• Azelio’s Thermal Energy Storage-Power on Demand (TES.POD), produces zero emissions and is already scalable and competitive
• Abu Dhabi’s desert environment provides the project with ideal solar conditions
• The new technology represents an important part of the renewable transition
• The project will run at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s only planned and approved R&D cluster

An innovative R&D project by Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Sweden’s Azelio long duration energy storage company, and Masdar to demonstrate 24/7 affordable clean energy utilization was launched at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. The cutting-edge distributed and scalable Thermal Energy Storage-Power on Demand (TES.POD) system is part of a three-party research and development agreement.

Now officially in operation, the Azelio storage system is used with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and enables renewable and cost-efficient electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The system will undergo extensive testing and demonstration at the Khalifa University’s Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP), in a desert environment that provides ideal solar conditions to generate full daily cycles of clean energy in combination with solar PV.

Dr. Nicolas Calvet, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, and Founder & Chair of the MISP, Khalifa University, said, “The Khalifa University’s Masdar Institute Solar Platform provides a convergence of renewable energy research, development and demonstration, and serves as a foundation for the UAE’s ambition to achieve world-leading innovation in clean and renewable energy. The Azelio demonstration project is our flagship project and a success story for the MISP.”

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President, Khalifa University, said, “This collaboration builds on Khalifa University’s expertise in energy-related research and innovation, and reflects our efforts to leverage our state-of-the-art concentrating solar power and thermal energy storage research facility – the Masdar Institute Solar Platform. It will bridge the gap between idea and implementation, to deliver tangible, commercially-viable solutions that will drive the sustainable energy sector in the UAE and the wider region.”

Jonas Eklind, CEO and President of Azelio, said, “The strong position and deep knowledge in renewable energy of Masdar and Khalifa University make the MISP platform a perfect place to showcase and test our technology. We look forward to demonstrating our TES.POD together with other groundbreaking solutions and taking further steps towards a global establishment of the solution.”

Abdulla Balalaa, Executive Director, Masdar City, said, “Masdar City is committed to facilitating R&D projects that bring ground-breaking new technologies to the market and positively contribute to regional and global energy security. Azelio’s TES.POD system is another excellent example of what collaboration and innovation can achieve. Developing technologies that both protect and guarantee a constant, secure, and affordable source of electricity is extremely important and this project is set to bring us closer to that goal. As the regional home of technology innovation and R&D, at Masdar City, we are proud to be working with Azelio and Khalifa University to initiate and progress the TES.POD system.”

Over the next twelve months, Khalifa University researchers will continuously operate Azelio’s electrical thermal energy storage system, collecting and analyzing the data, while conducting an independent validation of the system. At the end of the year, Khalifa University will provide a report on the system’s performance in the desert environment.

The system’s storage units will be demonstrated and evaluated on several criteria, including supplying renewable electricity round-the-clock to a system for atmospheric water generation that captures humidity and condensates it to usable water. The capabilities of Azelio’s technology represent an important part of the renewable transition by making sustainable energy from, for example, cost-effective solar PV available at all hours of the day.

Azelio’s energy storage TES.POD stores energy as heat in a metal alloy made from recycled aluminum and silicon. The heat from the storage is transferred to a Stirling engine that enables supply of electricity and usable heat on demand at all hours of the day, without emissions and at an affordable price. The system is scalable and competitive from 0.1 to 100 MW_e.

Khalifa University’s MISP at Masdar City offers a valuable resource to equipment manufacturers, system integrators and installers, project developers, utility companies, investors, private end users, research organizations, and the public.

Staff Report
19 January 2022

The post Khalifa University, Masdar and Azelio launch electrical thermal energy storage system technology that enables 24/7 clean energy utilization, at Masdar City appeared first on Khalifa University.

As more intermittent renewable energy sources of electricity are fed into the grid, balancing the amount of electricity fed in against the amount of electricity consumed becomes more difficult. A team from Khalifa University has developed a software to accurately and quickly predict the stability of power grids.

The journey of electricity, from the power plant to our homes and businesses, is not always a smooth one. Grid operators are faced with the complex task of balancing the amount of electricity fed into the grid against the amount of electricity consumed, to keep the power system stable. But as more intermittent renewable energy sources of electricity, like solar and wind, are fed into the grid, this balancing act is becoming even more challenging.

