Applications are invited for a PhD Studentship (3 years) funded by the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham to undertake research related to development of a novel lightweight Building Integrated Concentrating PV (BICPV) system.

It is widely accepted that the photovoltaic solar energy has the potential to meet a significant proportion of the world’s future energy needs. High cost and low efficiency are major barriers to their widespread adoption. The main technical challenge to increasing adoption of Photovoltaics (PV) is to increase conversion efficiencies, many of which are the result of cells overheating, thus making them more economically competitive with conventional power generation. This research will explore and develop a novel lightweight static concentrating Photovoltaics (PV) system with optimised performance suitable for use in windows or glazed façades in buildings. The proposed system is low cost and high efficiency, has the ability to generate electricity and hot water simultaneously, and can be effectively integrated into an existing building envelope component. This novel system will also respond automatically to climate, varying the balance of electricity generated from the PV and the transmission of daylight and shortwave radiation into the building. It therefore offers the potential to minimise and control net energy use in buildings.

The PhD student will be required to undertake optical prediction to aid the system design, investigate the performance and stability of the designed CPV at controlled indoor environment and also outdoor environment, and develop heat transfer and electrical model to examine the CPV system to optimise its performance.

Requirements of the studentship:

i)  Students should have, or expect to obtain, a first-class honours degree, or a distinction at MSc level in materials engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, applied mathematics or a closely related discipline.

ii)  Students should be able to demonstrate an interest in solar optics and thermal, CPV design, PV testing and numerical modelling, and should have good written and oral presentation skills. Previous experience with PV testing and with software tools such as Matlab and Fluent/ANSYS would be beneficial.

The PhD student will become part of the Research Division of Energy and Sustainability, which is a multi-disciplinary research division that that bring together expertise from built environment, chemical, material, etc engineering.

The studentship will cover PhD tuition fees and a tax free stipend (£13,726 for the 2013-14 academic year), for three years. Due to funding restrictions this studentship is only available to UK/EU students. The studentship is expected to start in September 2015.

Informal enquiries or formal applications with a CV, a brief statement of your research interests, and the names and email addresses of two referees should be addressed to Dr Yupeng Wu, email:Yupeng.Wu<στο>nottingham.ac.uk.