A video game inspired Martin Gerber to pursue a research career in sustainable energy.

McMaster student Martin Gerber is starting his Master's degree at McMaster University, where NSERC's Photovoltaic Innovation Network is based. Photo: Glenn Lowson for The Globe and Mail

McMaster student Martin Gerber is starting his Master's degree at McMaster University, where NSERC's Photovoltaic Innovation Network is based. Photo: Glenn Lowson for The Globe and Mail

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It was called Final Fantasy VII and involved a scenario in which a planet's energy runs out, says the 24-year-old graduate student. He spent hours playing it when he was younger and it got him thinking about new ways to generate electricity.

Today, he is part of a photovoltaic research network that was recently awarded $5-million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The group is working on combining different materials to make a more efficient solar cell that will convert energy from the sun into electricity at a cost per watt that can compete will fossil fuels.

Solar cells already power calculators, toys, garden lights and roadside signs in remote parts of Canada.

But other countries, especially Germany, are using them to generate increasing amounts of electricity through rooftop applications and solar farms.

Mr. Gerber had been accepted for graduate work at Cornell University, an Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York, but decided to stay in Canada when he heard about new federal funding for the research network.

"It drew my attention," he says. He is starting his master's degree at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., where NSERC's Photovoltaic Innovation Network is based, but will collaborate with researchers at the other universities that are part of the team.

The network, led McMaster's Rafael Kleiman, involves 29 scientists and engineers working in the field of advanced solar cell research at 13 Canadian universities, from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia to Dalhousie in Nova Scotia.

It also aims to train 88 people over five years for positions in industry and academia. Eleven private sector companies are also part of the network. Its goal is to accelerate research into solar photovoltaics as well the commercialization of any discoveries.

Canada had a strong research program in solar cells in the 1970s during the oil crisis. But the funding dried up when oil prices dropped.

This new infusion will allow Canada to become more competitive with world leaders like Germany, Japan, the United States and Australia, says Dr. Kleiman, a professor of engineering physics.

Mr. Gerber likes the idea of being part of a large team.

"I think we can do bigger things when we are all united."

He has already completed two undergraduate degrees, one in chemical engineering, a second in physics.

Now, his job is to use a number of approaches to "optically characterize" different materials to see how they interact with light.

When you hit a solar cell with light, the electrons get excited and conduct electricity. They stay in that state for a short time before they come back down.

"We want that to be as long as possible, so I'm measuring how long that happens."

The lab is also combining different materials that can each absorb different parts of the spectrum, including infrared, visible, and ultraviolet.

Dr. Kleiman has eight graduate students.

Some look at new materials at the atomic level, while others characterize their structural properties.

At other universities, researchers will be looking at using "organic," or carbon-based materials.

These would be cheaper, lighter and more flexible than the silicon based products now widely used.

This could prove important in the future, because there may not be enough of the exotic materials now used to dramatically scale up production, says Dr. Kleiman.

Researchers will also be working on hybrids of organic and more traditional materials.

They will also be looking at transparent solar cells that can be integrated into windows.

Nanotechnology — building things atom by atom — holds promise for new types of materials as well.

The global market for solar photovoltaics is at least $1-billion a year, says Dr. Kleiman. But in the future it could be tens of billions a year.

Canada already has a lot of expertise, because researchers who specialize in optical telecommunications or semiconductors can easily switch fields, he says.

Solar cells will never provide all of the world's energy needs, says Dr. Kleiman. In Canada, they might one day provide enough power to meet a household's electricity needs, but probably not enough to heat and cool homes.

"They are part of the solution."

GREEN ENERGY POWERHOUSES

Researchers at universities across the country are working on green energy technologies.

Waste not

The University of Western Ontario's Franco Berruti and Cedric Briens are building on technology developed for the oil patch. They have developed a mobile pyrolysis unit that can rapidly convert organic material into bio-oil and solid bio-char, which contains carbon and minerals and can be used as a fertilizer.

The unit can be moved from farm to farm on a trailer, and works with straw, grape skins or other agricultural waste. They say it is the same process that in a few seconds mimics what nature did to turn biomass into petroleum deep in the ground over millions of years.

Better batteries

At the University of Waterloo, Professor Linda Nazar is working on developing the science behind better rechargeable batteries, ones that could power plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles or provide energy storage for intermittent energy sources such as solar or wind. The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in today's portable electronics are expensive and present some safety concerns for large-scale applications.

Windy weather

The focus is on wind at the University of New Brunswick, where Liuchen Chang is investigating how to produce stable electricity from a source that can gust wildly and then subside. He established the Canadian Wind Energy Strategic Network with funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, or NSERC, one of federal granting agencies that funds research at universities in Canada. The goal is to solve the technical challenges of wind energy systems in Canada.

Power storage

Heather Andreas at Dalhousie University in Halifax is working on supercapacitors. These are energy storage systems similar to batteries. The could prove useful in a number of alternative energy applications, including storing energy from intermittent power sources like wind or solar panels.

Plant power

John Madden at the University of British Columbia also works on supercapacitors, as well an exploratory project on using the proteins involved in photosynthesis in plants to generate electrical energy from light.