Solar energy research
The Solar Energy research group focuses on the development of affordable solar energy technologies and allied devices. We provide solutions to counter energy challenges that can lead us towards a sustainable future.
The key subjects within the group include high efficiency solar energy conversion and storage, concentrating photovoltaics, solar fuels, 3rd generation solar cells and allied devices.
The group is composed of leading and emerging scientists who undertake interdisciplinary research on frontier issues of environment and sustainability along with both national and international partners.
Research areas
The main research areas of this group include:
- Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)
- Thermal comfort
- Life cycle assessment
- Device fabrication
- Photo catalysis
- Energy Modelling
- Photovoltaics
- Concentrated Photovoltaics
- 3rd Generation Solar Cells
- Grid Connected PV
- Energy Storage
Group members
| Academic staff | |
|---|---|
| Professor Tapas Mallick | Research Lead Chair in Clean Technologies |
| Dr Mohammad Abusara | Associate Professor in Control and Power Electronics |
| Dr Aritra Ghosh | Lecturer |
| Dr Xiaohong Li | Professor of Energy Storage and Director of Global Development |
| Dr Asif Tahir | Senior Lecturer in Renewable Energy |
| Dr Xiaoyu Yan | Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environment |
- Kimia Jafari
- Yusuf Chanchangi
- Anurag Roy
- Adeel Arshad
- Shubhranshu Bhandari
- William Cameron
- Ali Alqahtani
- Sasireka Velusamy
- Manal Alruwaili
- Mansour Alhabradi
- Mai Alharbi
- Nouf Alkathran
- Fahad Alsahli
- Fahad Alharbi
- Hessa Alabdan
- Khaled Almalky
- Mustafa Al-Fartoos
- Xiuru Yang
- Mathew Burnell
- Sreeram Valsalakumar
- Abdul-Azeez Yusuf
Facilities
The Solar Energy group has access to specialist facilities including:
- Large area continuous solar simulator
- Solar simulator
- Impedance spectroscopy (IS)
- External quantum efficiency (EQE) / Internal quantum efficiency (IQE)
- Spectrophotometer
- SOPRA ellipsometer
- Gas chromatograph
- Smart grid setup
- Photo/Electro-luminescence set
- Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)
- Sun tracker
- Weather station
- Infrared cameras
- Test rig for Photovoltaic (PV) devices
- Specialist software
Projects
We are working on the fundamental material challenges which hinder cost effective solar fuel production. We are designing new materials with suitable bandgap, bandedge positions, efficient charge separation and transport properties, stable and cost-effective fabrication for spontaneous water splitting and CO2 photoreduction for solar fuel generation.
Our material design strategies involve:
- Computational modelling of energy
- Nanostructure and nanoarchitecture controlled fabrication of energy materials
- Photocatalysts
Contact: Dr Asif Tahir
JUICE is a one of a kind virtual energy centre. The centre takes a collaborative approach to research and is composed of both British and Indian researchers. The project addresses issues within solar energy, storage and networks as these are challenges that both nations face.
This project aims at developing a household system that harvests energy from the sun, producing both electrical and thermal energy for direct use or storage. In addition, the project seeks to drastically reduce the cost of large scale exploitation of solar energy.
RESCUES is an EPSRC funded UK-India project aimed at developing smart grids (SG) with optimum sensible storage solutions for rural communities across UK and India.
This project aims to develop a sustainable and transportable zero emission solar fuel from water splitting. The project is part of the UK India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI).
This project aims to develop novel fenestrations for building integration suitable for UK and Chinese building energy applications.
Solar energy
Contact: Professor Tapas Mallick
Large area continuous solar simulator
The WACOM (Continuous) Solar Simulator is used for evaluation of properties of solar cells and small sized modules. This system irradiates continuous light, which is similar to sunlight in spectral distribution (A.M.1.5) and intensity (1Sun), over a 210 x 210mm area.
Combined with a 5D rotational table, this enables the creation of environmental conditions anywhere on the planet within 10-80 degree latitudes. The computer-controlled simulator automatically adjusts the solar radiation and position of the sun during the day and time of the year, to create conditions related to the given location on the earth.
