Preamble and scope First Circular RESEARCH DIRECTIONS IN SOLAR ENERGY -2014 First Series Symposium of Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS) Organized By Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore April 1-2, 2014 The U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) was launched by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009 to accelerate the transition to high performing, low emissions, and energy secure economies. Under the Research and Development track of PACE (PACE-R), three Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centers (JCERDCs) have been set up in 2012, with funding from US’s Department of Energy and India’s Department of Science and Technology and Department of Bio-Technology. The largest of the JCERDCs, that for Solar Energy, is called the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), which is co-led by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore. This 30member consortium is governed by a leadership team comprising of NREL, IISc, IIT Bombay, Sandia National Laboratory, CSTEP and RAND Corporation. The Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) co-ordinates the activities of the Center in India. The vision of SERIIUS is to create an environment for cooperation and innovation “without borders” to develop and ready emerging and revolutionary solar electricity technologies toward the long-term success of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Energy Mission and the U.S. DOE Sun Shot Initiative.The overall goal of SERIIUS is to accelerate the development of solar-electric technologies by lowering the cost-per-watt of photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) through a bi-national consortium that is innovating, discovering, and readying emerging, disruptive, and revolutionary solar technologies that span the gap between fundamental science and applied R&D, leading to eventual deployment by sustainable industries. SERIIUS addresses critical issues in fundamental and applied research, analysis and assessment, outreach, and workforce development. Throughout this joint effort, a key element is engaging a significant base of Indian and U.S. industry that is dedicated and committed to developing solar energy for both India and the United States. As part of its outreach activities, the SERIIUS team is pleased to create a platform to address the development of new and cutting edge technologies in solar electricity generation and storage, through its first Series Symposium on RESEARCH DIRECTIONS IN SOLAR ENERGY, which is scheduled during April 1-2, 2014. The Symposium will be organized by the newly created Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research at IISc, Bangalore. The main objective of the two-day Symposium is to provide an exclusive forum for intellectually stimulating and engaging interactions among the leading researchers, students, policy makers and engineers from industries, on the recent developments of cutting edge technologies in PV and CSP. Symposium Topics Advances in research on Photovoltaics Advances in research on Concentrated Solar Power Storage Technologies Integration Technology Road Mapping, Technology Assessment, Policy Analysis Advisory Committee (Tentative) Dr. Anil Kakodkar – Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission Dr. T. Ramaswami – Department of Science and Technology Dr. K. VijayRaghavan- Department of Bio-Technology Prof. Arup Kumar Raychaudhuri –SN Bose National Center for Basic Sciences Dr. Ashvini Kumar- Solar Energy Corporation of India Dr. Bibek Bandyopadhyay- formerly with Solar Energy Center Dr. Lawrence L. Kazmerski – formerly with NREL Dr. Joan Brennecke – University of Notre Dame Dr. Walter Kohn- University of California, Santa Barbara Prof. Ajeet Rohatgi- Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Ravi B. Grover- Homi Bhabha National Institute Prof. Vikram Kumar- IIT-Delhi Dr. Roland Winston- University of California, Merced Dr. P.V.C. Rao – HPCL Prof. D. V. Khakhar, IIT Bombay Mr. Gandham Sriganesh-HPCL Prof. P. P. Chakrabarti , IIT, Kharagpur Dr. A. Paranjape – Clique Prof. I. Manna, IIT Kanpur Dr. R.N. Das – BHEL Prof. Gautam Biswas , IIT, Guwahati Dr. Siuli Sarkar-Cookson Prof. Viresh Dutta, IIT, Delhi Dr. G. Rajeswaran- Moserbaer Prof. S.C.Mullick, IIT, Delhi Prof. J. Srinivasan, IISc Bangalore Prof. C.V.R.Murthy, IIT, Jodhpur Prof. D.D.Sarma, IISc Bangalore Prof. K.S.Narayan , JNCASR, Bangalore Local Organizing Committee Organizing Co-Chairmen Prof. Kamanio Chattopadhyay – IISc Bangalore Steering Committee (Tentative) Dr. David Ginley- NREL Dr. William Tumas – NREL Prof. Juzer Vasi – IIT, Bombay Dr. Maikel Van Hest- NREL Dr. Subhash Shinde – Sandia National Labs Dr. Anshu Bharadwaj – CSTEP Prof. Pradip Dutta – IISc Bangalore Co-Convenors Prof. Praveen. C. Ramamurthy- IISc Bangalore Dr. Saptarshi Basu – IISc Bangalore Members Dr. Henry H. Willis – RAND Corporation Dr. Rajiv Sharma- IUSSTF Dr. Sanjay Bajpai - DST Dr. Prasada Raju – DST Dr. Renu Swarup - Ministry of Science & Tech Prof. A. Jhunjhunwala – IIT, Madras Prof. S. Srinivasa Murthy – IIT, Madras Prof. Amlan Pal – IACS, Kolkata Dr. Shrikant Joshi – ARCI, Hyderabad Dr. S.S.Krishnan- CSTEP Prof. Shaibal Sarkar – IIT, Bombay Dr. O.S.Sastry – Solar Energy Centre, Dr. R.R. Sonde – Thermax Prof. S. Sampath, IISc Prof. N. Ravi Shankar , IISc Prof. M. Giridhar , IISc Prof. P. Thilagar , IISc Prof. S. Raghavan , IISc Prof. A. Ghoshal , IISc Prof. S. Dasappa, IISc Prof. B. Basu, IISc Prof. R. V. Ravikrishna, IISc Dr. G. S. V. L. Narasimham Dr. P. Kumar, IISc Dr. Monto Mani, IISc Dr. G. Tomar, IISc Dr. V. Srinivasan, IISc Invited Speakers and Participants This Symposium will include a number of invited presentations from experts in solar energy research from India, USA and other countries. In addition, a number of invited poster presentations will be made by research scholars and young scientists. Accommodation For the invited speakers seeking accommodation inside IISc Campus, some Guest House rooms have been reserved. Separate accommodation arrangement for students will also be made. Venue The Symposium will be held in Satish Dhawan Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Address for correspondence The Convenor Interdisciplinary Center for Energy Research (ICER) Indian Institute of Science Bangalore- 560012, INDIA Phone: + 91-80-2293 3521 Email: rdise2014@gmail.com