Global warming, desertification, vastly accelerating levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, rapidly depleting fossil fuel reserves, the disaster of war triggered by energy scarcity, hunger, drought, rising petrol prices… there is no wonder that the word “sustainability” has become one of the most frequently-heard political buzz words in the western world.

It was in anticipation of the variety of future threats to Israel and to the planet that Technion took the initiative in 2007 to set up the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP). Under its auspices, Israel’s top minds from a variety of science and engineering faculties are given the facilities and opportunity to think together on how to meet the challenge of escalating global energy demand, and to do the science to turn a crisis into an opportunity.

“I am one of those that believe that we need to do something now, and quickly,” says Harry L. Tuller, Professor of Ceramics and Electronic Materials at MIT. Prof. Tuller was hosted at the Technion by his former post-doc student, Dr. Avner Rothschild of the Faculty of Materials Engineering and an active member of GTEP, and was speaking in the framework of the Israel Pollack Distinguished Lecture Series at Technion’s Faculty of Material Engineering in December 2010.

Prof. Tuller’s research team at MIT focuses on defects, transport and electronic structure of metal oxides and their integration into sensors; fuel cells; solar cells, and MEMS devices.

“We need an astronomical increase in sources of energy,” says Tuller, in the first of two lectures: Electroceramics – strategic materials in the quest to solve the energy crisis. “Energy is a crisis, but it is also a big opportunity. It stimulates you to do things… to do something great for humanity but also for the economy – and for the economic stimulation of Israel. The answers are in the materials. Scientists need to work fast to solve the energy crisis to create clean, affordable energy, to improve living standards and to diminish environmental impact.”

Beyond the rapid depletion of fossil fuels, which before vanishing completely, will involve an escalating price for power, Tuller showed a shocking map to the crowded lecture room of faculty and students. Highlighting the users, the map showed the western world lit up with massive consumption of energy, while the developing world is aiming to reach the same standard of living. As it stand, explains Tuller, we are in trouble as population increases, but given the developing world’s right to also have the luxuries of heat and light, the demand for global energy is going to escalate astronomically. China, for example, is adding an extra coal station each week, says Tuller.

With massive energy use comes a responsibility in first world nations for technological development. “The US are the heavyweights in using energy,” says Tuller, “If developing nations use energy like the US, we will need 6-7 times the power we use today – around 100 terawatts (100 terawatts is equivalent to 100,000 nuclear reactors).

In addition, says Tuller, the environmental and strategic implications of accelerating use of finite fossil fuels can be catastrophic, as seen by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the cumulative effect of rising CO2 levels in the earth’s atmosphere over the past 40 years. “On 22nd December, 2003, the power grid around New York failed,” says Tuller, showing a slide of the Manhattan skyline in total darkness. “Amazingly, there was a 90% decrease in 24 hours of CO2 in the atmosphere – a dramatic correlation.”

Solar power could supply 600 TW of world energy needs, says Tuller, but the question is how fast scientists, industry and government can develop and implement it. Energy from biomass could supply 102 TW; hydroelectric 9 TW; geothermal 11.6 TW; and wind 2-3 TW.

It is therefore necessary, said Tuller to think in both short and long term. In the short term, to do the science to make the use of fossil fuels cleaner and more efficient, and to invest in processes such as thermoelectrics to capture wasted heat. In the long term, says Tuller, solar photovoltaics and hydrogen could give a tremendous alternative energy source.

According to the state-of-the-art right now, about 750,000 km2 (about the size of the state of Arizona) is the land mass needed to satisfy the energy needs of the US through solar power. To give perspective, this is about the same area presently used by highways, says Tuller. Thus at centers of research such as Tuller’s lab at MIT and Rothschild’s lab at the Technion, research is being done to meet the grand energy challenge through improved electroceramic materials for fuels cells and solar energy conversion.

Should Israel relax about the energy crisis, blessed as it is with its new found reserves of natural gas off its Mediterranean coast? “Gas may solve the strategic part of the problem for now,” says Tuller: “It is clean compared to coal or petroleum and is good for everything.” But in the long-term there is no option but to invest in the science to increase efficiency, transport and maximize the methods to harness the power of the sun

For a country this size, Israel has a large visibility in technology and innovation, says Tuller. “There is a high density of highly educated, very clever people. Technion – like MIT – plays a pivotal role as a meeting place for ideas in science and engineering. Other places can lack the insight as to how knowledge can be used and applied. Visible programs like The Grand Technion Energy Program are very useful to create new generations of people who are sensitive to core problem and focused on the challenge.

Tuller, who today has co-authored 40 books and published over 300 papers, spent his post-doc years at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology at the Faculty of Physics. “It was a changing experience,” he says. “There were a lot of possibilities to interact with different groups across the physics department and it broadened my perspective tremendously and extended my vision of things. It is a pleasure to come back home: a great honor.”