Professor Sarah Mc Cormack

Determining the Parameters for Luminescent Spectral shifting Devices at Windows that Enable Energy-efficient Enhancement of Daylight, Particularly its Circadian Entrainment Luminance, in Low-daylight Conditions and Poorly-daylit Locations Light in the short wavelength range is effective in maintaining the human circadian clock. At particular times of the day in specific locations away from windows deeper in buildings the natural penetration of daylight may not provide sufficient circadian luminance to maintain healthily synchronized biorhythms. Luminescent lightshelves are a wholly new concept that have the potential to concentrate low intensity sunlight, modify its colour and project that light deep into a room. This research will bring this concept into reality. It will examine what set of properties, characteristics and design for luminescent shelves enables the delivery of desired daylight properties into a room where low daylight would otherwise prevail in a predetermined manner Providing daylight concentration and appropriate spectral shifting enables daylight to be projected deep into poorly daylit spaces, as well as being able to potentially provide lighting conditions that maintain biorhythmic health. This can be accomplished without incurring, the energy use associated with achieving this with artificial lighting. It also obviates the need for the output complex controls associated with accomplishing this with artificial lighting as natural temporal variations in solar illuminance directly produce corresponding temporal variations in the, intensified and spectrally modified, output illuminance.

Buildings play a significant role in the global energy balance. Typically, they account for 20-30% of the total primary energy requirement of industrialized countries, 40% in EU1 . Global buildings sector energy intensity (final energy per m2 ) fell by 1.3% per year between 2010 and 2014, thanks to continued adoption and enforcement of building energy codes and efficiency standards. Yet progress has not been fast enough to offset growth in floor area (3% per year globally) and increasing demand for energy services in buildings2 . Applying the proposed integrated RES to buildings is an important application for wider integration and deployment of renewable energy and to achieving our binding EU targets of at least a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2030, compared to 1990 and at least 27% of renewable energy in EU3 . The IDEAS project will create an innovative building integrated renewable energy system (RES) which will cost effectively exceed current RES efficiencies, generating electricity, heat and cooling, and being optimised for multifamily, public and commercial buildings in different climatic conditions. The IDEAS system will provide 100% renewable energy to the multifamily, commercial or public building with an estimated 12 year payback where the unit price per kWh for the compared systems shows that the IDEAS system can reduce CO2 emission by 100% with the surplus kWh used in IDEAS system operation.

Applying photovoltaic (PV) panels to buildings is an important application for wider PV deployment and to achieving our 20% Renewable Energy EU targets by 2020. PEDAL will develop a disruptive PV technology where record increases in efficiency are achieved and costs dramatically reduced; (1) Diffuse solar radiation will be captured to produce higher efficiencies with concentration ratios over 3 in plasmonically enhanced luminescent solar concentrators (PLSC). Current LSC efficiency achieved is 7.1%, [1]. This proposal will boost efficiency utilising metal nanoparticles (MNP) tuned to luminescent material type in LSCs, to induce plasmonic enhancement of emission (PI and team have achieved 53% emission enhancement). MNP will be aligned to enable directional emission within the LSC (being patented by PI and team). These are both huge steps in the reduction of loss mechanisms within the device and towards major increases in efficiency. (2) Plasmonically enhanced luminescent downshifting thin-films (PLDS) will be tailored to increase efficiency of solar cells independent of material composition. MNP will be used, where the plasmonic resonance will be tailored to the luminescent species to downshift UV. MNP will be aligned to enable directional emission within the PLDS layer, reducing losses enabling dramatic increases in a layer adaptable to all solar cells. (3) These novel systems will be designed, up-scaled and a building integrated component fabricated, with the ability not only to generate power but with options for demand side management. Previous work has been limited by quantum efficiency of luminescent species, with this breakthrough in both the use of MNP for plasmonic emission enhancement and alignment inducing directionality of emission, will lead to efficiencies of both PLSC and PLDS being radically improved. PEDAL is a project based on new phenomena that will allow far reaching technological impacts in solar energy conversion and lighting.

FOREST brings together research leaders across Botany, Economics, Engineering, Finance, Geography and Statistics to reimagine our relations with nature. People and nature are not separate - we are dependent on nature as our life support system. The systematic failure of economic, political, and financial systems to take nature into account has resulted in climate and biodiversity crises. Ireland is now seeking to transition away from highly carbon-dependent social and economic practices, towards sustainable practices, systems and behaviours that support the coexistence of flourishing human systems and natural environments. This project will investigate how to assign value to the natural world to create investment initiatives with ecological benefits, to encourage investors to actively invest in assets with environmental and societal benefits. It will examine the behavioural aspects and financial investment incentives that can be linked to the protection or restoration of forests. However, placing a financial value on nature is not enough to preserve it, there must also be policy initiatives, and stronger legal mechanisms which recognise the multiple benefits of forests such as carbon capture, biodiversity habitat, and recreation. The financial industry is beset by a focus on short term gains, caused by performance metrics, remuneration incentives and incomplete measures of value. Policy supports can to some extent address these market failures by creating incentives which incorporate the long term non-market and socio-cultural benefits of nature. To correctly design incentives, an understanding of different perspectives on the values and benefits of nature in the widest sense is key, particularly in terms of impacting on individual and collective action. Actions taken have consequences for environment, people, and economies, but are often only assessed through a single lens. Implementing the right action in the right place urgently requires a new kind of multi-disciplinary dynamic, and a way of integrating data measured on different scales. This research challenge is inherently multidisciplinary in nature and will be conducted in conjunction with researchers across a range of relevant disciplines. FOREST will use the increase in forestry in Ireland as a model system to explore the challenges associated with addressing climate and biodiversity issues, and examine potential solutions through a multi-disciplinary lens. It will recruit a team of PhD candidates to study as part of an interdisciplinary team to address complex human-nature relations and the social-economic-ecological challenges and opportunities associated with transitioning away from unsustainable to sustainable development pathways.

Bespoke modelling for industry partner - Novogrid