• Energy Research
• OA Publications Mandate: No close

1st year is the PG Diploma and research and Industry preparation Years 2-4 are a PhD at one of the CDT universities

Although renewable energy has always been a priority in UK, the incentives cuts for solar have slowed down new investments. There is a need for more efficient technologies to make the PV market more self-sustainable and preserve the thousands related jobs. Bifacial solar panels (BFPV) is one such technology: light can enter from both sides, thus generating more electricity. Unfortunately, there are issues limiting the wide adoption of the new, more efficient technology, the main one being the uncertainty in the forecast of energy output of BFPV. High uncertainty increases the risk for investors, limiting the proliferation of BFPV. The project builds on the cooperation between RINA and the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) developed during our A4I Round 3 Feasibility Study and aims to develop an innovative method to perform yield studies, with reduced uncertainty on the output of BFPV systems. The project focuses on a key problem in assessing the energy output of BFPV plant: the accurate evaluation of bifacial gain. In our Round 3 work, NPL introduced "effective" albedo (light reflected from the ground) as an input to RINA's energy output assessment method, which incorporates the varying light spectrum of the reflected light as well as the spectral response of solar panels into the analysis. The impact of this method on significantly reducing uncertainty on BFPV energy output estimations was demonstrated, and the energy estimates themselves rose for example sites. They key objectives of the current Round 5 project are: Develop the Round 3 methodologies to be applicable globally; Specify the hardware and procedural requirements for on-site albedo monitoring including uncertainty analysis. Incorporate uncertainties due to additional PV module factors into the bifacial gain estimation. Develop typical effective albedo datasets as a guide when site-specific data are unavailable. Feed into the working group for the improvement of the IEC 616724-1 standard. Determine the impact on financial risk by using different measurement and data analysis methods within BFPV energy forecasts. Benefits from the project will affect the whole value chain of energy, from generation to consumption. More reliable and better-understood measurements and data validation reduce the technical and financial risks of investors, consequently boosting BFPV investments. As a result, more power generated and higher efficiency guaranteed by the BFPV technology will favour a decrease in electricity price for consumers. This will also contribute towards reducing CO2 emissions and the UK's environmental impact.

More and more wind turbines are reaching the end of their designed service life. Due to economic factors, it is in the operator's interest to keep their wind turbines operating beyond their designed service life, as long as the safe operational requirements are met. This process is known as lifetime extension. Whilst relatively well-established practices exist for the lifetime extension of the structural members, the electro-mechanical and drivetrain are often overlooked. Therefore, this PhD will look at developing a methodology, analysis tools and the framework for the lifetime extension of the wind turbine drivetrains.

The latest report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 'Global warming of 1.5C' emphasises the need for 'rapid and far-reaching' actions now to curb carbon emission to limit global warming and climate change impact. Decarbonising heating is one of the actions which is going to play a key role in reducing carbon emission. The Committee on Climate Change states that insufficient progress has been made towards the low carbon heating homes target that requires immediate attention to meet our carbon budget. It is well known fact that the ground is warmer compared to air in winter and cooler in summer. Therefore our ancestors build caves and homes underground to protect them against extreme cold/hot weather. Geothermal energy pile (GEEP) basically consists of a pile foundation, heat exchanging loops and a heat pump. Heat exchanging loops are usually made of high density polyethylene pipes and carry heat exchanging fluid (water and/or ethylene glycol). Loops are attached to a reinforcement cage and installed into the concrete pile foundations of a building to extract the shallow ground energy via a heat pump to heat the building during winter. The cycle is reversed during summer when heat is collected from the building and stored in the ground. GEEP can play an important role in decarbonising heating as it utilises the sustainable ground energy available under our feet. High initial cost remains the main challenge in deploying heat pump technology. In the case of GEEP, the initial cost can be reduced, if the heat capacity of the concrete is improved and loop length can thus be decreased. This can be achieved by incorporating phase change material (PCM) in the concrete. PCM has a peculiar characteristic that it absorbs or releases large amount of energy during phase change (solid to liquid or liquid to solid). This project aims to develop an innovative solution by combining two technologies GEEP and PCM to obtain more heat energy per unit loop length which would reduce the cost of GEEP significantly. PCM has never been used with GEEP in the past, therefore obvious research questions that come to the mind are (1) how to inject PCM in concrete (2) what would be the effect of PCM on concrete strength and workability (3) how PCM would affect load capacity of GEEP as primary objective of the GEEP is to support structure (4) how much heat energy would be available (5) what would happen to the ground temperature surrounding GEEP (6) how much it would cost (7) whether it would reduce carbon footprint of concrete. We aim to answer all the above research questions by employing sustainable and environmental friendly PCM and impregnate it in light weight aggregates (LWAs) made with waste material (e.g. fly ash, slag, glass). There are three advantages of using LWAs made from waste: first LWAs will replace natural aggregate in concrete as natural aggregates are carbon intense, second LWAs are porous and light so they can absorb large amount of PCM and reduce the weight of concrete, third reuse the waste. Laboratory scale concrete GEEP will be made with PCM impregnated LWAs and tested under heating and cooling load to investigate thermal (heat transfer) and mechanical (load capacity) performance. Extensive experimental and numerical study will be carried out to design and develop novel PCM incorporated GEEP which can provide renewable ground energy for heating and cooling.