World Community Grid is pleased to announce that as a result of the generous contribution of computing power from our members, Phase 1 of The Clean Energy Project finished on October 13, 2009.

The project launched on December 5, 2008 and ran for less than a year. During that time over 57,000 members processed almost 2 million results which required over 2,000 years of computing power from over 121,000 computers.

With the completion of this project, our members have significantly contributed to the research of discovering new materials that efficiently harvest solar radiation for the next generation of solar cells. This research information has helped determine which materials are most promising for developing affordable solar energy technology. This same research would have taken 22 years to complete on a regular scientific cluster.

Phase 1 was designed to perform molecular mechanics calculations: Some of the computers contributing to the Clean Energy Project are carrying out molecular mechanics calculations of molecular crystals, thin films and molecular and polymer blends to study the packing arrangements and for predicting charge and excitation energy transport properties of the candidate materials. These calculations will be carried out using the CHARMM molecular mechanics package developed by the Karplus group at Harvard University.

Phase 2 of the project will perform electronic structure calculations: To obtain the relevant optical and electronic transport properties, some of the computers connected to the Clean Energy Project will be computing calculations using wave function methods (such as Hartree-Fock or second-order perturbation theory) and density functional theory. These calculations will help researchers build a database of molecular properties that together with the results of the molecular mechanics calculations will help us identify potential candidate materials. The electronic structure calculations will be performed with the Q-Chem quantum chemistry code, developed by Q-Chem, Inc.

At this time, the researchers are busy performing post-processing on the results from Phase 1 and are preparing for Phase 2. You may read about these plans and get the latest update from The Clean Energy Project Scientists in this forum thread .

On behalf of The Clean Energy Project research staff at Harvard University, USA, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to you for contributing your computer power to this project. With your contribution, this phase of the project was completed in a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken.

While we wait for Phase 2 to start, we still need your help with seven (7) other ongoing projects! World Community Grid continues to run the Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy - Phase 2, Influenza Antiviral Drug Search, Help Fight Childhood Cancer , Nutritious Rice for the World , Help Conquer Cancer , Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2 and FightAIDS@Home . All of these important projects need your computer time.