Solar simulator - Flash
The Flash type Pasan SunSim Solar module tester is one of the first of its kind in the UK. Having a Class A+A+A+ certification, it is two times better than the best class A solar simulators. The equipment is used for testing standard crystalline silicon-based modules, as well as new technologies like the thin-films. It is capable of testing solar modules up to 2m x 2m.
Impedance spectroscopy (IS)
Impedance spectroscopy can be used to:
- distinguish between two or more electrochemical reactions taking place,
- view diffusion through a passive film,
- provide information on the capacitive behaviour of the system,
- and provide information about the electron transfer rate of reaction.
In our solar lab, Metrohm Autolab impedance spectroscopy is used to monitor the corrosion or discharge of fuel cells and investigate the properties and quality of dye-sensitised and perovskite solar cell devices.
External quantum efficiency (EQE) / Internal quantum efficiency (IQE)
EQE and IQE reveal the cell performance for a particular wavelength. The PVE300 system from Bentham enables us to obtain EQE and IQE for solar cells. The PVE300 is fully automated through the USB interface and controlled by the Benwin+ windows software. It directly reports measurement results including spectral response, EQE, IQE and AM1.5 for all types of photovoltaic devices and architectures: c:Si, mc:Si, a:Si, µ:Si, CdTe, CIGS, CIS, CZTS, Ge, dye-sensitised, organic/polymer, multi-junction (2-, 3-, 4– junctions and more), quantum well, quantum dot, chalcogenides and perovskites.
Spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer measures the reflection or transmission properties of a material as a function of wavelength. The LAMBDA 1050 UV/Vis/NIR has potential to measure 175 nm to 3300nm wavelength. It is capable of achieving a greater level of sensitivity, resolution and speed in the NIR (800-2500nm) range, and simplifies the analysis of difficult samples such as high absorbing glass, optical coatings or thin film filters.
SOPRA ellipsometer
Ellipsometry is a method based on measurement of the change of the polarization state of light after reflection at non normal incidence on the surface to study. The system helps in carrying out photometry including Transmission, Reflection, Scatterometry, and luminescence measurements. All measurements are made automatically as a function of: wavelength, angle of incidence, polarization state and time. Standard spectral range is 230-900nm, and can be extended in both DUV and NIR regions.
Gas chromatography
The Clarus 580 Gas Chromatograph is used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of solar fuel and environmental pollutants. The Gas Chromatograph (GC) is a highly responsive piece of equipment, which is able to detect small traces of gas molecules in small volumes injected into the GC column (which is a molecular sieve). The gasses are separated by the column based on retention time due to the size of the gas molecules and then are detected by a detector producing a graph. An inert gas (argon) is used as the mobile phase to pass the sample through the column (a solid stationary phase). We use the GC to detect if any hydrogen is being produced in our water splitting reactions.
Smart grid setup
Grid voltage support during symmetrical and asymmetrical AC faults, and protection and fault isolation during DC faults are significant challenges for converter operations and control in order to deliver a highly reliable, versatile community energy solutions.
We offer real-time micro grids (DC or AC) for simulators, which can implement a host of commands and control algorithms in any DG convertor to replicate the real time loads, and analyses the performance of the micro grid in real time.
Photo/Electro-luminescence set
This set-up utilises the electro-luminescence phenomenon to image micro cracks, cell failures and in-homogeneities of wafers and solar cells which are extremely difficult to detect visually. The equipment was developed for research and off-line solar inspection, therefore detailed quality control is enabled.
Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)
DSC is used for thermal characterisation of materials including polymers. DSC can detect melting temperatures and enthalpies (heats of fusion), crystallization temperatures and enthalpies, glass transition temperatures, oxidative-induction time (OIT) and oxidative onset temperature (OOT), degree of crystallinity, reaction temperatures and enthalpies, cross-linking reactions (curing), degree of curing, specific heat capacity, distribution of molecular weight (peak shape). The process involves sample preparation, evaluation and interpretation of the resulting curves. We offer the DSC 214 Polyma from Netzsch.
