Energy researchers get stimulus cash

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are among 46 newly established Energy Frontier Research Centers across the nation being partially funded by federal stimulus dollars. Three groups of Massachusetts researchers - two at MIT and one at UMass-Amherst - will receive between $30 million and $75 million in total over the next five years as part of an effort to spur scientific breakthroughs, federal officials said. At MIT, researchers will study how to better harvest energy from the sun and other heat sources, as well as how to convert solar energy to electricity that can be stored. UMass researchers will study using polymer materials to convert sunlight to electricity.