COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NENE), a developer of next-generation alternative and renewable energy technologies, today announced that it bolstered the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board with the appointment of Dr. Z. Valy Vardeny, one of the world’s foremost experimental physicists, and Dr. Xiaomei Jiang, Lead Researcher of New Energy’s SolarWindow™ technology, capable of generating electricity on see-thru glass.
Today’s announcement follows last week’s debut of New Energy’s largest-ever SolarWindow™ of its kind. Working under the auspices of Dr. Xiaomei Jiang, New Energy successfully developed a one-foot by one-foot (144 square inches) first-generation working prototype of the Company’s SolarWindow™.
New Energy’s latest, large-area prototype is 300% larger in its axis dimension and 900% larger in surface area as compared to its four-inch by four-inch predecessor, unveiled in September 2010.
The prospect of generating electricity on glass windows is made possible through the use of special compounds which help conduct electricity on SolarWindow™, yet remain see-thru. In contrast, conventional materials for conducting electricity make use of metals which can block visibility and inhibit transparency.
Electricity is generated on SolarWindow™ by spraying see-thru, electricity-generating coatings onto glass surfaces. These compounds and coatings make use of organic chemicals classified as polymers and fullerenes – Dr. Vardeny’s specific area of expertise.
Dr. Z. Valy Vardeny: Award-Winning Professor of Physics
Dr. Vardeny’s research interests include technologies particularly important to helping improve efficiency, electrical power output, and the performance and design of the solar arrays used in New Energy’s SolarWindow™.
Specifically, his focus on optical, electrical and magnetic properties of organic semiconductors addresses the movement of electrons, as occurs in SolarWindow™. This ‘flow’ of electrons (negatively charged particles) is fundamental to generating electric ‘current’, necessary for powering appliances and fixtures.
The performance of SolarWindow™ is also reliant upon the behavior and structure of compounds which help promote the transportation of electrons, necessary for generating electricity. These compounds, called fullerenes, organic semiconductors, and nanotubes, are also areas of specific research study for Dr. Vardeny.
Dr. Z. Valy Vardeny is one of the world’s foremost experimental physicists, and is routinely invited to speak at important scientific conferences all over the world, including the Nobel Symposium on "Conducting Polymers" as well as the symposium for the 2000 Nobel Prize Award in Chemistry.
A prolific author, he is credited with publication of 490 peer-reviewed papers in some of the most prestigious publications in the world, including the Physical Review Letters, considered by many to be the most prominent journal in physics, in which his writing has appeared 50 times. He also served as Regional Editor of the Physical Review, a respected American science journal.
Dr. Vardeny currently serves as a Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Utah; a fellow of the American Physical Society (1996); is Editor of both Nature Communication, and Journal of Synthetic Metals; and is consultant to major corporations. He also holds a dozen provisional and issued patents.
Dr. Z. Valy Vardeny earned his B.S. and PhD in Physics from the Technion, Haifa, Israel. He received the Yigal Alon National Award in 1982; the University of Utah Research award in 1996; the Willard Award of Art and Science in 1997; the Lady Davis Professorship at the Technion in 2000, in 2005 and again in 2009; the Utah Governor’s Medal of Science and Technology in 2005; the 2008 Frank Isakson APS Prize for Optical Effects in Solids; and the Rosenblatt Award for Excellence at the University of Utah, the university’s highest honor.
Dr. Xiaomei Jiang, SolarWindow™ Lead Researcher
Dr. Xiaomei Jiang currently serves as Lead Researcher in the ongoing development of New Energy’s SolarWindow™ technology, and is credited with several important technical breakthroughs for achieving transparency on glass while generating electricity.
Under her auspices, researchers developing the Company’s SolarWindow™ technology have surpassed numerous technical milestones, which include the ability to ‘spray’ New Energy’s electricity-generating coating onto glass surfaces at room temperature, unlike conventional solar manufacturing which may require expensive and cumbersome pressure-sensitive and temperature-specific environments.
Earlier this year, Dr. Jiang’s team developed new compounds for use in SolarWindow™. Researchers anticipate that successful integration of these compounds could improve efficiency, lower production costs and enhance future commercial manufacturability of SolarWindow™ -- all important to the eventual commercial deployment of SolarWindow™. Equally important to commercialization is the ability to scale-up SolarWindow™.
Dr. Jiang successfully led the early scale-up of SolarWindow™ from only one-quarter the size of a grain of rice to a working prototype of one-inch square. She subsequently oversaw scale-up to a four-inch square working prototype, debuted in September 2010 to national media, scientists, and commercial attendees.
Last week, under Dr. Xiaomei Jiang’s leadership, scientists successfully prototyped the Company’s first-ever one-foot by one-foot SolarWindow™, an important milestone in the development of a large-scale commercial product.
Dr. Xiaomei Jiang currently is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of South Florida. Dr. Jiang received her B.S. from Sichuan University in southwest China in 1987, and M.S. in theoretical condensed matters physics from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science in 1990. In 2004, Dr. Jiang received her Ph.D in experimental condensed matters physics from the University of Utah. Dr. Jiang completed two years of postdoctoral work from 2004 to 2006 at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has served as Assistant Professor at Physics Department of University of South Florida since August 2006.
About New Energy Technologies, Inc.
New Energy Technologies, Inc., together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a developer of next generation alternative and renewable energy technologies. Among the Company’s technologies under development are:
- MotionPower™ roadway systems for generating electricity by capturing the kinetic energy produced by moving vehicles – a patent-pending technology, the subject of nine patent applications in the United States and two international patent filings. An estimated 250 million registered vehicles drive more than six billion miles on America’s roadways, every day; and
- SolarWindow™ technologies which enable see-thru windows to generate electricity by ‘spraying’ their glass surfaces with New Energy’s electricity-generating coatings. These solar coatings are less than 1/10th the thickness of ‘thin’ films and make use of the world’s smallest functional solar cells, shown to successfully produce electricity in a published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the American Institute of Physics.
Through established relationships with universities, research institutions, and commercial partners, we strive to identify technologies and business opportunities on the leading edge of renewable energy innovation. Unique to our business model is the use of established research infrastructure owned by the various institutions we deal with, saving us significant capital which would otherwise be required for such costs as land and building acquisition, equipment and capital equipment purchases, and other start up expenses. As a result, we are able to benefit from leading edge research while employing significantly less capital than conventional organizations.
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