Clean Energy

The most used energy sources today are based on resources that will not be naturally renewed at the pace at which these are currently being consumed. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new materials and technologies that will enable society to convert to renewable energy sources.

We recognise our responsibility to work towards meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. We aim at improving the performance of energy applications while at the same time reducing their cost to address the energy challenge, which has an indirect impact on the developments addressing all other societal challenges. At INL, this is done by:

Advanced fundamental understanding of micro- and nano-structured energy materials
Developing and designing novel materials for energy applications,
Designing and prototyping new energy devices.

Photovoltaics: solar cell architectures

Solar cell architectures are tailored for building-integrated photovoltaics, vehicle-integrated photovoltaics.

Photovoltaics: characterisation

We apply advanced microscopic characterisation methods to improve the understanding of photovoltaic materials at the nanometer and atomic scale.

Batteries: new materials

Dendrite formation upon repeated charging and discharging will affect the lifetime of batteries. New anodes and cathode materials being developed can mitigate this issue.

Batteries: characterisation

Understanding the changes in the size, porosity, structure and composition of the anodes and cathode materials as a function of cycling is key for the stability and longevity of batteries.

Batteries: integration of components

Integration of sensors, interfaces, and other capacities into a microbattery array for in-situ/operando characterisation.

Hydrogen

High-performing catalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) or for anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis with reduced utilisation of platinum group metals (PGM).