Doctoral dissertation: Sustainable Transition in a Developing Country Context: Drivers and Barriers for Renewable Energy Technologies in Sri Lanka

Our PhD candidate at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Nanthini Nagarajah will be defending her PhD Thesis on Monday, 20th of November, 2023 at 11.30 am. Title of Nanthini’s PhD thesis is ‘Sustainable Transition in a Developing Country Context: Drivers and Barriers for Renewable Energy Technologies in Sri Lanka’. She will also deliver a talk on “The collaborative role of the universities to facilitate just energy transitions in the global South” prior to the PhD defence from 10 am, the same day.

This PhD project was supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy under our collaboartive project with University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Special thanks to the Royal Norwegian Embassy  and the NORPART program funded by Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-Dir).

A visit to the ANCEHA research lab by the Knowledge Cluster in sustainable energy transition of Western Norway

Charlotte Gannefors Krafft, Senior Advisor and General Manager of the Knowledge Cluster Energy Change VEST (EOV) from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Bergen visited the HVL research lab on 1 December 2021 and met with the ANCEHA researchers from Sri Lanka and India working on different materials and technologies. The students demonstrated their ongoing research on organic solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells and luminescent solar concentrator, energy storage through super capacitors and photo-capacitors, and hydrogen production through water splitting. They further shared with the Senior Advisor the opportunities and challenges they have experienced in developing these materials.

 

 

Research pitch at faculty gathering

The Faculty of Engineering and Science of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences held its annual faculty gathering on 25-26 November 2021, adhering to the guidelines specified by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Parallel sessions with presentations, panel discussions and workshops by the different departments on their ongoing activities and research were the highlights of the end of year gathering. The academic session on 25 November 2021 included a research pitch where 10 PhD students from the faculty were challenged to pitch their PhD research in 3 minutes to the general audience. Three PhDs attached to the ANCEHA research group also participated in this research pitch and they included Fatemeh Heidari Gourji, Håkon Eidsvåg and Nanthini Nagarajah.

 

 

ANCEHA receives a new NORPART project funding from HK-Dir

We, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), are delighted to announce that we are awarded a new NORPART project funding by Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-Dir) for another five years from 2022 to 2026 with our partners, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. University of Bergen, University of Peradeniya (SL), National Insititute of Fundemental Studies (NIFS, SL) and industrial partners from Norway and Sri Lanka are active collaborators in this project on Advanced Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Technologies. This is the second NORPART project awarded to us by HK-Dir. Aim of the project is to develop efficient and affordable clean energy solutions for all.

The funding will be primarily used for joint research, industrial collaboration and mobility of students/staff between the partner institutions. Large number of Master and PhD students from Norway and Sri Lanka will have research stays at Universities in both countries. Number of students from SL will also be awarded full-degree Master scholarships at HVL and UiB in Norway through this project. This project will help the partners to enhance the research and higher education collaboration to new hights! Thanks to HKDir and all the partners! Special thanks go also to the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka for providing funding for another capacity building project since 2017.

Får millioner til å videreføre utdanningssamarbeid på Sri Lanka

Research Days 2021- Forskningsdagene 2021

‘Research Days 2021’ in Bergen was celebrated from 22nd September to 3rd October 2021 starting with school visits on 22-24 September 2021. This year the researchers from different universities in Bergen visited schools. The ANCEHA researchers based at HVL, Bergen visited Rå Skole and Apeltun Skole, Bergen on 22nd and 24th September 2021 and demonstrated emerging solutions on energy production and energy storage based on their research findings. The demonstration was titled “How should we solve energy crisis?”

On 01 October 2021, the Researcher Grand Prix was held where 10 researchers were given four minutes to pitch their research in front of 200 guests before three were voted through to the final. Håkon Eidsvåg, PhD research fellow at HVL and from the ANCEHA research group participated in this Prix and pitched his research. His research focuses on green hydrogen production which can be used as fuel in cars, ships, buses, planes or replace oil, gas and coal in industry. This method involves using materials which when immersed in water creates hydrogen by using the incoming solar light to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Photo credit: Øyvind Ganesh Eknes

Solenergi og nanopartikler, nye muligheter

Vanligvis snakker vi om solenergi og mener energi fra solcellepaneler basert på silisum. Av og til snakker vi om solenergi som solvarme.

Men denne gangen snakker vi om solenergi på flere andre måter, Grätzel-celler, eller såkalte dye-sensitized solar cells. Vi får også høre om solfangere med nanopartikler for mindre varmetap, og hydrogenproduksjon der sol-lys produserer hydrogen direkte, med nano-partikler.

HVL har også en solenergilab i Bergen, der man kan hente konkret erfaringsdata for solenergiinnstråling, og produksjon, både til solceller og solfangere.
Dette får du høre om i podcastepisoden med professor Boris Balakin (Institutt for maskin- og marinfag) og professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai (Institutt for datateknologi, elektroteknologi og realfag) ved Høgskulen på Vestlandet, HVL.

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Takk: https://solenergiklyngen.no/