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Durham Energy Institute

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Durham Energy Institute (DEI) is a research institute located within Durham University, England. It was launched in September 2009 for research in the fields of energy technology and society. The current Executive Director is Professor Jon Gluyas.

The principal aim of the DEI is to find solutions for societal aspects of energy use and so

Research

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The DEI has expertise in a number of energy technology areas:

  • Fundamental science into cheaper more efficient energy materials
  • Developing future energy generation technologies such as hydrogen and nuclear fusion
  • Designing energy systems which are smarter, more flexible, people-centred and sustainable
  • Understanding the social, economic and political processes which shape the energy world so we can build a brighter future.

Biofuels

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Biofuels covers a range of technologies, either where biological material is readily converted to an energy source, or living organisms produce a fuel source.[1] The DEI undertakes research on Microalgae biofuels, Cellulosic Crops and aspects related to intellectual property and the social pressures on biofuel policy.[2][3]

Photovoltaics

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The DEI undertakes photovoltaics research (PV) on the fundamental science that underpins both organic and inorganic PV devices right through to their design, manufacturing and deployment.[4] Key areas are: organic PV, inorganic PV, hybrid organic-inorganic structures and the underpinning systems required to successfully deploy PV.[5][6][7]

Energy generation, transmission and distribution

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Includes wind, wave, hydro, microgeneration, smart grids, and grid integration of renewables.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Geo-energy

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The Centre for Research into Earth Energy Systems (CeREES), formed in January 2006, performs research into topics such as the exploitation of fossil fuels and shale gas, carbon capture and storage, geothermal energy, and coal pollution mitigation.[15]

Energy and Society

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Energy and society research at the DEI is committed to developing pragmatic solutions to contemporary energy issues, including renewable energy, energy distribution, geopolitical security and climate change.[16] The Society and Energy Research Cluster at DEI is fundamentally interdisciplinary, drawing on the expertise of a wide range of social and physical science disciplines across the University. The ambition of the cluster is to develop new theoretical approaches to current energy research challenges based on the conception of energy systems as socio-technical.[17][18][19][20]

Economics, Regulation, and Policy

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Includes resource management and pricing, technological change and innovation, carbon finance, economics of renewables, environmental impacts, consumer behaviour.[21][22][23] [24][25][26]

Technologies for fusion energy

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Pragmatic low-carbon solutions to the UK energy challenges will inevitably include nuclear energy. Fusion energy provides an alternative nuclear route. It is a demanding technology that includes holding a plasma burning at 100 million degrees.[27] However the fuel is derived from seawater (i.e. essentially limitless), the levels of toxic materials are very much less than produced using fission because of the short lifetimes of the materials involved and fusion technology is not a weapons technology. Work at Durham includes the Superconductivity Group,[28] the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Group,[29] and the European Reference Laboratory.[30][31][32]

Its board of advisors includes Ian Burdon, Benj Sykes DONG Energy, John Loughhead UKERC, Helen Moss IBM and Andrew Mill Narec.

Durham Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy (CDT in Energy)

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The Durham CDT in Energy forms an important and integral part of the DEI, offering an interdisciplinary postgraduate research training programme in energy.[33]

