Workshops

Workshop:  Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future
Speaker: Dr. Mahieddine Emziane, Solar Energy Materials and Devices Laboratory, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE. memziane@masdar.ac.ae

Objective
It is becoming increasingly obvious that our world is facing an energy crisis that is combined with an environmental and climatic problem. Renewable energy sources are having an increased contribution to the energy portfolio of many countries around the world. The current global challenge and opportunity consist therefore in developing new and renewable energy sources that allow the generation of electrical energy in a sustainable, affordable, accessible, flexible and environmentally-friendly way. Solar energy is the major and most promising renewable energy source, and solar energy technologies are mature and reliable. The topic of this workshop proposal falls within the main technical scope of your conference. Its objective is to establish an interdisciplinary forum that brings together graduate students from both science and engineering backgrounds, interested in this promising and rewarding field of sustainable energy technologies.

Content:
This workshop will start by addressing the following questions: - How sustainable are the current technologies that allow various renewable energy sources to be harvested? - For instance, how much land and water are required to generate electricity from renewable energy sources? - What is the cost of power generation from renewable sources using the current technologies? - What is the environmental footprint of renewable energy technologies? - How affordable are renewable energy technologies on the long run? - Can solar energy become the best sustainable energy option globally?
Then, the workshop will present and review all aspects of solar energy conversion as well as related technologies and applications. Photovoltaics, solar thermal and their applications including integration into the built environment will be covered. Although the workshop will primarily focus on science, engineering, innovation, manufacturing and applications of solar energy, other important aspects for the promotion of solar energy to reach its full potential globally, including economics, investment, policy and environment will also be highlighted. In particular, this workshop will emphasize all sustainability aspects of solar energy conversion where life cycle analysis is used. Finally, critical comparisons like concentrated solar power (CSP) versus photovoltaics (PV), Si PV versus thin-film PV, and CSP versus concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) will also be discussed.

Audiance:
This workshop is meant for graduate students in science and engineering academic areas, who are interested to learn about the sustainability criteria for our future energy supply and the potential and promise of sustainable energy technologies.

Materials:
The materials to be provided consist essentially of: - Workshop slides with all the necessary references,
- Extra reading material, such as selected book chapters, review papers, etc. if needed.