To address this challenge, a KU team led by Dr. Mohamed El Moursi, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, teamed up with the Abu Dhabi Transmission and Dispatch Company (TRANSCO) and Canadian company Manitoba Hydro International (MHI) to develop a software tool for fast and accurate online prediction of power system stability. The KU research team members were Syafiq Kamarul Azman, Research Engineer, Dr. Younes Isbeih, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and Dr. Khaled Elbassioni, Professor of Computer Science.

Maintaining balance among power generation and consumption in an electrical network is extremely complex, especially when new intermittent sources of energy are installed as in the case of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power.  Small changes to power grids, caused by load fluctuations or intermittency of renewable energy resources can drive the power system out of its safe operating range toward a critical state. In addition, power grids are frequently subjected to faults and equipment failures, either temporary or permanent, that can further derive the system to instability if proper monitoring and control actions are not taken. As a result, it is crucial that grid operators are equipped with the tools needed to maintain a stable operation of the grid and to build resilience to faults and disturbances.

The KU research team built a unified prediction model using artificial intelligence techniques to provide fast and accurate prediction of transient stability when a power system is disturbed.

“The dynamic response of a power system is governed by a set of highly nonlinear differential and algebraic equations (DAE), which describe the behavior of the generators and the associated control systems, loads, renewable power generation and flexible AC transmission devices (FACTs),” explained Dr. El Moursi.

When the overall demand load in a power system is suddenly increased, power plant power generators that have spinning generators are suddenly slowed. Differential and algebraic mathematical equations must be solved to determine the amount of accelerating power required to bring a power plant’s power generator back to a stable condition.

“When the power system experiences small changes, the mathematical model can be linearized about an equilibrium point to study the stability of the system,” explained Dr. El Moursi. “After a severe disturbance, however, the power generators are changed beyond the ability of the linearized model to describe the nonlinear dynamics that ensue and hence thus the model must be numerically solved through simulations.”

Time domain simulations are used to help solve these more complex challenges. While they accurately describe power system transient behavior, they are associated with a considerable computational burden when applied to real systems where real-time frameworks are required for dynamic security assessment and control.

“Although time domain simulations result in an accurate transient stability assessment (TSA), they require considerable time and computational efforts, especially for large power systems with almost infinite number of contingencies and operating points,” said Dr. El Moursi.

This is where artificial neural networks and deep learning techniques are pivotal. Using deep learning techniques, the team from KU developed an approach for predicting both power system stability. The neural networks learn specific features of the power system dynamics and thus can provide fast and accurate online prediction of transient stability.

The model designed by the team provides a unified approach for prediction when the system is subjected to a disturbance. They trained a neural network using a set of transient responses seen across the entire power system and for a wide-range of operating conditions. The trained model provides a fast, yet accurate, prediction of the transient stability status when a power system is disturbed. If the system is unstable, the prediction model updates the power system operator with the necessary control actions.

“In a relatively short period of time, the KU project team successfully designed and built­—and is on the way to patenting—an artificial intelligence-based transient stability assessment tool with full functionality, flexibility, and high accuracy,” said Dr. Surour Mohamed Alaraifi, Senior Planning Engineer at TRANSCO and member in the project team. “We can now evaluate our system stability, including all interconnections, by simulations as short as 200 milliseconds, compared to the usual 30 to 35 seconds, allowing us to perform tasks like fast contingency screening, while covering generators, transmission lines, and transformer fault scenarios. We hope this tool becomes a central asset for our system operators.”

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
10 October 2020

The post Khalifa University Team Uses Intelligent Systems to Predict Power Grid Stability appeared first on Khalifa University.

Despite how frequent dust storms are in the Middle East, little is known about how and why they are so much more common in the summer months. A team from Khalifa University set out to better understand this phenomenon by examining the intense dust activity that occurred in July 2018.

The Arabian Peninsula is one of the world’s major sources of dust year round, contributing substantially to the total amount of dust in the air in the Northern Hemisphere. Frequent dust storms occur here, between 15 to 20 per year, impacting all aspects of life for its human population, as well as affecting marine ecosystems and the climate.

Despite this, little is known about how and why dust storms are much more common in the summer months. A team from Khalifa University set out to better understand this phenomenon by examining the intense dust activity that occurred in July 2018.
Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Narendra Nelli, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Dr. Marouane Temimi, Associate

Professor of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, all from Khalifa University, published their findings in the journal of along with Dr. Jean-Pierre Chaboureau, University of Toulouse, France, Dr. Juan Cuesta, Université Paris-Est Creteil, France, Noor Alshamsi, UAE National Center for Meteorology, Dr. Olivier Pauluis, New York University, and Dr. Lulin Xue, US National Center for Atmospheric Research. The team investigated the dust storms of July 2018 to identify the underlying atmospheric dynamics and assess how much impact the radiative effects of dust had on cloud and rain development.

