Brookhaven National Laboratory is issuing the following news release
today.

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Talk on 'Solar Grand Plan' to be Held at Brookhaven Lab, April 21

UPTON, NY - Vasilis Fthenakis, head of the National Photovoltaic
Environmental Research Center at the U.S. Department of Energy's
Brookhaven National Laboratory, will give a talk titled "Solar Grand
Plan" at the Laboratory's Berkner Hall on Monday, April 21, at noon.
Part of an Earth Day celebration, the talk is free and open to the
public. Visitors to the Laboratory age 16 and older must bring a photo
ID.

Fthenakis coauthored the cover story of the January 2008 issue of
Scientific American, proposing an ambitious plan to free the U.S. from
dependence on fossil fuels through a massive switch to solar power. In
the article, Fthenakis, along with coauthors Ken Zweibel of PrimeStar
Solar and James Mason of the Hydrogen Research Institute, notes that,
by 2050, solar energy could supply 69 percent of the nation's
electricity and 35 percent of its total energy needs.

In their plan, the three solar energy experts propose covering
thousands of square miles of the southwestern U.S. with photovoltaic
arrays to convert sunlight into electricity and to distribute this
solar cell-produced electricity across the nation. This "Solar Grand
Plan" would put an end to foreign-oil dependence, reduce the trade
deficit, cut air pollution, and slow global climate change.

In his Brookhaven lecture, Fthenakis will discuss the benefits of
solar power as well as the difficulties of getting the "Solar Grand
Plan" implemented, including its cost. For the plan to become a
reality, the U.S. government would have to invest $420 billion in
price supports over the next 40 years.

A senior scientist at Brookhaven, Fthenakis earned his bachelor's
degree in chemistry from the University of Athens, a master's degree
in chemical engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in fluid
dynamics and atmospheric science from New York University. Fthenakis
joined Brookhaven as a research engineer in 1980 and has served as
head of the National Photovoltaic Environmental Research Center since
2002.

Fthenakis has participated in energy expert panels for the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers, the U.S. Department of Energy, the
European Photovoltaic Industry Association, the California Energy
Commission and the New York Academy of Sciences. He has also served as
a safety and environmental consultant for major oil and chemical
companies in the U.S. and as an expert on investigating major chemical
incidents in the U.S.

While maintaining his position at Brookhaven, Fthenakis, in 2006,
established and became the Director of the Center for Life Cycle
Analysis at Columbia University. Fthenakis's publications include
coauthoring the book Prevention and Control of Accidental Releases of
Gases and over 200 scientific papers and reports. He is a Fellow of
both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the
International Energy Foundation.

For more information about the lecture, call 631 344-2345. The
Laboratory is located on William Floyd Parkway (County Road 46), one
and a half miles north of Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway.

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the
Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven
National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and
environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national
security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific
facilities available to university, industry and government
researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of
Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company
founded by the Research Foundation of State University of New York on
behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of
Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and
technology organization. Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom
for links, news archives, graphics, and mo http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom
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