Professor Sarah Kurtz, former senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and now a professor at the University of California Merced, sits down with guest host Rebecca Saive and Sebastian Husein to chat about all-things energy related.
Listen to her take on what the "coolest" photovoltaic tech is, how she feels about her electric car, and how we need to challenge our conventional ways of thinking in multiple areas, including world population growth and even the relationship between renewable advocates and fossil fuel companies.

Extra watching:
A New Era for Solar by Sarah Kurtz

Extra reading:
Main Figure comparing maintenance costs of "light duty vehicles" (LDV):
Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEV)
Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HV, electric motor assists combustion engine)
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV, can be driven fully by the electric motor for a limited range, <40 miles typically, has a combustion engine)
Battery Electric Vehicles (battery only; no combustion engine)
The full study can be read here by clicking "View Technical Report"

Music credits:
RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Dr. Parikhit Sinha from First Solar—the only solar manufacturer to bring thin-film solar panels to the gigawatt scale (so far...looking at you, perovskite-enthusiasts)—joins STEMoirs to share about the winding path of his scientific career.
We hear about his start at Harvard University, his transition into a science degree, moving to Seattle and how he found himself flying over wildfires in Africa taking air samples, and ending up in Arizona. We also touch on life cycle assessments and discuss what ultra-low carbon photovoltaics are.

Check out First Solar's Youtube channel.
Though a bit dated in the rapidly changing world of solar energy, many of the comparisons of First Solar to other manufacturing methods hold true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HPFKcsgNrk
There's also a short look at First Solar's cadmium telluride manufacturing process here

This episode was not sponsored by First Solar. The opinions stated in the episode do not necessarily reflect the positions or opinions of First Solar or others mentioned.

Music credits:
RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Lisa Fischer of E3G—Third Generation Environmentalism—joins STEMoirs. We look back at the influences that brought her to work on climate economics and policy, and hear about the urgent work being done at E3G to accelerate the transition to climate safety across all levels of society. Lisa's insights point to keeping people at the core of innovation and climate change solutions to frame effective policy solutions.
Stay up to date on Lisa's work by following her on Twitter @FactFisching and reading E3G's latest releases on their website.

In particular, check out Lisa and Eleonora Moro's March 2021 briefing of 6 key design principles for shaping policy for a climate neutral energy sector: Closing the Gap to Climate Neutrality

Music credits:
RetroFuture Clean and Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/