“Despite originating from relatively few areas around the world, atmospheric dust is an important component of the Earth’s climate system,” explained Dr. Francis. “Atmospheric dust particles can serve as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nucleating particles, thereby altering cloud development and properties and associated precipitation.”

The amount of dust in the air also influences radiative effects as dust particles can scatter and absorb shortwave radiation, and absorb and re-emit longwave radiation. This has repercussions for atmospheric thermodynamics as the local temperature, winds and rainfall are affected.

“The dust in the air interacts with radiation from the sun and increases the mass of water in the atmosphere, causing a greenhouse effect and further increasing the ground temperature and humidity,” explained Dr. Francis. “This then has implications on the development of weather features such as sea breezes.”

Though the dust does reduce the amount of solar energy reaching the surface by absorbing and scattering the radiation, this absorption can contribute to localized heating by directly warming the dust-filled atmospheric layer and emitting longwave radiation towards the surface of the Earth. This, however, depends on where the dust layer is located, such as whether it is situated over water, vegetated areas or desert regions.

“Given the sporadic nature of dust storms, this complex balance between their effects on radiation and the resulting impacts on climate has been difficult to assess,” explained Dr. Francis.

“Because of this, dust storms can’t be included in future climate projections with much accuracy, with current global climate models underestimating the warming effect of dust by underestimating the actual amount of dust in the atmosphere.”

An essential part of the dust cycle is the transportation of dust around the world. For this, the dust storm needs the atmospheric processes that determine all aspects of the storm—from its intensity to its duration­. For the Arabian Peninsula, the Shamal winds play a critical role. These northerly semi-permanent winds are thought to be the main meteorological driver for dust emissions year round but Dr. Francis is interested in why dust emissions over the southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula peak in the summer.

“This peak indicates the existence of a still-unknown but important mechanism for dust emissions,” explained Dr. Francis.

“Cyclogenesis, the formation of cyclone, has proven to be a major dust emission mechanism over other arid regions, capable of generating dramatic dust storms. However, little attention has been given to dust activity associated with cyclogenesis over the Arabian Peninsula”

In July 2018, a cyclone formed over southwestern UAE and generated intense dust emissions over the UAE and northwestern Oman due to strong cyclonic winds.

“A clear footprint of the cloud was visible in the radiation measurements at the surface, with the warming effect by up to 10°C induced by the dust especially at night,” explained Dr. Francis.

“On the second day of cyclogenesis, clouds started to develop in the warm sector of the cyclone,” explained Dr. Francis. “Localized rain was observed in the southwestern UAE, and as the cyclone intensified, more water vapor was drawn from the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, which caused further rain to develop. Daytime ground temperatures were two degrees higher compared to prior days, while at night, temperatures were ten degrees higher than the normal temperature before and after the dust storm. This was due to sustained emissions of longwave radiation during the entire lifetime of the dust storm.”

The researchers found that the dust over a major dust source region induces a significant net warming effect at the surface and in the atmosphere during the night, modifying the atmosphere at lower levels. Their results highlight the important role dust plays in the climate system of the Arabian Peninsula, proving that air quality and weather forecast systems need to account for the impacts of dust storms to achieve improved accuracy.

“Dust also needs to be considered when predicting, designing and conducting cloud-seeding operations in the UAE because of the impact on the circulation, which in turn impacts the development of clouds and their lifetime,” added Dr. Francis. “Dust is a quasi-permanent natural part of the atmosphere over the Arabian Peninsula, and its impact on the climate and environment of this region is more significant than anyone previously thought.”

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
13 August 2020

The post How Dust Impacts the Arabian Climate appeared first on Khalifa University.

Dr. Samuel Mao joins Khalifa University as the new Senior Director of Masdar Institute to bring his extensive experience in developing cutting-edge technologies, and promoting international collaboration and global commercialization of energy and environmental technologies to the UAE.

In July, Dr. Mao delivered a lecture on KU Main Campus discussing the route from innovation to commercialization for sustainable energy technologies. He covered the research of solar-driven photocatalytic hydrogen, and the commercialization of the world’s first lithium battery-powered heavy-duty hybrid electric truck.

