Educational Work of the Sustainable Energy Research Group

NEW: MSc Programmes in Energy and Sustainability

The Sustainable Energy Research Group is actively involved in the University of Southampton’s new MSc programmes on 'Energy and Sustainability' which have been designed to equip the next generation of energy professionals with the multidisciplinary approach required to tackle climate change while improving energy supply, transport and the built environment.

more details on the programmes

Student Projects Supervised by SERG

SERG provides individual project study for postgraduate taught course students (MSc’s in Environmental Science and Sustainable Energy Technologies) who have an interest in energy. This is in addition to group and individual undergraduate projects for students from the School of Civil Engineering and Environment. Recent projects include:

(a) MSc Environmental Science

Lee D. (2007) – Ground Source Heat Pumps.
Danny Lee has been studying the barriers and drivers to the take up of ground source heat pump technology in the South East of the UK. Climate change provides a clear opportunity for this ‘energy multiplier’ technology, offering lower carbon emissions and the possibility of summer cooling as required.

Moore A. (2007) – Microgen-London: An assessment of the 20% renewable target from onsite microgeneration in the proposed London Plan update.
Andrew Moore has been looking at the impact of the London Plan for renewables on buildings from the developer, operator, end user and designer perspective. His work (on-line questionnaires and ‘one to one’ interviews with key stakeholders) has highlighted the disparity of views that exist as well as the perceptions concerning the appropriateness and the risk associated with technologies.

download Andrew Moore's MSC thesis as pdf-file

(b) MSc Sustainable Energy Technologies

Bakker N.A.J. (2007) – A solar driven air compressor.
Nick Bakker designed a solar collector based on the heating of air within an airtight, highly insulated glazed box. A transient simulation package (TRNSYS) was used to refine the principle of the design. A scale prototype was fabricated and tested in Athens during the August/September 2007. Performance of the prototype highlighted a number of design issues which have led to refinement of the model.

Energy Resources and Engineering
Part 4 / MSc Course

Members of the Sustainable Energy Research Group are running the Part 4 / MSc 'Energy Resources and Engineering' course which deals with various aspects of energy generation, distribution and consumption, carbon legislation and energy efficiency measures. The course aims to give the students a broad understanding of the issues from a 3 stage resource – converter – end user perspective to enable the development of engineering solutions. The course covers renewable energy systems as well as traditional power technologies.

An integral part of the assessment of this course is as a mini-conference event where students produce a poster and present their study to the group (5 minute pitch).

more details on the course

CPD Courses Offered by SERG

The Sustainable Energy Research Group offers CPD courses across the range of its expertise. For example, with research partners from the University of Greenwich a workshop on passive and active microgeneration technologies was held with 60 people of Greenwich Council participating. A further CPD event was conducted at the launch of the 'Sustainable Energy Centre' of Warmafloor in Fareham, Hampshire. Please contact us if you are interested in further information on CPD course possibilities.

Email serg@soton.ac.uk

Renewable Energy Solutions for Schools

The Sustainable Energy Research Group cooperates with Southampton City Council looking at microgeneration technologies for Southampton's schools. The group is involved in site assessment for specific technologies and consults the council on energy efficiency issues in schools. Furthermore, thermography surveys are being conducted. It is intended to use the sustainable energy solutions suggested for the schools for educational purposes.

Within previous projects in renewables education in schools SERG has been involved with Sparsholt Schools Centre for Environmental Education. Within a Master of Engineering, Group Design Project, an interactive educational display for photovoltaic (PV) systems was developed for the centre. This system integrates a series of displays to demonstrate the effect of the level of sunlight, time of the day and cloud-cover on electricity production of the centre's educational PV array.