Green Energy and Transport

ERA – Hydex, Energy Research Accelerator, University of Leicester lead.

For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)

Project work packages

• Enabling a place-based collaboration between regional universities, the Midlands Engine and other organisations, building long-term partnerships between regionally based researchers, businesses and civic organisations.
• Working with the Midlands Engine to draft the Ten Point Plan for Green Growth, and a Review of Nuclear and Related Industries in the Midlands. These are helping to shape regional energy strategies.
• Provide cutting-edge services and access to facilities for some of the most urgent energy challenges.

Achievements and deliverables

• ERA is a partnership of eight research intensive Midlands universities plus the British Geological Survey. Over 1,000 companies are working with ERA partners, undertaking R&D and commercialising products.
• £60m investment from Innovate UK, which attracted a further £120m of industrial and university investment that has been used to create cutting-edge research facilities and demonstration projects around the Midlands.
• The ERA Industrial Advisory Board includes 12 senior representatives from industry including Siemens, ITM Power, Engie, EDF, Cadent, Centrica, National Grid, Renewable Energy Association.
• ERA Skills and Doctoral Research Programme provides a holistic energy-related skills provision to develop high quality energy workforce; to create a diverse talent pipeline to secure the UK’s position as a leader in energy research and innovation; and to facilitate knowledge transfer between researchers and industry to help accelerate the downstream impact of ERA-related research.

EPSRC-DTP programme, Project 2438289 (2020-2024).

For more info contact Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group) 

Project work packages

• PhD Studentship funded by the EPSRC Doctoral Training Programme focused on the electromagnetic twinning of advanced superconducting cables by Matthew Clegg
• Electromagnetic Assessment and AC Losses of Triaxial Cables with Multiple 2G-HTS Layers Per Phase
• 2D and 3D modelling of CORC and TSTC cables

Achievements and deliverables

• 9 research publication in peer-reviewed journals
• The student has attended more than 6 international conferences with oral and poster presentations
• A PhD thesis being delivered

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) 

Project work packages

• Modelling and electromagnetic optimization of the warm dielectric designs for three-phase power transmission lines with enhanced electromagnetic properties and reduced AC-losses, via the implementation of HTS/SFM metastructures
• Electromagnetic modelling and optimization of HTS/SFM three-phase power transmission lines in cold dielectric configurations, including triad and triaxial cables for the use of 2G-HTS tapes.

Achievements and deliverables

• 11 publications in peer-reviewed journals. For more info visit Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group) profile
• 3 collaborations and partnerships
• 3 further funding
• 1 research database and broad dataset of models for the electromagnetic assessment of high temperature superconducting cables aided by doft ferromagnetic sheaths. This includes triad and triaxial cables, including multifilamentary MgB2 cables, 2G-HTS coated conductors, coaxial configurations with 2D and 3D designs, CORC, and TSTC cables

Hi-Scale: From Materials to Devices European Cooperation in Science and Technology, COST Action project CA19108. WG1 lead.

For more info contact, Dr Harold Ruiz (Head of Group)

Project work packages

• Provide a framework for assessing the economic and environmental sustainability of HTS technologies. Hi-SCALE will focus on the whole lifecycle assessment of HTS technologies in a broad range of selected applications, which will allow ranking them according to technical, economic and environmental criteria, as well as their TRL. This framework will be also fundamental to assess new HTS-based business opportunities.
• Develop a roadmap for HTS technologies development. In line with the previous goal, this will allow selecting the most promising HTS materials, devices and applications, identifying R&D needs, technical limitations, and regulatory restrictions, among others, that must be solved to support the massification of HTS technologies. Only the diverse, multidisciplinary perspective provided by Hi-SCALE allows for the development of such a roadmap.
• Promote advanced training and involvement of ECI and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship on the whole development cycle of HTS engineering. This Action is an incubator for entrepreneurship based on HTS enabled technological innovations as new energy services or technological concepts. Courses related e.g. to technology transfer or management of the intellectual property will be organised, and mentoring and internationalisation tools will be provided for those aiming at creating spin-offs arising from the Action.

Achievements and deliverables

• Four major workgroups. To ensure progress beyond the state of the art and encourage novel approaches and methods, Hi-SCALE has established 4 working groups addressing the challenges of each transition. The Work Group 1: From Materials to Devices is led by our Head of Group Dr Harold Ruiz, at the University of Leicester.
• More than 150 experts on HTS technologies around the world.
• More than 50 publications in high impact peer-reviewed journals.
• 2 training schools for early career investigators
• More than 10 short term scientific missions.

SolarBoost. 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)

Project work packages

• SolarBoost is a collaborative research project between Politeknik Negeri Pontianak (POLNEP) at Indonesia and the University of Leicester in the UK. This work was supported by the Institutional Links grant, ID 413871894, under the Newton Fund Indonesia partnership. The grant is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology, Higher Education and delivered by the British Council.
• The institutional link project is aimed to promote the massive development of solar power plants in Indonesia by comprehensive consideration of solar renewable energy share in the Indonesia energy mix. Since the country has relied on fuel generated electricity which has been a burden in the financial sector as well as the severe impact on the environment.

Achievements and deliverables

• Solarboost project developed a web-enabled GIS package by integrating satellite retrieved data of solar irradiance, climatological conditions, and Indonesian local information such as topography, land cover, and usage, road, public facility, and electric network. Solarboost web map- GIS package useful for extracting, analyzing, and visualizing the GIS spatial data for developing large scale solar power plant planning in Indonesia to improve the green energy security, and a sustainable energy transition to solar renewable energy in the country. To achieve the targeted goal of the project, a case study at West Kalimantan Province has been considered.
• Developed a GIS package enabling the integration of satellite retrieved SSI data with Indonesian local information of demography, infrastructure, electric network, and land usage.
• Collection and processing of the spatial data and multi-criteria algorithms for analysis, visualization, and integration of local resources of information in Indonesia.
• Showcasing the potential site for exploiting the solar energy resources with GIS packages for solving energy-related problems Indonesia.
• A web-enabled GIS package SolarBoost focused on the easy visualization of satellite-retrieved data for SSI maps, tailored to the actual needs, conditions, and infrastructure of the WKP. The key derivatives of Solarboost including the web-enabled spatial maps and GIS layers created the first-ever SSI benchmark report aimed to enable an adequate inclusion of solar energy farms and energy policymaking in Indonesia with special focus to the WKP, where routes of grid development are respectful with the protection of natural resources and native communities. So far SolarBoost demonstrated the usefulness of GIS by performing multiple assessments of the power cost/benefits that could be derived from the installation of a solar farm at West Kalimantan (or any other Indonesian province), reporting the legal and infrastructure constraints that could affect its timely deployment.