Dr. Mao’s ambitions for Masdar Institute and Khalifa University at large center around delivering sustainable energy technologies to industry as well as academia. His main focus is ensuring the efforts and innovations of staff and researchers at the university can be optimally commercialized.

After receiving his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 2000, Dr. Mao established the Institute of New Energy in Shenzhen, China, and began helping to commercialize sustainable energy technology. His background and experience over the last ten years will see him drive similar efforts at Masdar Institute and benefit the university beyond its contributions to science and academia.

Dr. Mao has published 160 research articles that have received more than 42,000 citations, and is the holder of 80 patents in the United States and abroad. In addition to co-founding three international materials and energy technology conferences, he also speaks globally and serves as a technical committee member, program review panelist, grant proposal evaluator, and national laboratory observer for the US Department of Energy.

Jade Sterling
News and Features Writer
26 January 2020

The post Introducing Dr. Samuel Mao, Masdar Institute’s New Senior Director appeared first on Khalifa University.

University Also to Drive Knowledge Exchange Sessions and Sign Collaboration Agreements with Industry and Technology Leaders
Khalifa University announced it will showcase Masdar Institute’s latest research innovations in advanced sustainable technologies and clean energy during the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2020 that is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2020.

As a research-intensive higher education institution focusing on renewable energy, advanced sustainable technology, energy storage, biofuel, and water and environment, Khalifa University will be signing collaboration agreements, while showcasing its most recent research innovations at its stand (A-411) at WFES 2020. In addition, faculty experts will participate and lead various dedicated workshops, technical sessions, panel discussions and forums at the event focusing on energy, energy efficiency, water, solar, waste and smart cities.

In addition, a total of 26 members of the Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL) program will be honored during the week for successfully completing their year-long schedule of mandatory programs.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hamadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “We are privileged to showcase Masdar Institute’s renewable and sustainable energy technology innovations at the World Future Energy Summit, which serves as the most prominent networking platform for business, innovation and knowledge exchange. We believe such gathering of technology and industry leaders will give further momentum to expedite the adoption of clean technologies, thus benefiting the communities globally.”

He added: “At the same time, we are delighted to host the graduation of YFEL members who are trained to become tomorrow’s decision-makers and industry leaders driving advanced energy and sustainable technology solutions.”

Other Khalifa University innovations that will be featured at the event will include the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC), the Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP), and a nuclear project.

Dr Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Khalifa University, will share his perspectives during a keynote panel on ‘Making a city smart and sustainable: Closing the gap between public need and available services’. Dr Griffiths, will also share his thoughts on leveraging artificial intelligence in renewable energy environments and moderate a keynote panel on “Happy Cities: The goal of sustainable urban master planning”.

From the Khalifa University Center for Membranes & Advanced Water Technology at Masdar Institute, Prof. Hassan A. Arafat, Director, will offer his views on socio-political factors impacting the sustainability of desalination during a research and development spotlight. Additionally, Dr Riaan van der Merwe, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, will share his views on rethinking brine discharge from regional desalination.

Research centers and facilities at Masdar Institute in Khalifa University continue to lead innovation in renewable energy. Most recently, the University’s Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP) in partnership with Wahaj Solar installed the UAE’s first-of-a-kind concentrator to helps achieve higher temperature with less mirror surface, thus enabling conversion of more solar energy into electricity. The MISP is part of the Masdar Solar Hub development launched in 2015 focused on accelerating and testing pilot scale solar technology.

Khalifa University’s Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) completed significant structural improvements to enable better yields of the salt-loving Salicornia plant and the growth of a wider range of fish species. SBRC’s Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS), is the world’s first research facility to grow both food and fuel using desert land irrigated by seawater.

Moreover, Masdar Institute’s Research Center for Renewable Energy Mapping and Assessment (ReCREMA) will showcase its recently launched Renewable Energy Management System for Saudi Arabia.

A global hub for business, innovation and knowledge exchange at the heart of ADSW, the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) is a global industry platform connecting business and innovation in energy, clean technology and efficiency for a sustainable future. The WFES 2020 will be held from 13-16 January 2020 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC).

Clarence Michael
News Writer
7 January 2020

The post Khalifa University’s Masdar Institute to Showcase Latest Research Innovations in Advanced Sustainable Technologies and Clean Energy at WFES 2020 appeared first on Khalifa University.

Agreement Formalizes Partnership Signed at 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi

Swedish solar energy company Azelio has partnered with Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (‘Masdar’) and Khalifa University of Science and Technology to run a pilot project evaluating new technology in power storage.

