WCG Clean Energy Project is Live -- crunch for energy research

[skids]

The mission of the Clean Energy Project is to find new materials for the next generation of solar cells and later, energy storage devices. By harnessing the immense power of World Community Grid, researchers can calculate the electronic properties of tens of thousands of organic materials – many more than could ever be tested in a lab – and determine which candidates are most promising for developing affordable solar energy technology.

...

The Clean Energy project uses computational chemistry and the willingness of people to help look for the best molecules possible for: organic photovoltaics to provide inexpensive solar cells, polymers for the membranes used in fuel cells for electricity generation, and how best to assemble the molecules to make those devices. By helping us search combinatorially among thousands of potential systems, World Community Grid volunteers are contributing to this effort.

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/projects_showcase/cep1/viewCep1Main.do

When I first heard about this I joined my space heaters -- I mean my BOINC clients, some old salvaged PIII servers that sit under my living room chairs and blow hot air on people's feet -- but the project wasn't active yet. And then it was active but they didn't have a Linux client. This week I was delighted to find work units in my queue!

So now my space heaters are applying themselves to making better solar cells and batteries. Booyah.

If you have a computer that is well situated for space heating applications (they only put out a couple hundred watts so unless you have a lot of them like me you can't really heat a whole room, just spot heat yourself) -- the client can be downloaded and installed pretty quickly. There's a bit of stuff to do signing it up for the World Community Grid and if you don't also want to do stuff like cancer and protein research, you'll have to set your preferences to only work on the CEP.

Also there's no DU team on the WCG, but there is a Dailykos team, so be sure to join it.