored for several decades, said Frank Calzonetti, UT's vice president for research development.
As the political and pocketbook costs of an oil-based economy have grown in recent years, northwest Ohio has accumulated a critical mass of government funding for alternative energy programs.
The U.S. Department of Defense awarded $3.6 million to UT in October for solar cell development. And in November, the Third Frontier Project gave an $11.8 million grant for investing in emerging technology-based companies to a group led by the Toledo-based Regional Growth Partnership.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) foresees a renaissance of alternative energy for the area, one made possible by the necessary components of leadership, money, and science aligning at the right moment.
"We're light-years ahead of other parts of the world," Miss Kaptur said.
In addition to the UT grant, Gov. Bob Taft announced eight other awards worth a combined $150 million for research that includes sensor technology, nano-composites, and liquid crystal displays.
Contact Joshua Boak at:
jboak@theblade.com
or 419-724-6728.
Search
advertisement