An agreement formalizing the partnership was signed by Jonas Eklind, Chief Executive Officer, Azelio, Abdulla Balalaa, Director, Real Estate Development and Design at Masdar, and Dr Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, at the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi.

The project aims to test and demonstrate Azelio’s Stirling engine systems and integrated thermal energy storage (TES) solution for renewable energy projects that use photovoltaic solar, concentrated solar power (CSP) and wind energy, or projects that provide off-grid solutions, with the purpose of determining if the technology can be included in current and future renewable energy projects.

“With Masdar City established as the natural home for innovation in sustainable urban development and clean technologies, we are delighted to be working with Azelio and Khalifa University to help validate the commercial feasibility of their project,” Yousef Baselaib, Executive Director of Sustainable Real Estate at Masdar.

Testing will begin with an evaluation of Azelio’s Stirling engine system for renewable power production in fall 2019. This will be followed by an analysis of the complete system – including the TES – during the first half of 2020.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said; “As a research-intensive academic institution, Khalifa University offers one of the most suitable platforms for testing and demonstration of new technologies and solutions, especially in clean energy, and we are delighted to partner with Azelio and Masdar to evaluate the Stirling system with integrated energy storage. We believe the pilot phases will provide adequate data that will help Azelio’s technology to target large and exposed segments in terms of access to energy. We look forward to offer our expertise in evaluating the technology together with our partners.”

He added: “Masdar Institute at Khalifa University will continue to serve as the research location for leading and pioneering cutting-edge scientific exploration in clean energy-related areas including energy storage, biofuels, renewable energy mapping, advanced power and nuclear energy. We firmly believe, as a research institute, Masdar Institute will continue to set fresh milestones while obtaining new solutions in clean energy and advanced sustainable technologies.”

Khalifa University will provide the research support and expertise for the two testing periods and the data collected by the researchers during the testing phases will be compared with data from existing dispatchable technologies.

“Masdar has a proven track record in the incubation of advanced clean technologies,” said Eklind. “Through this agreement we hope to gain vital operational data and other technical insights to help prepare our solution for the commercial market.”

The pilot will be installed within the site of the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) – a research center located at the Masdar City campus of Khalifa University. The power generated from the project will be used to power the air conditioning for the project’s office and storage units.

News Writer
12 September 2019

The post Azelio Partners with Khalifa University and Masdar to Install New Clean-Tech Pilot Project at Masdar City appeared first on Khalifa University.

An aircraft loaded with a new cloud seeding material developed by Khalifa University has taken flight to seed warm clouds in UAE skies.

The cloud seeding material developed by Khalifa University’s Dr. Linda Zou, Professor of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, has generated significant attention since Dr. Zou won in 2016 a USD 1.5 million, 3-year grant from the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) to research the use of nanotechnology to enhance rainfall.

Over the past three years, Dr. Zou’s team has made steady progress towards designing and fabricating the nanotechnology-enabled cloud seeding materials in the lab. Now, the team has identified a novel, scalable method for fabricating large quantities of the particles, allowing for mass production. Actual seeding operations have just began.

“We have successfully fabricated 75 kilograms of the cloud seeding particles, which is made of a sodium chloride crystal core coated with titanium dioxide nanoparticles, thanks to a novel dry particle coating process that greatly simplified the process of coating of nanoparticles on the core materials,” Dr. Zou explained.

Being able to scale up development in a high-quality and cost-effective way is key to transferring the research from the laboratory to the market, where it can bring tangible benefits to society.

Dr. Zou’s research has played an important role in helping to UAEREP to achieve its overarching objective of enhancing rainfall in arid regions, such as the UAE, through new advances in the underlying science of rainfall and the technologies to stimulate it. Her work further showcases the world class research capacity of UAE faculty at the country’s leading science and technology university and positions the UAE as one of the leaders in rainfall enhancement research.

Cloud seeding is the science of adding particles to the atmosphere to serve as nuclei for the condensation of water vapor to form water droplets formation that grow and ultimately become rainfall from clouds that may otherwise produce no rain. It is being increasingly recognized as a viable tool that could be used as part of a broader strategy to achieve water security, particularly in water-scarce regions like the UAE. Studies have shown that cloud seeding can increase rainfall between 5% to 20%, which can help restore groundwater reserves, boost agricultural production, and reduce to some extent the UAE’s heavy reliance on freshwater produced by energy-intensive seawater desalination.

Dr. Zou’s research is exploring for the first time the use of nanotechnology to improve the properties of cloud seeding materials.

