When Samantha (Sam) Reese moved from snowy Montana to bikini-clad Los Angeles, California, her classmates on the California Institute of Expertise had one large query about her rural upbringing.

“Did you experience a horse to highschool?” they requested—greater than as soon as.

“No,” Reese would reply. “Did you?”

Photograph from Sam Reese, NREL; graphic by Tara Smith, NREL.

Reese grew up close to Montana’s Glacier Nationwide Park. At the moment, the blue-collar city was busy with timber and aluminum. (Right now, it’s a ritzy romp for ski bums, akin to Colorado’s Aspen or Vail.) Reese didn’t experience a horse to highschool—nor did she did develop up within the 1800s—however she did pace round on a snowmobile any probability she acquired.

“They’re the largest lemon machines ever,” Reese mentioned. “They break incessantly. And you might solely experience it if you happen to may repair it.” So, she fastened it, together with the rest that broke.

However when Reese grew up and left residence, she left that fix-it world and located one obsessive about alternative. Because the nation’s economic system took off and costs dropped, most individuals selected to throw damaged issues away and purchase new ones. However over time, that fast repair—which comes with quick and soiled manufacturing and swelling landfills—began to fracture the planet.

“Now, we’re like, ‘Let’s save the Earth,’ and we’re going again to repair it,” Reese mentioned.

Fixing issues—like snowmobiles but in addition extra amorphous beasts, resembling manufacturing processes and world provide chains—occurs to be Reese’s specialty. As a senior engineer and analyst on the U.S. Division of Vitality’s Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory (NREL), she places clear power in context, analyzing, for instance, tips on how to manufacture photo voltaic panels with out emitting an excessive amount of carbon, whether or not coal-dependent communities may make photo voltaic panels as an alternative, and the way a lot power our web superhighway may gobble up as we amass extra knowledge and display time.

“Typically what we take a look at is unexciting,” Reese mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s actually necessary to have the analytics.”

In NREL’s newest Manufacturing Masterminds Q&A, Reese shares why Los Angeles was an even bigger tradition shock than Southeast Asia, how she is making certain clear power applied sciences are as clear as doable, and why she is sharing her “fix-it” mindset together with her youngsters.

If you began faculty on the California Institute of Expertise, what was it like shifting from rural Montana to Los Angeles?

In some methods, I had extra of a tradition shock than among the worldwide college students that come from metropolitan areas. I used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that is insane. Individuals put on bikinis in December.’ Northwest Montana will be snowy from July to June.

After faculty, the place did you go subsequent?

I needed to determine between graduate faculty and a job. I acquired a job as a result of—I’m going to be sincere—Ph.D.s didn’t pay then what they pay now, and I used to be actually bored with being poor. So, I acquired a job working for a telecom firm within the Bay Space. I used to be a product engineer, so I labored with engineers to transition merchandise from analysis and growth to manufacturing at our services in Malaysia and Thailand.

Sam Reese (entrance, middle) grew up in a small, blue-collar city in Montana. Later, she ended up touring all around the world for her work, and but, the largest tradition shock she skilled was in Los Angeles. Photograph from Sam Reese, NREL.

Wow! If Los Angeles was a tradition shock, what was Southeast Asia like?

For me, there was such a stark distinction from Montana to Los Angeles. Los Angeles was primarily overseas to me; it was a really arduous transition. For those who’re a global pupil, there are constructions in place that can assist you with the tradition transition. I believe we typically take without any consideration how numerous america will be. Transitioning from Los Angeles to Southeast Asia was not as surprising.

So, you traveled throughout Asia, however you ended up going again to highschool for a graduate diploma, proper?

After a yr or two, it grew to become obvious that I used to be going to be restricted if I didn’t get a complicated diploma, and I knew the longer I waited the more durable it could be to return. I went to Yale College for my grasp’s and acquired a job at a metrology firm. I spent loads of time in Japan and Korea and labored my manner towards a grasp’s.

How did you find yourself at NREL, then?

When my now-husband completed his Ph.D., he wished to return to NREL, so we moved to Colorado, and I acquired a job working for a knowledge storage firm. I used to be the fix-it engineer. When one thing broke, I’d exit within the area and repair it. I acquired to journey all around the world there. Nevertheless it was not an excellent job to have with youngsters. Handing over the infant to the husband and being like, “I’m gone for the subsequent week,” was not workable and made him very unhappy.

