• Energy Research
• 2017 close
• 2022 close

Innovations in solar energy conversion are required to meet humanity’s growing energy demand, while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. All solar energy conversion devices harvest light and then separate photoproducts, minimising recombination. Normally charge separation takes place at the surface of nanostructured electrodes, often covered with photosensitiser molecules such as in dye-sensitised solar cells; DSSCs. However, the use solid state architectures made from inorganic materials leads to high processing costs, occasionally the use of toxic materials and an inability to generate a large and significant source of energy due to manufacturing limitations. An alternative is to effect charge separation at electrically polarised soft (immiscible water-oil) interfaces capable of driving charge transfer reactions and easily “dye-sensitised”. Photoproducts can be separated on either side of the soft interface based on their hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, minimising recombination. SOFT-PHOTOCONVERSION will explore if photoconversion efficiencies at soft interfaces can be improved to become competitive with current photoelectrochemical systems, such as DSSCs. To achieve this goal innovative soft interface functionalisation strategies will be designed. To implement these strategies an integrated platform technology consisting of (photo)electrochemical, spectroscopic, microscopic and surface tension measurement techniques will be developed. This multi-disciplinary approach will allow precise monitoring of morphological changes in photoactive films that enhance activity in terms of optimal kinetics of photoinduced charge transfer. An unprecedented level of electrochemical control over photosensitiser assembly at soft interfaces will be attained, generating photoactive films with unique photophysical properties. Fundamental insights gained may potentially facilitate the emergence of new class of solar conversion devices non-reliant on solid state architectures.

EnergyMatching aims at developing adaptive and adaptable envelope and building solutions for maximizing RES (Renewable Energy Sources) harvesting: versatile click&go substructure for different cladding systems (R3), solar window package (R4), modular appealing BIPV envelope solutions (R5), RES harvesting package to heat and ventilate (R6). Such solutions are integrated into energy efficient building concepts for self-consumers connected in a local area energy network (energyLAN). The energyLAN is designed to fullfil comprehensive economic rationales (organised by geo-cluster), including balancing cost and performance targets, through the energy harvesting business enhancer platform (R1), which handles different stakeholders benefits, risks and overall cash flows, and it will be exploited to develop specific business models. Operational strategies of the energyLAN are driven by the building and districrt energy harvesting management system (R7). EnergyMatching focuses on residential buildings to open up the highest potential in terms of NZEB target and optimisation of building integrated RES in the 4 seasons. EnergyMatching buildings are active elements of the energy network and as energy partners they consume, produce, store and supply energy and as self-consumers they transform the EU energy market from centralised, fossil-fuel based national systems to a decentralised, renewable, interconnected and adaptive system. EnergyMatching optimisation tool (R2) enables the best matching between local RES-based energy production and building load profiles, and simplifies the energy demand management for the energy distributors. EnergyMatching addresses positive public perception of RES integration, by developing active envelope solution with high aesthetical value and flexibility to cope with different architectural concepts. The proposed solar active skin technologies are easily connectable at mechanical (R3), building energy system (R4-R6) and energy network level (R7).

There is enough waste energy produced in the EU to heat the EU’s entire building stock; however despite of this huge potential, only a restricted number of small scale examples of urban waste heat recovery are present across the EU. The objective of REUSEHEAT is to demonstrate, at TRL8 first of their kind advanced, modular and replicable systems enabling the recovery and reuse of waste heat available at the urban level. REUSEHEAT explicitly builds on previous knowledge and EU funded projects (notably CELSIUS, Stratego and HRE4) and intends to overcome both technical and non technical barriers towards the unlocking of urban waste heat recovery investments across Europe. Four large scale demonstrators will be deployed, monitored and evaluated during the project, showing the technical feasibility and economic viability of waste heat recovery and reuse from data centres (Brunswick), sewage collectors (Nice), cooling system of a hospital (Madrid) and underground station (Berlin). The knowledge generated from the demonstrators and from other examples across the EU will be consolidated into a handbook which will provide future investors with new insight in terms of urban waste heat recovery potential across the EU. Innovative and efficient technologies and solutions, suitable business models and contractual arrangements, estimation of investment risk, bankability and impact of urban waste heat recovery investments, authorization procedures are examples of handbook content. The handbook will be promoted through a powerful dissemination and training strategy in order to encourage a rapid and widespread replication of the demonstrated solutions across the EU.