Conventional cloud seeding materials, such as salt particles, provide nuclei around which water vapor can condense. Once enough water vapor condenses into water droplets that are large enough, they fall as rain.

Dr. Zou conceptualized that nanotechnology can be leveraged to improve a salt particle’s ability to condense water more effectively, and in turn produce rain.

“The synergistic effect of the hydrophilic – or water loving – titanium dioxide shell and the hygroscopic sodium chloride core, which absorbs water from its surroundings, has enhanced condensation and ability for water droplet formation and growth,” Dr. Zou explained.

The groundbreaking research outcomes have been published in high impact journals such as ACS Nano (2017). One international patent application has been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), while another provisional patent has been filed for a new but equally interesting material.

The project has been evaluated by the International Scientific Direction Committee of the UAEREP, who have commented that Dr. Zou’s project has been extremely successful, both in terms of the scientific and technical achievements as well as in shedding light on how innovative technologies (in this case nanotechnology) provides exciting new directions in the development of seeding materials for rainfall enhancement.

This and other sustainable water research taking place at Khalifa University aim to position the UAE as a leader in advanced water technologies to address issues of water security.

Erica Solomon
Senior Editor
24 October 2019

The post Cloud Seeding Operations of KU’s Nanotechnology Enhanced Seeding Materials Begin appeared first on Khalifa University.

Dr. Nicolas Calvet, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Chair of the Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP), ��ݮ��Ƶ R&D progress of solar thermal energy systems coming out of the MISP at major CSP conference in Dubai

Dr. Nicolas Calvet was invited to share updates on the UAE’s first solar platform dedicated to research and development of concentrating solar power (CSP) and thermal energy storage (TES) technologies – the Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP) – at the 4^th annual CSP Focus MENA conference, which was held in Dubai from 26-27 June 2019.

MISP was inaugurated in 2015 in recognition of the increasingly important role CSP will play in achieving the UAE’s renewable energy target of generating 24% of its energy mix from renewable sources by 2021.

With its one-of-a-kind 100 kW beam-down solar concentrator facility, the MISP aims to provide local and international research institutes and solar companies the opportunity to research, test, and validate new CSP components and TES systems capable of withstanding the UAE’s harsh desert climate in order to increase the implementation and utilization of CSP in the UAE and wider world.

“At 7.3c$/kWh, CSP is now competitive with conventional fossil fuel based power production in the UAE,” Dr. Calvet shared, citing figures from a recent IRENA report. “Major CSP projects like the Gemasolar in Spain and Shams 1 in the UAE have been instrumental to demonstrating that CSP can deliver affordable, reliable, dispatchable and carbon-free energy.”

Dr. Calvet shared a number of the innovative CSP-related collaborative research projects and pilots that have either been completed or are ongoing at the MISP, including projects with EnergyNest, MIT and Wahaj Investment.

Working with EnergyNest, a Norwegian thermal storage technology developer, Dr. Calvet’s team tested a special blend of concrete to store thermal energy in a smart modular configuration. They developed a system to enable storage of thermal energy up to 400°C, making it the first high-temperature thermal energy storage demonstration system in the Middle East.

Another TES prototype system validated at the MISP was developed through a collaboration with MIT. The system, called Concentrated Solar Power On Demand Demonstration (CSPonD Demo) came online in June 2017. The innovative prototype directly absorbs and stores thermal energy in the form of molten salts in a single-tank system, which considerably simplifies its operation compared to the conventional two-tank molten salt technology commonly used today.

The third project Dr. Calvet presented is one that is currently under construction at the MISP – the Wahaj Solar Concentrator. Designed and developed by UAE-based Wahaj Investment, Dr. Calvet’s team will help validate the unique metallic reflector based Fresnel lens 10-meter concentrator, which reaches theoretical temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius.

“These projects and others at the MISP intend to lead to the creation of next-generation CSP and TES technologies that are more affordable and efficient, which will make thermal solar energy an increasingly viable option for solar power generation in the UAE and around the world,” Dr. Calvet said.

Erica Solomon
Senior Editor
9 July 2019

The post Concentrating Solar Power Pilot Project Updates Shared appeared first on Khalifa University.

• Noor Solar Power Plant in Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi, photo courtesy of WAM

Khalifa University’s Dr. Matteo Chiesa, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and PhD student Harry Apostoleris, reveal how large solar plants in the UAE can sell unsubsidized electricity for under 3c/kWh and still turn a profit

When the Noor Abu Dhabi solar power plant was switched on in June, it became the cheapest operational solar plant in the world, and the third time within two years that the UAE has broken the record for cheap solar.

