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The Sun Does Not Shine on UT Solar Research
Don Wedding, UT-AAUP Executive Board
Last year on March 9, 2010, a Toledo Blade article reported that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) had established 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers at universities and laboratories to study ways to reduce the cost of alternative energies. Hosts for these centers were awarded millions of dollars for solar research. The University of Michigan was designated an Energy Frontier Research Center and won a $19.5 million grant. The University of Toledo (UT) applied to be a Frontier Center, but was denied.
On January 27, 2011, the Toledo Blade published an article announcing that UT was in the running to receive $46 million from the DOE for a new solar photovoltaic (PV) center at UT. The Blade article reported this would make UT a solar silicon valley. President Lloyd Jacobs was quoted as saying "...it would be a game-changer for the community." The DOE announced major awards on April 5, 2011, but UT did not win. The UT loss has not been reported by The Blade.
The DOE awards to the 46 Frontier Centers and the PV Center awards on April 5, 2011 confirm that UT is not a major player in solar technology. Jacobs has continuously boasted that the UT solar program is a world leader and that UT will lead economic development in NW Ohio. However, as evidenced by the large awards to other universities, the UT solar program does not carry national prestige.
The UT solar research program is running on empty. There are insufficient external funds to support the large impotent solar research structure created under President Jacobs. The UT solar research group (housed in the Department of Physics) has hired and is hiring former DOE employees and giving them tenured faculty positions including endowed chairs at high salaries. These faculty are hired as solar research faculty with little or no teaching and are given millions of UT dollars for laboratory start-up funds.
There are always politics on a university campus, but a viable research program cannot tolerate politics, especially an important high profile program that has received millions in funding. The UT solar program has suffered from continuous internal politics and petty infighting. Some of this infighting has been played out in all day sessions in President Jacobs' office, but nothing has been solved. The entire fracas has been kept under cover away from The Blade and the Board of Trustees (BOT) while the UT solar program has not moved forward.
During the last four years, there has been little innovation in the UT solar program. The lack of innovation by UT solar program is reflected by a low number of UT solar patents. Since 2000 UT has received 7 issued U.S. patents and has 7 published U.S. patent applications on solar inventions. The key inventors on these 14 patents and patent applications are no longer active in the UT solar program. These inventors include Dr. Xunming Deng and Dr. Al Compaan, both with Xunlight, and other research faculty politically excluded from the inner solar circle. None of the highly paid solar research faculty hired on the Jacobs watch have solar patents or published patent applications at UT. There appear to be few in the pipeline.
The solar patent portfolios of other solar research universities dwarf the 14 UT solar patents and applications. For example, MIT has a portfolio of over 421, the University of California over 321, and Princeton over 234. The University of Michigan has over 30. The total for all universities and colleges is over 3500. Based on solar innovations and inventions, UT is a very small fish in a very large ocean. This is contrary to the Jacobs press release and The Blade articles.
According to The Blade articles, UT has received millions of taxpayer dollars. There is little to show for it. President Jacobs was counting on a fat paycheck from the DOE to bail out the UT solar program. Former Governor Strickland might have covered for Jacobs, but new Governor Kasich may not. In any case the UT solar program is not producing solar innovation. The solar program no longer has sufficient external funding. Is the program now being internally supported by the diversion of funds from non-solar academics and from the Foundation?
Alternative energy is important for the future of the United States and NW Ohio. If the University of Toledo is to be a player in this future, it must have significant solar research innovation and intellectual property including a solar patent portfolio for business start-ups and licensing income.
The following are quotes from The Blade article published on March 9, 2010:
"In a globally competitive solar industry ...., universities are fighting for a leg up on competitors. Their goals are to attract big research dollars, hire the most decorated faculty, make the fastest technological discoveries, have those discoveries inspire new businesses, and create jobs in their regions.
...UT must work diligently to avoid falling behind in a crowded solar field."
Dean Nina McClelland is also quoted in The Blade article as saying:
"...the university recognizes it needs to continue to beef up research and further advance photovoltaics technology..."
Over a year has passed after the above was published, but there is no evidence that UT is meeting any of the above objectives. Millions have been spent without significantly advancing solar technology including photovoltaics. Politics and incompetent management are robbing The University of Toledo and NW Ohio of a future in the solar industry.
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