Leslie Tolbert, Ph.D., University of Arizona VP of Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development offers this week's commentary on

Sunshine. We enjoy more days of sunshine here in southern Arizona than almost any other place on earth. Our beautiful sunny days are part of the reason we are so vulnerable here to climate warming – but they can also be part of the solution to minimizing climate change.

We are in the midst of an energy crisis. The industrialized world is consuming energy at a rate that’s unsustainable. The US has become dependent on foreign oil, with obvious political ramifications – and the emissions we produce as we consume energy are damaging our planet.

We can continue to produce and consume power in the ways of today – or we can be innovative, finding ways to harness energy from renewable sources, and being more efficient in our use of energy. Simply put, we HAVE to choose the latter, innovative course if we are going to sustain human life on this planet.

Scientists and engineers have a mandate to make a difference for us all. We need new methods for every step in the energy pathway – new ways of harnessing energy from a variety of sources, new ways of storing that energy, and efficient ways of distributing it to consumers. There is no way of knowing where the breakthroughs will come, so we need the best minds from a broad variety of backgrounds to be working on this.

Public policy and entrepreneurship will also play critical roles. New ways of producing power offer economic opportunity on a massive scale. We need policies that will encourage investment in renewable energy, and we need investors to jump at the exciting opportunities that will arise.

The University of Arizona is helping to lead the search for solutions at all levels. We have faculty, staff, and students who do jump at opportunities like this, opportunities to make a difference.

Let me mention just a couple of examples of what I mean. For years, our campus builders have used passive and active solar energy methods in designing our buildings. Now we have students building a solar house that uses all sorts of creative innovations to minimize its impact on the environment. Other students have focused on transportation, and developed a solar-powered car.

Students and faculty from across the campus come together under the auspices of several externally funded centers, and the comprehensive umbrella organization, AzRISE – that’s the AZ Research Institute for Solar Energy – to use sun-drenched Arizona as a laboratory for discovery and innovation in solar energy. They work on photovoltaic materials, new batteries for energy storage on every time scale, solar-powered water desalination, solar systems optimization, effective policy tools, and many, many other projects.

Arizona, with its abundant sunshine, is poised to lead in the solar revolution. This week we celebrate the drive and success of the University of Arizona’s solar scientists, engineers, and students of public policy.