Powerful Places. Harnessing Solar Energy at Swansea
Innovative research about buildings and solar power has earned one of Swansea University’s Engineering Experts the prestigious Bessemer gold medal. Professor Dave Worsley has been honoured for his work revealing how coated steel can harness solar energy while at the same time, help cut carbon emissions. The award is named after Sir Henry Bessemer, a pioneer in modern steelmaking and is given out by the Institute of Materials, Metals and Mining.
Professor Worsley has been given the award for outstanding services to the steel industry, during his thirty-year career in the Engineering Department at Swansea University. As Professor Worsley explains,
“Each year Tata Steel in the UK produces 100 million square metres of building cladding that ends up as the facades and roofs of buildings. Innovations in coating technology mean these are guaranteed for up to 40 years. These products are essentially stable but ‘dumb’ in that they do not do anything but look nice and keep the rain out!
However, these materials could be smart. They could have energy-generation technology built into them, to absorb the sun’s energy and generate power. “
Professor Worsley says the UK is not the only country involved in this innovation, but that work is also happening in India and Mexico with local communities using simple printing presses to make solar cells on the spot. He says that surplus energy from solar-powered buildings could possibly be used for things like charging electric vehicles or providing power to communities that don’t have access to the grid.
Dave Worsley is also a co-director of SPECIFIC, a Swansea-led project which designs and constructs what are called active buildings, which generate, store and release their own power.
Would you like to find out more about Engineering at Swansea and how to become part of innovative projects like this? Contact Canadian agent Barclay Educational Services if you are interested in applying from Canada for any of the excellent postgraduate programs available there. Email Jackie at JSB@barclayedu.com Services are FREE to students. Swansea University pays the fee. Start Studying Engineering at Swansea in Fall 2021!
