Conferences are a way to bring together invaluable ideas, research, innovation and stakeholders. Done well, it creates a positive forum to dissemenate and stimulate. The Sustainable Energy Technology Conference is a prime example of this and its 18th annual iteration started today in Wuhan, China, organised by key staff at the University of Nottingham, Hubei University of Technology and others.
Chaired this year by the University of Nottingham’s Professor Saffa Raffat, Chair in Sustainable Energy, Head of the Institute of Building Technology & Institute of Sustainable Energy, Faculty of Engineering, this year’s core focus is sustainable cities and environments. Within this, key themes will include Energy Storage and policy for the Age of Renewables; Research, Innovation and Commercialization in Sustainable Energy Technologies; Integrating Planning & Policy, and Architecture, Engineering, Energy & Economics. The research and teaching at the University of Nottingham fits in superbly with this and as such Project SCENe will present a paper at this conference, and other papers from the same research group, the Buildings, Energy and Environment Research Group will also be presented.
The paper related to Project SCENe focuses on the vital role of societies and communities in transitions to more sustainable futures. This includes the use and embedding of technologies within everyday routines, institutions and infrastructures. The paper, ‘The importance of socio-technical and community energy approaches to sustainability transitions: Key Concepts and examples’ by Dr Lewis Cameron, Dr Lucelia Rodrigues and Professor Mark Gillott will be publicly available on our website and elsewhere online after publication following the conference.
Other papers to be presentated from the research group include one led by Dr John Calautit, discussing the Investigation of novel integration of natural ventilation methods and rotary passive heat recovery systems; one, by May Zune, Dr Lucelia Rodrigues and Professor Mark Gillott, exploring the potentail of natural materials and construction methods in residential tropical settings to provide valuable insights into improving roof surface and envelope insulation in these settings and others; one by Dr Vasileios Sougkakis exploring a dynamic and more efficient method for analysing whole building energy performance, and one by Dr Rob Shipan and Prof. Mark Gillott presenting a Technology Platform for Monitoring Homes within a Community Energy Scheme.
Finally, the conference also discussed and will further highlight the World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies (WSSET), a non-profit organization led by the aformentioned esteemed Saffa Riffat. WSSET aims to consolidate practical partnerships between academic and industrial organizations, as well as promoting sustainable development and technologies worldwide. For further information, head to the above websites, go to our ‘research’ link, and keep following us on facebook, twitter and stickyworld (links to these, as always, are at the top of this webpage).
Blog by Lewis Cameron, Research Fellow at Project SCENe, with thanks to the SET team for a superbly organised and comprehensive international conference.