At 2.94 US cents per kilowatt-hour, Noor demonstrates that large-scale renewable energy can compete with fossil fuels, which today typically cost in the range of 4-6 US cents per kWh.

The significant cost decline in solar power has been driven primarily by technological innovation, but also innovation in project structuring and financing; a critical finding which was reported by Khalifa University’s Dr. Matteo Chiesa, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and PhD student Harry Apostoleris in a paper published last year in the journal Nature Energy.

“We studied the different cost components of the Masdar/EDF-developed Mohammed Bin Rashid Solar Park Phase3 project, which will sell electricity for 2.99¢/kWh, and other large solar projects in the UAE and began to understand, piece by piece, how each of these cost components were reduced to the point that the electricity generated by these plants could be sold for under 3¢/kWh,” Apostoleris explained.

The UAE is the first country to breach the 3 ¢/kWh barrier. Many people assumed that the government put in large hidden subsidies to make the cost so low. In the US, Europe and other places, solar energy has historically been subsidized, either by a feed-in tariff or by tax incentives. But in these large UAE solar plants, the electricity is unsubsidized.

“We found that many factors played a small, but important role in bringing costs down. For example, the UAE’s utility companies signed long 25-years or more contracts to buy electricity from these solar power plants, which gives the developers more time to pay off the initial investment. The UAE was one of the first countries to make 25-year contracts standard for solar power plants, instead of the 15-20 year contracts more commonly seen in the past,” Apostoleris said.

The study also reports that certain costs, like construction and maintenance labor, are lower in the UAE than in European or US markets, where most cost studies are done. The plants also have a unique hybrid ownership structure – they are partly owned by the companies that built them, and partly by the utility – which allows some costs to be shared between the project developer and the utility company.

The two factors that reportedly had the biggest impact on driving costs down were the cost of solar panels and costs related to financing.

Thanks to mass production, a solar panel that would have cost US$500 at the beginning of this decade now costs less than US$100. Furthermore, the market has been flooded by massive manufacturing companies producing new solar panels as fast as they can.

“Developers in the UAE were able to take advantage of this buyer’s market to purchase huge amounts of hardware very cheaply, which greatly reduces the cost of building the plant,” Apostoleris said.

The project developers were also able to get large loans at low interest rates alongside major investments from state-backed companies, representing a true innovation in the financing and project structuring.

A follow-up paper, published in the proceeding of the 46^th IEEE Photovoltaics Specialist’s Conference, and presented at the conference meeting in Chicago last month, focused on the financing packages that were given to the UAE’s solar projects.

“We developed a cost model to demonstrate that, under the given financing terms, the projects are profitable even when selling electricity for less than 3¢/kWh,” Apostoleris explained.

In the paper, the researchers suggest ways that other countries can follow the lead of the UAE by developing programs to support low-cost financing of large renewable energy projects.

“Many countries have a capability of issuing large state-backed loans to project developers or making direct investments in well-designed solar projects. Our aim in these two papers is both to show people how the UAE was able to produce the world’s cheapest unsubsidized solar energy, and to suggest ways that other countries can learn from our experience to support the continued expansion of solar energy,” Dr. Chiesa remarked.

Erica Solomon
Senior Editor
29 July 2019

The post How the UAE is Succeeding in Generating Cheap Solar Energy appeared first on Khalifa University.

Dr. Ammar Nayfeh describes the innovative research taking place at Khalifa University to drive down costs and increase efficiency of solar cells

By Dr. Ammar Nayfeh

While harnessing the power of the sun is nothing new – Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect in 1839 whereby electricity is generated from sunlight – finding increasingly better ways to convert an ever larger share of sunlight into electricity has become arguably one of the most important research challenges of our time.

When first discovered, photovoltaic power was very inefficient. Even when the first commercial solar photovoltaic panel was unveiled in 1954, it converted just 6 percent of the energy from sunlight to electricity. The first solar panels used selenium, but researchers in the 1950s realized that semiconducting materials like silicon were more efficient. The only problem? Silicon solar cells were expensive to produce—and the 6 percent efficiency rate was achieved with a silicon solar cell.

We have made significant progress over the past 50 years. Today, the most efficient solar panel on the market has an efficiency rating of 22.2 percent. But as solar power becomes responsible for delivering a large and exponentially growing fraction of the world’s energy needs, improving efficiency even further is critical.

