<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal">The MIT Energy Initiative is pleased to announce the beginning of the 2009-2010 Seminar Series. Each month, MITEI will host an expert from a different area of the energy field. Please watch <a href="http://mit.edu/mitei/news/seminars/">this</a> space for further updates on this year's series, or peruse last year's popular lineup <a href="http://mit.edu/mitei/news/seminars/2008-2009.html">here</a>. We hope you will join us on <b>Tuesday, October 6 </b>to welcome this year's first speaker, <b>Jacob Karni</b> of the Weizmann Institute of Science.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><br></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><b>The Next Phase in Large-Scale Solar Thermal Power
Generation </b></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Jacob
Karni</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b>Tuesday,
October 6, 2009 </b></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Lecture
at <b>4:15 PM</b></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Reception
follows</span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Room
<b>66-110</b>, Landau Building</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">25
Ames Street</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Massachusetts
Institute of Technology</span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; ">Abstract </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Demand
for power and renewable-friendly policies have created opportunities and
encouraged the development of other solar technologies for large-scale
applications. </span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Large
plants based on photovoltaic (PV), concentrated PV, Linear Fresnel Reflectors, Central
Receivers (solar tower) and Dish Concentrators are proposed. However, Trough
systems are used in most of the 50MW or larger solar plants built over the last
few years, presently in construction, or planned for the next few years.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">− Will Trough remain
the dominant large-scale solar technology? </span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">− Can any solar system
ever reach cost parity with conventional power plants? </span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">− Can solar energy be
stored and transported so it could be used at times and places with little
or no sunlight, and for powering motor vehicles?</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">− What would it take
for solar to become a major player in the power industry? </span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">These
are some of the fundamental questions we must answer and demonstrate in the near
future. We will look at several proposed methods, attempt to provide criteria
for evaluating them and suggest some possible answers.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b>About the Speaker</b></span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Jacob
Karni was Assistant Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Dept. of SUNY at
Stony Brook, N.Y. from 1984 to 1989 and has been at the Weizmann Institute
since 1989. He was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota in the
summers of 1994 and 1996, and at Johns Hopkins University in the 1998-98 school
year. Between 2002 and 2008 Prof. Karni was the head the Weizmann’s Energy
Center. Since 2008 he has been the Chief Technology Officer of HelioFocus Ltd.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Karni's research centers on the utilization of concentrated solar energy. He is
interested in the development of new methods for concentration, absorption,
conversion, transmission and storage of concentrated solar energy, and
implementing these methods in genuine solar power-conversion systems. Together
with several outstanding co-workers, Karni developed several novel solar
receivers capable of working at high temperature and highly concentrated
sunlight, while supplying heat to drive heat engines or thermo-chemical
reactions. Together with a colleague, he also pioneered a novel concentrated
photovoltaic system.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Prof.
Karni's research group is now working on a new method for using solar energy to
produce non-polluting fuels; the main effort is on one-step – separated or
simultaneous – dissociation of carbon dioxide and water at high temperature.</span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></font></o:p></p>
<!--EndFragment-->
</body></html>