Renewable Energy Engineering Masters (MSc): Events and lectures

There are always interesting activities taking place at Kingston and exciting opportunities to take advantage of.

Our lively research culture is reflected in our regular seminars. Recent examples include:

• International Conference on Autoclaved Aerated Concrete;
• Recent Advances in the Micromechanics of Ductile Fracture;
• Environmental Degradation in Adhesively Bonded Structures;
• Modelling of Deformation and Failure of Polymers: Why is Bridging of Length and Time Scales Necessary?; and
• Why Bolt It When You Can Bond It? The Gluing Evolution.

Tony Brook, managing director of Riomay presented a lecture on solar photo voltaic tube technology to students studying the Renewable Energy Engineering MSc course at the Roehampton Vale campus.

Within the lecture, Tony put into perspective the size of Earth in relationship to the sun and the relatively recent history (40 years ago) of understanding the aurora and the use of magnetic fields with the harnessing of solar energy.

With the decline in available oil resource and global political issues; sustainability and the use of renewable energy is at the forefront of many major decisions for businesses and development; referring to the Merton Rule (renewable energy use within new developments) which culminated in implementation at national level within the UK.

Whist different forms of renewable energy were adopted in parts of the UK to those in north-western Europe; equally there have been challenges with the use of geo thermal and biomass renewable energy, with solar thermal being the more favoured renewable resource.

Solar systems

Tony Brook explained the benefits of solar tubes (developed by Riomay) versus flat plate systems, as it produces a higher level of efficiency that can be used for both commercial and domestic application, irrespective of scale or size and illustrated a number of companies (national and global) who have incorporated the solar photo voltaic system.