Infrastructure

The research activity within the RESREC centre is set up using the infrastructure that is continuously extended through grants and contracts. Moreover, installations for synthesis of the materials and experimental booths are being placed in the L11 building, on the terraces of labs and in the surrounding area of these labs.

 The location of RESREC at the University’s Research and Development Centre

The RESREC centre has a complex infrastructure which allows for the design, development, modeling, testing and validation of renewable energy systems especially in the built environment. The infrastructure consists in: 

a) Outdoor experimental booths:

Lab L11- Terrace:

  • Photovoltaic system made of 3 strings, of 11 kWp

 Lab L7 – Terrace:

  • A weather station and a SOLIS system for monitoring and characterizing the solar radiation
  • 3 PV modules (0.75 kWp) with different orientation systems
  • PV fixed surface with different types of modules
  • Flexible PV modules, assembled in a fixed position
  • Cooling system with two solar-thermal pipe shaped collectors
  • A flexible solar-thermal platform
  • An experimental booth for the durability of solar-thermal collectors under saline aerosols

In the field:

  • 5 flexible PV platforms with five different types of modules (mono and polycrystalline, CdTe, CIGS and CIS)

Labs L1 and L6- Terrace:

  • 2 small eolian farms of 0.9 kW and 1.8 kW

The terrace of every building with labs

  • Two solar-thermal collectors of different types, set at different angles

Indoor experimental booths:

  • Horizontal solar stimulator with UV+VIS (max. 1000 W/m2) radiation and controlled air power for testing PV modules and flat plate solar-thermal collectors 
  • Vertical solar stimulator with UV+VIS (1000 W/m2) radiation for testing PV modules, vertically installed solar collectors (building’s facades) and photo catalytic processes.
  • Climatic room (8m3), stimulating humidity, frost, fog under different radiance conditions

b) Software design for:
  • Solar-thermal systems
  • Photo voltaic systems
  • Photo catalytic processes

           

Among these, the RESRES centre includes the infrastructure for obtaining and characterizing photoactive materials and composites.

a) Synthesis and material deposition

  • Robotic thin film deposition by pyrolysis spray (SPD);
  • Electrochemical synthesis (anodizing, cathodic deposition)
  • Autoclaves with temperature control
  • Injection moulding machine
  • Ultrasonic machining
  • Dip-coating equipment
  • Furnaces and desiccator cabinets

b) Characterization of materials
  • Diffraction X-ray machine (Brueker Advanced D8)
  • Atomic force microscope (NT-MDT NtegraSpectra), electron microscope with EDX (SEM+EDX), BET analyser (Quantachrome), ecquipment for measuring the angle of bite (Data Physics)
  • Potentiostat (Biological PAR) for optoelectronic measurements with Oriel radiation source
  • Differential calorimeter (DSC, Perkin Elmer)
  • Photometric spectra UV-VIS-NIR (Perkin Elmer) and FTIR (Perkin Elmer)
  • The testing of mechanical properties: stretch- deformation and compression (Zwick) and impact (Gabaldini)
  • Accelerated tests for corrosion and ageing unresistance: climatic chamber and potentiometric corrosion cell

c)Photocatalytic testing
  • Static photoreactor with adjustable UV and VIS radiation source
  • Active photoreactor for processes with photocatalytic dispersal
  • Photoreactors for photocatalysis and absorbtion using pellets and filterable dispersions with adjustable UV and VIS radiation

Photoreactor with a thin-film and continuous use, for photocatalysis and absorption processes