Center boosts sustainable energy research

Students and researchers gather in a hallway in Caudill Labs to cut a light blue ribbon marking the opening of SERC's newly renovated collaborative office space. — SERC trainees Perry Holtzclaw, Graciela Villalpando and Ben Travis (from left inside doorway) cut the ribbon at SERC’s launch event. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

A venerable energy institution at Carolina is launching initiatives to better support sustainable energy researchers within the University and beyond.

The Sustainable Energy Research Consortium broadens the scope of the original SERC, the Solar Energy Research Center founded by professor emeritus Thomas Meyer in 2008. As certain projects supported by the original SERC were winding down in 2020, its leadership considered how the group might evolve.

“We took a step back and said, ‘What do we want a UNC energy entity to do?’” said Alex Miller, a chemistry professor and the director of SERC since 2022. “We started germinating this idea of going bigger, going broader and covering the energy space more holistically.”

A recent relaunch event spotlighted the consortium’s newly renovated collaborative office space in Caudill Labs and innovative projects, like making batteries that are safer, work longer and don’t contain as many toxic materials.

“These projects are noteworthy because they bring together teams of investigators from across disciplines,” said Jim White, Craver Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, at the event. “They bridge fundamental science to applied science and engineering, and they represent new growth areas with the potential for … innovations that impact the lives of North Carolinians.”

A woman wearing a blue SERC lanyard smiles and holds up a small battery prototype while presenting at the Sustainable Energy Research Consortium relaunch event.

Jaeyoung Lee demonstrates her battery, made with help from SERC’s Battery Assembly and Testing Facility. (Photo by Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Based in the chemistry department within the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. SERC has built an operating model based on three key pillars:

Maintaining shared core facilities
Developing large, interdisciplinary teams
Connecting with the energy research community

Shared core facilities empower researchers to explore new avenues in sustainable energy. At the Battery Assembly and Testing Laboratory, for instance, researchers can benefit from centralized tools and the expertise of facility staff.

“We realized we had specialists in these different aspects of chemistry that could be used to make a battery,” Miller said. “We didn’t have a place to help them build complete battery assemblies, so we built such a facility.”

At the relaunch event, chemistry doctoral candidate Jaeyoung Lee and postdoctoral fellow Graciela Villalpando activated an LED light using a prototype button cell battery developed through the laboratory. The prototype contains carbon-based materials that are more sustainably manufactured than current lithium-ion batteries. Lee’s research on environmentally friendly batteries, conducted in the lab of assistant professor Megan Jackson, is partially supported by Creativity Hub seed funding from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the North Carolina Collaboratory.

A man in a suit shakes hands with a seated attendee during the SERC relaunch event, with a presentation slide visible in the background highlighting the consortium's funded projects and trainees.

SERC director Alex Miller (standing) shakes the hand of Thomas Meyer, who founded the original iteration of SERC in 2008. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

SERC is also developing a seed grant program to fund high-risk, high-reward projects in the sustainable energy space.

The consortium helps large, interdisciplinary teams with the logistical challenges of applying for state and federal grants.

“When you’re writing a grant that involves 10 or more researchers, there are a lot of moving parts,” said Jillian Dempsey, a chemistry professor and director of the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy and Liquid Fuels, which acts as a hub for solar energy researchers tackling complex problems in the field. “The Sustainable Energy Research Consortium lowers the barriers by providing substantial pre- and post-award support.”

One way of connecting with the energy research community was last year’s partnership of SERC researchers and economics professors to produce an energy storage report outlining best practices, challenges and recommendations for policymakers to advance North Carolina’s energy storage landscape.

Supporting the field also includes workforce development. This year, SERC offered its first fellowships to doctoral students and will fund research for two undergraduate students this summer.

“The consortium is intended to be a nexus where teams can come together and grow,” Miller said. “We want to empower Carolina’s energy innovators and give people what they need to do amazing things in the sustainable energy space.”