In 2015, the Indian Prime Minister launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA), a global initiative with headquarters in India. Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems, which are the focus of this study, are particularly suited for distributed generation: their modularity and scalability make them easy to configure so as to meet most power and space requirements; as a result, they can be installed in close proximity to the point of consumption. Typically owned by natural persons or cooperatives of people, distributed PV solar energy systems stage the rise of energy 'prosumers'. The technological arrangements of the PV materiality thus 'afford' to construe the transition from carbon to low-carbon modernity in ethical terms: through distributed solar energy, vulnerable rural and remote communities come to shoulder the - politically difficult to place - blame for anthropogenic climate change; expiating this blame requires a model of ethical self-formation based on the acknowledgement of local, distributed agency. As it comes to be accepted as a universally desirable ideal - distributed solar energy for rural electrification acquires the quality of 'public good'. Understanding the deployment of distributed solar energy in these terms is important: this study does not want to be an account of eroded state sovereignty in a (neo)-liberalising world; instead, it aims to illuminate how previous aspirations overlap, potentially colliding, with the ethical project of realising a new public good, resting on new frameworks of statecraft and the economy. Purpose, research questions and relevance Political in nature, the research will be conducted at the 'social interface' between the initiators of a global pro-solar discourse, and the local actors in different positions of power to negotiate the translation of this discourse into reality. It addresses two main sets of question: (1) What does a modernity achieved through distributed solar energy look like in the experiences of local actors with a stake in policy-making and of rural and remote communities? What frameworks of statecraft and the economy characterise it? (2) How do these experiences, and the frameworks of statecraft and the economy that characterise them, interact with those prescribed by the dominant narrative of a solar modernity? What subjectivities are produced by this interaction? The proposed research intends to explore these timely concerns and contribute to a growing area of inquiry by placing the anthropology of energy in dialogue with the anthropology of development, the state and the economy. Context and methodology The study consists of ethnographic research of the making of solar energy policies in India and West Bengal, and Sagar Island. It focuses on two main informant groups: the actors with a stake in local policy-making, members of lobby associations and advocacy groups for solar energy, private consultants in the solar energy sector, representatives of state agencies in the context of India's international cooperation on energy, and in particular GIZ; on the other side, the Bengali-speaking residents of one village on the Sagar Island who generate electricity through community-owned PV solar energy systems. The first group of informants will be engaged through in-depth interviews; attendance of conferences, meetings, consultations and discussions; textual analysis of reports, policy papers, official statements and case studies. In order to capture the 'temporality' factor, the project will also involve life-history interviews and archival research. Research at the grassroots level of fieldwork focuses on memories of life on the island before the deployment of solar and hopes attached to rural electrification; perceived livelihood improvement through the use of solar compared to other energy sources; perceptions of the environment and climate change etc

This proposal will develop new transparent p-type semiconductors that will make dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) a vastly more efficient and a realistic prospect for carbon-free energy generation worldwide. Two key challenges will be addressed: (1) a means of converting NIR radiation to increase the amount of sunlight utilised from 35% to over 70%; (2) a means of storing the energy. Almost all the research in the field is based on dye or “perovskite” sensitized TiO2 (n-type) solar cells, which are limited by their poor spectral response in the red-NIR. pTYPE approaches the problem differently: tandem DSCs will be developed which combine a n-type and a p-type DSC in a single p/n device. This increases the theoretical efficiency from 33% to 43% by extending the spectral response without sacrificing the voltage. The device will be modified with catalysts to convert H2O or CO2 and sunlight into fuel without using sacrificial reagents that limit the efficiency of current systems. An efficient tandem DSC has not yet been developed because p-type DSCs are much less efficient than n-type cells. As an independent Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellow I increased the photocurrent by developing new dyes. This project will exploit this breakthrough by increasing the voltage, which is currently limited by the NiO semiconductor conventionally used. I will rapidly synthesise libraries of alternative p-type semiconductors; select promising candidates based on key criteria which can be measured on a single sample within minutes: transparency and dye adsorption (for high light harvesting efficiency by the dye), conductivity (for high charge collection efficiency) and valence band potential (for high voltage); assemble the new materials in tandem DSCs. As one of the few researchers experienced in preparing, characterising and optimising each aspect of this photoelectrochemical system, I aim to match the efficiency from TiO2 with p-type DSCs to obtain tandem efficiencies above 20%.

The global capacity for energy generation by wind and solar technologies is currently around 650GW. This capacity is projected to double by 2020 making renewables a major component of the global energy landscape. Many renewable energy sources are particularly vulnerable to variations in weather and climate, such as generation by wind and solar technologies. There is therefore a need for accurate and reliable weather and climate information across a range of timescales from hours to years, so that energy companies can be better informed in their planning and decision-making. This includes their ability to account for the effects of weather and climate on energy supply/demand and on scheduling equipment maintenance. However, the current uptake of operational seasonal predictions by energy suppliers is generally low because of a perceived lack of skill and difficulty in interpreting forecast information, which both limit their usefulness. While the ability to predict the weather up to a week ahead has improved steadily over the past few decades, predicting conditions for the forthcoming season has remained a major scientific challenge. However, there have been recent significant advances in predicting some of the major drivers of seasonal weather and climate variability in North America and Europe, such as the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). These advances in predictive skill have the potential to be translated into provision of more useful information for end-users in the renewable energy sector. This PhD project will investigate how recent advances in seasonal prediction can be exploited to provide actionable information (e.g. on wind intensities) to end-users in the renewable energy sector. This will be achieved through strong engagement with CASE partner WEMC throughout the project. The focus will be on energy generation in North America and Europe, since these are regions where there have been advances in prediction capability and where there is substantial wind and solar energy capacity.