ENERGY RESEARCH
Energy security and decarbonization rank among the defining national challenges of this era. INSTAR's energy research spans the full technology stack — from materials science and electrochemistry at the atomic level, to grid architecture and policy analysis at the system level — because no single layer of this problem can be solved in isolation. We are particularly interested in the intersections: where materials properties constrain system design, where grid dynamics shape the economics of storage investment, and where AI-driven optimization unlocks value that static engineering cannot. Early-career researchers in our Fellowship program contribute meaningfully to this domain across multiple technical tracks.
Solar Energy
We investigate next-generation photovoltaic materials — perovskite absorbers, tandem cell architectures, and organic photovoltaics — where the limiting factors are materials stability and interface chemistry as much as raw efficiency. Concentrating solar thermal for industrial process heat is a parallel interest, addressing the hard-to-decarbonize manufacturing sectors that electricity alone cannot easily reach.
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Energy Storage
Our electrochemical storage research spans solid-state lithium systems, sodium-ion chemistries, and redox-flow architectures — each with distinct tradeoffs in energy density, cycle life, safety, and cost that make them suited to different grid roles. Understanding the materials and degradation mechanisms at the electrode-electrolyte interface is central to all of this work.
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Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
We study catalytic water splitting, photoelectrochemical hydrogen production, and proton-exchange-membrane fuel-cell performance. Green hydrogen requires Earth-abundant, durable catalysts to become cost-competitive — identifying and understanding those materials is one of the more demanding open problems in electrochemistry, and one with significant national energy security implications.
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Grid Systems & Policy
We model smart-grid architectures, demand-response mechanisms, and distributed energy resource coordination to understand how variable renewables can be integrated reliably and economically. Alongside the engineering analysis, we examine market designs and regulatory frameworks that shape investment incentives — because technology alone does not determine the pace of energy transition.
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