The Summer School, which will be held in person in Cyprus, revolves around the polygenerative research facility PROTEAS. The facility has been primarily designed to cogenerate electricity and desalinated water. Over time, the facility has been upgraded with additional renewable energy sources capable of supplying the electricity needs of the auxiliaries and produce extra electricity to the grid. The facility comprises a wind turbine, two dish-Stirling units, solar PV collectors, batteries and thermal storage. The Rankine cycle associates a steam turbine and a Multi-Effect Distillation Unit to produce both electricity and desalinated water. The facility also hosts a Forward Osmosis unit.

The school focuses on the renewable energy systems featured at the PROTEAS facility as well as hybrid storage systems. The first day of the school will include lectures on solar energy concentration principles and their real-world applications, such as solar thermal processing for industry and chemical applications at very high temperatures (> 1000 degrees). There follows a hands-on training session on the benefits of machine learning in solar concentration technologies. Participants will then be transferred to PROTEAS facility in Limassol, where they will be offered a tour and hands-on training. On the second day, participants will learn about drone techniques applied to solar concentration technologies. The course will also focus on the key point of thermal storage via its environmental impacts. In addition, an overview of the ray-tracing software Tonatiuh++, developed by The Cyprus Institute will be provided. The school will conclude with a discussion on the emerging of the hydrogen. Participants will be asked to complete an assignment in the form of a multiple-choice test based on the topics covered throughout the summer school.

Please note that online participation in the summer school is not possible. 

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Apply solar concentration technologies according to the energy needs.
• Apply thermal storage technologies according to the energy needs.
• List the different desalination technologies.
• Describe the drones’ scanning solution.
• List the different hydrogen forms.
• Define the advantages of thermal storage.

Course Prerequisites

Background knowledge in mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, applied physics and/or energy.

For more information on the course, please see the Course Handbook.