Physics of Renewable Energy Systems

For a country like India, renewable energy will play an important in ensuring energy safety, security and sustainability. With the fast growing demand in off-grid applications in areas extending from villages to hills, newer technologies will have to be MADE IN INDIA. We will start with the basics of energy sources ranging from thermal, mechanical, and photovoltaic sources. The lectures will cover the topics on electricity generation using solar cells, use of solar heaters, solar based mobiles chargers to use of solar cookers in India. Subsequently, we will shift our attention on wind, water, tidal and geothermal power. At the end, the need of efficient energy storage technologies will be discussed. These include Li batteries and supercapacitors.The additional required concepts such as free electron model, p-n junction, coriolis force, turbulence, standing waves, thermodynamics, capacitors, crystal structure, etc. will also be discussed.The basics of various characterization techniques useful for evaluating energy systems will also be explained. These include cyclic voltammetry, charge discharge, EIS, quantum efficiency, etc. will be explained.INTENDED AUDIENCE : Integrated M.Sc. : Physics, material science, energy science B.Tech: Energy Science, Engineering Physics, Electrical, Mechanical Industry: Related to Power systems, Energy Storage M.Tech.: Energy Sciences, Materials Science, Physics, Mechanical, ElectricalPREREQUISITES : Upto 3rd Year courses of the B.Tech. Degree.INDUSTRY SUPPORT : Su-Kam power systems Ltd Luminous Power Technologies Loom Solar Suzlon Energy Limited Orient Green Power Limited Exide Batteries Vikram Solar Maxwell technologies Hy-Cap Technologies

Week 1 : Basics of semiconductor, nanomaterials and nanotechnology Week 2 : Renewable energy sources and classifications Week 3 : Solar Power Week 4 : Wind Power Week 5 : Hydro, Tidal and Geothermal Systems
Week 6 : Energy storage Technology: Classification and principle Week 7 : Fuel cells: Principles, Classifications and Operations Week 8 : Supercapacitors and Battery Week 9 : Energy storage mechanism Week 10 : Effect of double layer in energy storage: Chemical approach Week 11 : Characterization techniques: I Week 12 : Characterization techniques II