Outdoor test facilities
Our outdoor test facilities comprise a sun tracker (SOLYS) to measure direct and diffuse solar radiation, weather station (MetPak Pro) to measure wind speed and humidity, high spec IR (infrared) cameras, calibrated solar cells and sun sensors. A south facing and inclined (local latitude angle) test rig for photovoltaic (PV) devices enables outdoor experiments and measurement of PV power throughout the year.
SOLYS can be configured as a complete solar monitoring station with up to three ventilated radiometers. The MetPak Pro Base Station features an on-board barometric pressure sensor temperature/humidity probe essentially used for weather monitoring. We have Kipp and Zonnen type pyranometers for sun sensor and a dual axis large area (6m by 6m) solar tracker.
Computational faculties
The Solar Energy group has access to various computational modelling software. This includes Computer Aided Design, Finite Element Analysis, Optical ray tracing and basic programming. Special software for carrying out the PV system analysis is also available to model the available solar radiation at any given location and identify the PV power outputs we can achieve through it. These include:
- Optical ray tracing (ASAP, APEX)
- Finite element (COMSOL, ANSYS)
- Cad (Solid Works)
- PV software (PVSYST, TRNSYS)
- Programming (MATLAB)
Solar fuel
Contact: Dr Asif Tahir
What is solar fuel?
Clean energy and sustainable environment are significant challenges that the world is facing. Research into transportable and storable fuels (solar fuel) from renewable resources can make a vital contribution to address these challenges.
Solar fuels such as H2 produced from renewable resources (water and sunlight) and chemicals such as methanol, ethanol, methane and syngas, produced by photoreduction of CO2, can make solar energy highly distributable, from small- to large-scale applications.
Solar fuel includes fuels in which energy from the sun has been stored in a chemical band of a compound. An ideal technology for producing solar fuel using sunlight and water is artificial photosynthesis, which aims to emulate natural photosynthesis using man-made materials. Artificial photosynthetic conversion of solar energy to chemical (solar) fuel will be a vital future energy carrier.
Cost-effective solar fuel production
We are working on the fundamental material challenges which hinder cost-effective solar fuel production. We are designing new materials with suitable bandgap, bandedge positions, efficient charge separation and transport properties, stable and cost-effective fabrication for spontaneous water splitting and CO2 photoreduction for solar fuel generation.
Our material design strategies involve:
Computational modelling of energy
Computational simulation of semiconductor materials is a powerful tool to understand the optoelectronic properties of materials which provide a firm pathway to design novel materials. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations provide accurate description of band structure and charge localisation in relevant band states of a material.
Electronic properties, ionic radius, crystal structure and prediction based on first-principle calculations are essential to design and develop novel photocatalyst materials.
A range of computational software such as Gaussian 09, Quantum Espresso, and QuantumWise-ATK are used to simulations of Band structure, DOS, PDOS, energy level diagram, charge analysis phonon coupling and interface interaction.
Nanostructure and nanoarchitecture controlled fabrication of energy materials
Methods of nanoarchitecture (1D, 2D and 3D) controlled material synthesis must be developed in accordance with green chemistry and be compatible with device manufacture to ensure that green principles are followed throughout the fabrication and scale-up process.
Our in-house developed green chemistry top-down material fabrication approach employs direct deposition from the vapour phase, which provides increased atom efficiency and reduced waste production. Hence we are investigating the potential variants of chemical vapour deposition such as AACVD, APCVD, AATVD, for use in 'green nanotechnology'.
Our fabrication also includes other state-of-the-art spray pyrolysis (SP) electrodeposition (ED), hydrothermal and sol-get routes.
Photocatalysts
The organic pollutants in industrial effluent are classified as bio-recalcitrant. Biological processes are not able to biodegrade these pollutants due to their antioxidant properties, high chemical stability and low biodegradability. Thus, a low energy and cost-effective process is required to degrade the pollutants.
Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) based on sunlight photocatalysis are an emerging cost-effective technology, which utilise solar energy and degrades the organic content present in the wastewater to non-toxic natural compounds. Depending upon chromophore (N=N, C=C, C=O) and auxochrome (-OH, -NH2, -NR2,-CHO, -COOH, -SO3H) functional groups, we design appropriate semiconductor photocatalysts for complete decomposition of environmental pollutants.