However the timing was excellent as a result of NREL had simply been awarded the Clear Vitality Manufacturing Evaluation Heart, a digital middle centered on bottom-up price modeling and clear power manufacturing. They have been in search of individuals from trade, so I utilized, and right here I’m.

And you’ve got been right here eight years! What have you ever been as much as?

I work on a broad spectrum of expertise, from combustion engines to semiconductors. Most of my funding comes from what I now affectionately name “the artist previously referred to as AMO” as a result of the U.S. Division of Vitality’s Superior Manufacturing Workplace break up into the Industrial Effectivity & Decarbonization Workplace and Superior Supplies & Manufacturing Applied sciences Workplace.

There’s one challenge I’m particularly enthusiastic about the place we seemed on the embodied carbon (the entire quantity of carbon dioxide emitted by means of manufacturing) of two sorts of photo voltaic panels: silicon and cadmium telluride. We discovered that manufacturing cadmium telluride modules emits about half as a lot carbon as silicon modules. And if you happen to manufacture modules in a natural-gas-rich grid, that’s two instances much less embodied carbon than a coal-rich grid.

Wow. That could be a large distinction.

However we took it a step additional and put this when it comes to the carbon price range, the entire remaining carbon that we will generate to keep away from going 2 extra levels Celsius in warming. To satisfy our decarbonization objectives, specialists consider we have to deploy 75 terawatts of photo voltaic panels by 2050. If we have been to make these 75 terawatts utilizing a coal-rich grid and silicon expertise, we might eat 17% of our remaining carbon price range. Now, that’s to not say we shouldn’t do silicon. It exhibits that decarbonizing our manufacturing grid is essential and additional analysis may assist us decrease the embodied carbon of photo voltaic panels. Inexperienced expertise is superb and superior, however you additionally must decarbonize it.

Now, at NREL, Sam Reese (in entrance, third from the proper) is working to repair carbon (pun supposed). When requested which fictional character she can be, Reese mentioned, “Scotty from Star Trek. He simply fixes it.” Photograph from Sam Reese, NREL.

It appears like you might be centered extra on the sensible facet of unpolluted power tech.

Sure, I’m 100% sensible. NREL has been shifting an increasing number of towards sensible deployment, which presents challenges once we attempt to publish. It’s nearly too sensible for lots of journals.

You’ll suppose the sensible facet, taking a look at tips on how to make our objectives occur, can be a core a part of this work.

Proper. The U.S. Division of Vitality’s manufacturing workplaces have all the time operated on this bizarre area the place they’re neither pure analysis nor pure deployment. They’re making an attempt to bridge that hole.

Are you able to share a number of extra examples of this gap-bridging form of work?

We just lately discovered that tumbler, a giant a part of photo voltaic panels, is a large piece of our carbon footprint. We’re wanting on the web superhighway—not knowledge facilities or private units, as a result of these are very well-understood, however how a lot power do you want for the freeway between the 2? There’s work on the supply-chain world of stuff, like microchips; we really feel like individuals are overlooking resistors, which price about four-thousandths of a penny. However and not using a resistor, a $200 microchip doesn’t work. And we’re making an attempt to construct an electrical airplane engine. How cool is that? Are you able to think about all-electric, silent airplanes?

In america, it looks like many people don’t usually suppose a lot about manufacturing—how they get all their stuff.

We don’t. However about March 2020, my work grew to become extremely popular. When individuals go to the grocery retailer to get their cereal or eggs and so they’re not accessible, they begin to consider provide chains much more.

It’s form of a bummer that it takes a serious disaster, like items shortages or local weather change, to get of us to concentrate.

Possibly. Having come from Montana, I believe we typically get caught on making an attempt to be proper versus simply shifting towards a shared objective. For those who ask somebody if they need clear water, clear air, and a vibrant open air, you may get extra buy-in than if you happen to use the time period “local weather change.”

Reese’s husband, seen right here with Reese and their two youngsters, additionally works at NREL, and his picture pops up on posters hung up all around the laboratory. “My youngsters crack me up as a result of they are saying, ‘Daddy’s well-known as a result of his face is on the wall. However Mommy is the one who fixes every little thing,’” Reese mentioned. Photograph from Sam Reese, NREL.