Participating in SOLNET (Marie Curie EST project), the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory offers a PhD scholarship to develop a research work in photovoltaic-thermal hybrid generation. SOLNET is the first coordinated international PhD education program o­n Solar Thermal Engineering. In the framework of SOLNET project ten coordinated PhD-projects will be carried out. The common scope of the network research activities is to lay the foundations for a new generation of cost-efficient solar heating systems and of combined solar heating and cooling systems.

SOLNET is the first coordinated international PhD education program on Solar Thermal Engineering:

• European expert knowledge and experience in the education field is brought together.
• Biannual courses will be offered to the network students and other PhD students working in the field.
• 10 additional PhD projects will be carried out in Europe in the field of thermal solar energy.
• PhD students already active in this field will be involved in the SOLNET research and training activities as well.
• Course material developed will be made generally accessible.

The SOLNET consortium consists of nine university research groups from seven different European countries and involves six commercial enterprises as secondment hosts.

The research will be carried out in the fields of civil, mechanical, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. In the framework of the EST project ten coordinated PhD-projects will be carried out. The common scope of the network research activities is to lay the foundations for a new generation of cost-efficient solar heating systems and of combined solar heating and cooling systems.

Course topics and PhD topics are chosen to cover all the relevant fields: The courses cover system components, innovative materials, system evaluations and optimisation strategies, the overall energy situation in Europe, societal issues and they convey complementary skills. The overall research training project will be monitored during project meetings taking place in the framework of the bi-annual course modules, with student presentations, forums, and project discussions. In annual plenary network meetings, supervisors as well as PhD students and external experts will evaluate results of the o­ngoing research and the network activities.

Key Elements of the Research Activities The common target of the research project is to develop and investigate solar heating and combined solar heating and cooling systems that pave the way for covering a greater fraction of the total heating and cooling load. Experimental and computational studies shall be carried out o­n systems, components and applications.

The research topics cover:

• system components (e.g., advanced collectors, stores, cooling cycles),
• system integration aspects (interaction of the solar thermal system with an auxiliary energy supply system and the different heat consumers),
• new materials (e.g., phase change materials),
• new applications (air-conditioning, solar sorption cooling), and
• numerical system modelling (system investigations, mathematical optimisation).

Collaboration between groups will be based o­n exchange of students, modelling tools and common boundary conditions. The individual research topics for the individual PhD projects are listed below. They are in line with the priorities within the field of solar thermal as defined by the EUREC agency. The 10 PhD topics are: Location Subject Focus 1. Darlana (SE) Investigations of solar and pellet heating systems experimental , simulations 2. Lund (SE) 3. Kgs. Lyngby (DK) document1 theoretical and experimental investigations 4. Kassel (DE) Mathematical optimisation of the planing of solar heating systems. simulations, theoretical Investigation of components of a solar cooling system using liquid dessicants experimental 5. Prague (CZ) Building integrated solar thermal collectors for SHC component development, simulations, experimental work 6. Stuttgart (DE) document1 7. Graz (AT) 8. Milan (IT) 9. Lleida (ES) PV- thermal generator optimised for solar heating and cooling applications theoretical and experimental investigations

For more information:
www.uni-kassel.de/fb15/ite/solar/solnet/