Solar power presents a problem of two halves: getting high-efficiency cells but at a low cost. Khalifa University, through its flagship research institute Masdar Institute, has long been at the forefront of research into solar technology and its projects have been solving this problem.

As Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Khalifa University, I lead on a number of projects aimed at advancing new materials and devices to improve solar cell efficiencies.

One such project was the result of a collaboration between Khalifa University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We developed an innovative multi-junction solar cell that leverages a unique ‘step-cell’ design approach and low-cost silicon using gallium arsenide phosphide-based materials. The new step-cell combines two different layers of sunlight-absorbing material to harvest a broader range of the sun’s energy and benefits from a novel, low-cost manufacturing process.

Former Khalifa University PhD Student and now professor at University of Dubai, Dr. Sabina Abdul Hadi, provided the foundational research for this step-cell as part of her doctoral thesis. She realized that when the top gallium arsenide phosphide layer completely covered the bottom silicon layer, the lower energy photos were absorbed by the silicon germanium—the substrate on which the gallium arsenide phosphide is grown—thus limiting solar cell efficiency. By etching away the top layer and exposing some of the silicon layer, she was able to increase the efficiency and add a new degree of freedom in the design.

The step cell design allows for cheaper fabrication and, while there is still a lot of research and development that needs to be undertaken prior to commercialization, innovations like this are an exciting part of a rapidly growing research area and industry.

In traditional silicon-based PV cells, only some of the sun’s wavelengths from the visible light spectrum are absorbed and converted into electricity. Much of the research being done by me and my research group is focused on exploring how to use advanced materials to access the full spectrum of solar energy.

For example, the use of silicon and gold nanomaterials on solar cells was investigated with two KU MSc graduates, Kazi Islam and Farsad Chowdhury. We demonstrated that by using nanomaterials on the surface of solar cells, we can enhance the solar cells’ light trapping properties. The nanoparticles increase a solar cell’s ability to absorb sunlight by increasing the amount of surface scattering or by having the ability to absorb photons and re-emit them at a lower energy the solar cell can use.

In another project with Dr. Nazek El Etab, PhD graduate from KU and current Postdoc at KAUST in Saudi Arabia, we used atomic layer deposition (ALD) – an advanced method of coating a material by depositing it in thin films, one atomic layer at a time – to grow zirconium dioxide and zinc oxide nanomaterials. We layered the nanomaterials on a solar cell to enhance efficiency.

With former Khalifa University PhD student Dr. Aaesha Alnuaimi, currently Head of Solar Research at Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), we fabricated graphene-silicon solar cells by introducing a thin layer of a high dielectric constant material, which is an insulator that becomes polarized when an electric field is applied, also using the ALD method. The efficiency of the graphene-silicon solar cells quadrupled with the interlayer relative to the same cells without the interlayer.

Developing new methods to make high-efficient solar cells affordable is a major focus of my research. I worked with Dr. Ghada Dushaq, PhD graduate from KU and current Postdoc at New York University Abu Dhabi, to develop a low temperature germanium growth method for gallium arsenide using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Germanium provides a crystal lattice compatible with that of gallium arsenide and so the germanium layer can be used as the bottom cell in a multi junction solar cell, or as a virtual substrate on which to grow gallium arsenide. Gallium arsenide is a semiconductor material that allows more efficient photon absorption and high output power density than most materials. In a current collaboration with Stanford University, we recently demonstrated an important breakthrough in the growth of gallium arsenide directly on a low-temperature germanium layer.

More recently, Khadija Jumaa, a 2019 KU MSc graduate, presented a paper at the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) conference in Chicago in June 2019 on the most efficient way to grow amorphous silicon, which are used in thin-film silicon solar cells, using a PECVD growth method. In this work, she studied how different temperatures affect the growth of amorphous silicon using PECVD, and determined the optimal temperature required to grow amorphous silicon, which will contribute towards finding even cheaper and more sustainable ways to develop amorphous silicon for lower-cost solar cells.

All this advanced material based solar research work leverages the outstanding clean room and testing facility we have in the UAE at the Khalifa University Masdar Institute campus.

As the team from Khalifa University works towards developing new materials and devices for high-efficiency solar panels to global energy production, it is inspiring and encouraging to know that research like this in the UAE can lead to an avalanche of improvements down the line, creating potential for a technological leap in the industry, at a time when the world is looking to renewable energy to power an increasingly energy-hungry planet.

Dr. Ammar Nayfeh is Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Khalifa University of Science and Technology

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