MCAST presents five presentations at the 27th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, Japan

Recently Dr Inġ. Brian Azzopardi and Renata Mikalauskiene from MCAST Energy Research Group presented five posters at the 27th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, Japan.

The MCAST Energy contribution ranged from the first test of perovskites solar cells to local climate conditions in Malta through an international laboratory initiative within StableNextSol COST Action project to system-based studies both on MCAST Campus through Edgewise and 3DMgrid projects and Enemalta plc electricity grids.

3DMGrid project: Design, development and demonstration of a future-proof active Smart MicroGrid system, partly funded by the Malta Council for Sci, is also locally partnered with ESDL Ltd and Geosys Ltd, among a consortium of 10 partners from Jordan, Spain, Germany, Greece and Cyprus. The work was also recently presented at the IEEE Asia-Pacific Power & Energy Engineering conference in India on Novel hybrid design for microgrid control and the proceeding will be available via IEEExplore.

Edgewise project: Energy water system integration and management is a consortium of eight partners from Portugal, France, Tunis, Greece, Cyprus and Malta. The work involves the water-energy nexus niche research area. Water is energy intensive and energy is water intensive, so addressing both in an integrated way would lead to innovative, more efficient solutions.

The MCAST Energy Research Group, led by Dr Inġ. Azzopardi, principal investigator, leads the Energy Research Theme at MCAST. The group specialises in global and regional solutions by innovative devices in emerging technologies, systems level integration to policy engagement for better community. The breath of energy research at MCAST includes Device fabrication and on-site testing, Energy economics and policy, Efficient buildings, Power systems, Renewables and Transportation. The group specialises in applied research tech- niques including but not limited to optimisation, decision-making and life cycle analysis.

This breadth of research at MCAST Energy is supported by the Malta Council of Science and Technology through its Internationalisation Partnership Awards Schemes 2016 and 2017 and through the Eranetmed initiative of member states, associated countries and Mediterranean partner countries for Edgewise and 3DMgrid projects, Transcargo Services Ltd for their financial support of two MRes Programmes, StableNextSol Cost Action project funded by the European Commission, Enemalta plc and EPSRC for the Wise-PV project.