RCEI Affiliate Focus on Dunbar Birnie, Professor & Corning/Saint Gobain/Malcom G. McLaren Chair, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
By Aleen Mirza
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but for RCEI Affiliate Dunbar Birnie, it sparked a decades-long passion for solar energy and innovation. From collecting geodes and shiny rocks as a child to creating one of Rutgers’ first courses on solar energy over 25 years ago, Birnie’s fascination with the physical world and drive to learn has fueled his research and fulfilling career in materials science and engineering.
To date, one of Birnie’s notable projects is his involvement in the Rutgers’ Agrivoltaics Program which brings together an ambitious interdisciplinary team tackling two critical issues: the growing demand for solar power and the preservation of farmland for crop production.
“We’re right at the focal point of land-use conflict,” Birnie explains.
As populations continue to grow, the demand for both energy and food intensifies, posing a pressing dilemma as both sectors compete for limited land. By integrating solar power with agriculture, agrivoltaics provides a solution to tackle the ongoing food crisis and reduce the world’s fossil fuel dependence, all while utilizing the same piece of land. As Birnie puts it, “Agrivoltaics is about figuring out ways to…harmonize installation of solar power while preserving the land use underneath.”
The solar array on Cook Campus is the most recent of the program’s three installations being studied. One array is located at the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center (RAREC) in Upper Deerfield, New Jersey, for staple and specialty crop production. The other array is at Snyder Farm in Pittstown, New Jersey, for hay production. The Cook Campus array features vertical bifacial panels strategically designed to capture sunlight from both sides in the early morning and afternoon, while allowing enough space for beef cattle to graze and farm equipment to pass through.
Birnie and the project’s design team are studying different variables like shading, row spacing, and energy output to determine the optimal balance between solar and agricultural productivity. “It is a big effort,” Birnie emphasizes, “and one that relies on a collaborative team to succeed.”
However, a serious limitation of vertical panels is their reduced efficiency at midday when the sun is directly overhead. To address this, Birnie proposes motorizing the panels to tilt slightly toward the sun throughout the day. He estimates this tweak in design would improve the energy output by 20 to 25%. In looking for ways to bring his innovation to the market, Birnie believes it will be a “promising new kind of technology.” He hopes to build a prototype here at Rutgers to potentially further advance agrivoltaics efforts that can help industry grow in a way that benefits both solar energy and farming.
Birnie notes that the ongoing effort of the Rutgers Agrivoltaics Program will “enable [our team] to make recommendations to farmers about how they should build, install, operate, and maintain farming in between arrays like this one.” Although this is a research project, he also views it as a service to the state and believes people in the United States and globally will look to Rutgers for its expertise and leadership in this space. Birnie speaks with pride about the project, stating, “I’m really proud to be part of that team.”
In and outside of the classroom setting, Birnie is dedicated to guiding the next generation of material scientists and renewable energy innovators as both a professor and mentor. In the constantly evolving field of solar energy, he enjoys sharing new developments with his students, “hoping they’ll go on to contribute to that cutting-edge as they graduate.” Materials science, he emphasizes, thrives on collaboration. “As we’re pushing the envelope to connect or improve things,” he notes, “the industry is always evolving,” thus requiring the cooperation of various people with different backgrounds to come together and advance new ideas.
“I like that I’m working in an area that matters,” he reflects. “All of it really comes [back] to the connection of curiosity. I want to learn more, investigate interesting things, ask questions.” To Birnie, this passion extends beyond his personal journey, as it is about inspiring and supporting others to continue exploring and creating the advancements that will shape the future.
Aleen Mirza is an Office of Climate Action Intern and a member of the Class of 2026, majoring in Environmental Policy, Institutions, and Behavior, within the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.