Michael Gostein (Atonometrics, Inc.)

"Power Shift: Adapting the Grid for a Renewable Future"

Abstract: When I talked about the solar energy industry 5-10 years ago, I used to say that, someday, solar power would be a significant part of our energy economy. That day has already arrived. For example, in the first two weeks of March 2024, solar contributed about 25% of electricity needs in Texas during peak sun hours. And over 50% of new electric generation capacity in the US each year is now solar power. The overall contribution of solar to US electricity production is about 3-4% and is growing rapidly. However, that ongoing rapid growth will bring a new challenge: balancing electricity supply and demand. This is because solar energy is intermittent, since it depends directly on changing weather conditions. In this talk I will give an introduction to the solar photovoltaics industry and how the industry and the grid are both adapting for the renewable future. I’ll also talk a little about the sensors my company makes for monitoring performance of solar photovoltaics installations and share my thoughts about career issues for young technologists.

Bio: Michael Gostein, Ph.D., is the Chief Technology Officer of Atonometrics, a small Austin-based company providing innovative sensors to the worldwide solar photovoltaics industry. Michael got his bachelor’s degree in physics at M.I.T. and his Ph.D. in physics right here at U.T. Austin, finishing in 1997. He has great memories of his graduate school days working for Prof. Greg Sitz doing laser spectroscopy and surface science experiments and learning to build equipment and do science. After graduate school and a brief postdoc, he worked in the semiconductor industry developing spectroscopic tools for thin film measurement, and in 2007 he cofounded Atonometrics to focus on test and measurement for the then-emerging solar energy industry.