06-21-2013 BPU RPT 12 - Laserfiche WebLink

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W A T E R E N E R G Y i . RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES P U B L I C UTILITIES Board Memorandum BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES DATE: June 21, 2013 ITEM NO: 12 SUBJECT: FIRST AMENDMENT TO GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE ISSUE: The issue for Board of Public Utilities consideration is approval of a First Amendment to the Grant Agreement between the City of Riverside and University of California, Riverside (UCR) for their project "Multi-scale Engineering of Solar Cells: Employing Biological Inspiration and Nanotechnology", extending the term by one year with no additional grant funding. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Public Utilities approve and recommend that the City Council approve a First Amendment to Grant Agreement between the City of Riverside and University of California, Riverside for their project "Multi-scale Engineering of Solar Cells: Employing Biological Inspiration and Nanotechnology," extending the term by one year with no additional grant funding. BACKGROUND: The EIG Program is a Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) Public Benefits Program. This program was developed for the funding of research, development, and demonstration programs for the public interest to advance science or technology in electric related projects in the institutions of higher education within the City of Riverside. Participation in the EIG Program is restricted to public or private post-secondary institutions whose primary activities fall within the city limits of Riverside, California. The grant funds must comply with the relevant portions of California Public Utilities Code (PUC) Section 385 related to the use of Public Benefits Funds. The University of California Riverside was awarded grant funding on June 29, 2012, for its proposal submitted for the Multi-scale Engineering of Solar Cells: Employing Biological Inspiration and Nanotechnology. The objective of the project encompassed the bio-inspired multiscale synthesis and optimization of hybrid materials for solar-energy-conversion and energy-storage applications and tests their performance in device setups. UCR's Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Biochemistry have been diligently working on the grant project making significant progress over the past year as represented in the attached Annual Report submitted to utility staff by Professor Valentine Ivanov Vullev, Principal Investigator (PI) of the project. According to the report, they can demonstrate two novel aspects of biological inspiration for energy-conversion systems: (1) multiscale bio-inspired synthesis of energy hybrid materials; and (2) bio-inspired electrets for energy conversion applications. The characteristics, performance, and the efficiency of devices incorporating these materials were tested. They developed new analytical techniques and mythologies for characterization of the platform of these materials (single-sheet graphene) and of photophysical properties of photoactive agents.