Green Energy and Transportation
Vision
Green Energy and Transportation is a multidisciplinary research group working at the forefront of the Net-Zero sustainability goals, aiming to accelerate the deployment of green energy technologies for the decarbonization of our energy supply and consumption sectors, increasing the energy efficiency in the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors.
The group integrates fundamental advances across the Energy and the Build environment, Energy Generation and Storage Systems, the Decarbonization of industry, Sustainability and Circular Economy, and the zero emissions transport and mobility architectures, with approaches that range from the physical optimization, modelling and prototyping (physical twins) to the computational modelling of materials, components, control systems and their interlinks via analytical, computational, and AI-based algorithms (digital twins).
Joining Green Energy and Transportation is joining one of the largest research groups at our School of Engineering and the Space Park Leicester (the largest space centre at the UK), bringing together expertise on Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Advanced Materials Research, Designing of Smart and Critical Control Systems, Cryogenics, and Sustainability at the heart of our endeavours.
Strands
Green Energy and Transportation brings together our own experimental (Electrical and Electronics lab, Battery and Energy Storage Lab, Cryo-electrification lab, Power electronics lab, Communications lab, etc), and extensive computational facilities (Owned State of the art HPC workstations + ALICE 2048 core supercomputer + DiRAC 4000+ cores), with the high-tech facilities and capabilities at the Space Park Leicester.
Our current lines of expertise (list non-exhaustive) focuses on the following strands:
- Power Systems & Electricity Networks. Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
- Renewable energies (solar & wind): Machine design, optimization, control systems, and project deployment. Dr Harold Ruiz (HoG), Dr Jining Zhang, Dr Yuan Gao
- Electrical Machines (Design, optimization, prototyping, physical and digital twinning including AI) . Dr Harold Ruiz (HoG), Dr Jining Zhang, Dr Yuan Gao
- Power Electronics (including HVDC). Dr Bing Ji and Dr Yuan Gao
- Battery management/control Dr Bing Ji and Dr Yuan Gao
- Cryogenics and Advanced Superconducting Machines for power generation and transportation systems. Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
- Energy management/control systems for transport electrification (Evs, UAV, and aircrafts) Dr Yuan Gao, Dr Jining Zhang, and Dr Bing Ji
- Communications systems (Aviation, Satellite, 5G+) Dr David Siddle
Projects
The list below shows latest and impactful projects where our Green Energy and Transportation members have been collaborating:
- ERA – Hydex, Energy Research Accelerator, UoL Lead. For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
- EPSRC-DTP programme, Project 2438289 (2020-2024). For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
- Hi-Scale: From Materials to Devices. European Cooperation in Science & Technology , COST Action project CA19108. WG1 lead. For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
- EPSRC Superfem, Project No. EP/S025707/1. Superconducting Ferromagnetic Metamaterials Enabling the Development of Resilient High Voltage / High Current Transmission Systems (SuperFem). For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
- Solar Boost British Council Newton Fund, Project No. 413871894. Boosting solar energy capacity of Indonesia without compromising protected areas: an integrated GIS tailoring solar energy resource and local information. For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)
Additionally, members of the Green Energy and Transportation also participate in projects and research from the Aerospace Engineering group, such as:
- AeroTraNet2 - Silent flight
- EU Horizon2020 MSCA-RISE - Electrically powered aircraft, green propulsion. For more info contact, Dr Bing Ji
- Royal Academy of Engineering - Self-Monitoring and Resilient Control for Electrified Powertrain - Electrically powered aircraft, green propulsion. For more info contact, Dr Bing Ji
- Tailplane stall study - Electrically powered aircraft, autonomous air vehicles
- EPSRC project AAReST - Satellite technology
- Innovate UK project Assured CAV Parking
PhD applications
The group welcomes students to study for PhD degrees in any of its research areas. Informal discussion can be made with either the Head of Group Dr Harold Ruiz, or any of the Green Energy and Transportation group members directly.
For details of the application procedure, please contact Mrs Michelle Pryce. Learn more and apply for a Research degree in Engineering.