MSc Energy and Society

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The MSc Energy and Society is led by Durham University's Anthropology Department, in association with the Durham Energy Institute and its partner departments (including Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities). Unique among Masters programmes, the course emphasizes the insights that the social sciences can offer to energy and development, and vice versa.[34]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Durham Energy Institute (11 June 2015). "Durham Energy Institute : Biofuels - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  2. ^ Wells, V., Greenwell, F., Covey, J., Rosenthal, H., Adcock, M. & Gregory-Smith, D. 2013. An exploratory investigation of barriers and enablers affecting investment in renewable companies and technologies in the UK. Interface Focus
  3. ^ Rowbotham, J.S.; Dyer, P.W.; Greenwell, H.C.; Selby, D.A.; Theodorou, M.K., 2012 “Copper(II)–mediated thermolysis of alginates: A model kinetic study on the influence of metal ions in the thermochemical processing of macroalgae”, Royal Society Interface Focus
  4. ^ Durham Energy Institute. "Durham Energy Institute : Photovoltaics - Fundamental Science Through to Manufacturing Design - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  5. ^ Halliday, DP, Claridge, R, Goodman, MCJ, Mendis, BG, Durose, K & Major, JD. 2013. Luminescence of Cu2ZnSnS4 polycrystals described by the fluctuating potential model. Journal of Applied Physics 113(22): 223503, 223503-1 - 223503-10.
  6. ^ Groves, C (2013). Suppression of geminate charge recombination in organic photovoltaic devices with a cascaded energy heterojunction. Energy and Environmental Science 6: 1546-1551.
  7. ^ Jankus, Vygintas, Chiang, Chien-Jung, Dias, Fernando & Monkman, Andrew P. 2013. Deep Blue Exciplex Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with Enhanced Efficiency; P-type or E-type Triplet Conversion to Singlet Excitons?. Advanced Materials 25(10): 1455-1459.
  8. ^ Durham Energy Institute (10 June 2015). "Durham Energy Institute : Generation, Transmission and Distribution - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  9. ^ •Chiu, W.-Y., Sun, Hongjian & Poor, H. V. 2013. Energy Imbalance Management Using a Robust Pricing Scheme. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 4(2): 896-904.
  10. ^ Tavner, P J 2012. Offshore Wind Turbines- Reliability, Availability & Maintenance. Institution of Engineering and Technology.
  11. ^ Dent, C. J., Bialek, J. W. & Hobbs, B. F. 2011. Opportunity Cost Bidding by Wind Generators in Forward Markets: Analytical Results. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 26(3): 1600-1608.
  12. ^ Dent, C. J., Ochoa, L. F., Harrison, G. P. & Bialek, J. W. 2010. Efficient Secure AC OPF for Network Generation Capacity Assessment. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 25(1): 575-583.
  13. ^ Blake, S. & Taylor, P. 2010. Aspects of Risk Assessment in Distribution System Asset Management: Case Studies. In Handbook of Power Systems. Rebennack, S., Pardalos, P., Pereira, M. & Iliadis, N. Berlin, Germany: Springer. 931-962.
  14. ^ Yang, W., Tavner, P. J., Crabtree, C. J. & Wilkinson, M. 2010. Cost-effective condition monitoring for wind turbines. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 57(1): 263-271.
  15. ^ Durham Energy Institute (10 June 2015). "Durham Energy Institute : Geo-Energy - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  16. ^ Durham Energy Institute (16 August 2015). "Durham Energy Institute : Society and Energy - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  17. ^ Bulkeley, H. & Castán Broto, V. 2013. Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 38(3): 361-375.
  18. ^ Knight, D. & Bell, S. 2013. Pandora's Box: photovoltaic energy and economic crisis in Greece. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 5(3): 033110.
  19. ^ Adams, A., Taylor, P. & Bell, S. 2012. Equity Dimensions of Micro-generation: A whole systems approach. Journal of Renewable Sustainable Energy 4(5).
  20. ^ Bulkeley, H. and Newell, P. (2010) Governing Climate Change, Routledge, London.
  21. ^ Durham Energy Institute (10 June 2015). "Durham Energy Institute : Economics, Regulation and Policy - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  22. ^ Meier, H., Jamasb, T. & Orea, L. (2013). Necessity or Luxury Good? Household Energy Spending and Income in Britain 1991-2007. The Energy Journal Forthcoming.
  23. ^ Sen, A. & Jamasb, T. (2012). Diversity in Unity: An Empirical Analysis of Electricity Deregulation in Indian States. The Energy Journal 33(1): 83-130.
  24. ^ Adcock, M D. 2007. Intellectual property, GM crops and Bioethics. Biotechnology 2: 1088-1092.
  25. ^ Whynes, D., Frew, E.J., Philips, Z.N., Covey, J. & Smith, R.D. 2007. On the numerical forms of contingent valuation responses. Journal of Economic Psychology 28: 462-476.
  26. ^ Bischi, G. I., Sbragia, L. & Szidarovszky, F. 2008. Learning the Demand Function in a Repeated Cournot Oligopoly Game. International Journal of Systems Science 39(4): 403-419.
  27. ^ "Introduction to fusion". Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  28. ^ "Durham University Superconductivity Group - Home Page".
  29. ^ Centre for Advanced Instrumentation. "Centre for Advanced Instrumentation - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  30. ^ P. Sunwong, J. S. Higgins, Y. Tsui, M. J. Raine and D. P. Hampshire. 2013. The critical current density of grain boundary channels in polycrystalline HTS and LTS superconductors in magnetic fields - SUST 26 095006
  31. ^ G. J. Carty and D. P. Hampshire. 2013. The critical current density of an SNS Josephson-junction in high magnetic fields - SuST 26 065007
  32. ^ Larbalestier, DC, Osamura, K & Hampshire, DP 2008. MEM07: The 5th annual workshop on mechanical and electromagnetic properties of composite superconductors (princeton, NJ, USA, 21–24 August 2007). Superconductor Science & Technology 21(5): 2.
  33. ^ Durham Energy Institute. "Durham Energy Institute : - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  34. ^ Department of Anthropology (20 November 2015). "Department of Anthropology : Energy and Society MSc - Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
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