Oklahoma Institute for Photovoltaic Research

Numerous discussions between colleagues at TU, OU and OSU contributed to the creation of this institute. The idea of a PV research institute at Oklahoma started in 2013 and evolved over a period of two years. A Meeting was held at Dr. Blais’ office (TU provost) in spring 2014 to discuss the creation of a new interdisciplinary, inter-university institute. The strong support from the Vice President for Research at OU and OSU’s Arts & Sciences Dean for Research in 2015 led to the formation of the interdisciplinary, inter-university Institute that started on 2016 July.

Goals:

• To design, model and fabricate new generation of cost-effective photovoltaic (PV) cells
• To foster interdisciplinary research between faculty and students in Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering disciplines in Oklahoma universities
• To share PV research resources between Oklahoma's three major research universities
• To collaborate on PV research for attracting funding from private, state and federal agencies
• To promote PV technology in Oklahoma
• To develop joint PV research projects between the three major research universities in Oklahoma

Why a PV research institute?

• PV research is interdisciplinary research
• PV research requires expertise in Physics, Chemistry, Materials, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
• We aim to develop, design, and fabricate cost-effective 3rd generation solar cells
• 3rd generation solar cells are currently under development as the cheap alternative to silicon based solar cells