PhD group shines light on solar power
A new constellation has seen the day of light at KTH: A pioneering PhD group with a sharp focus on solar research. We met with Beatriz Pérez Horno, researcher at INDEK and initiator of the group, to shed light on the group's aspirations.
Why a PhD group focusing on solar research?
“I think we need more PhD groups in general, not only in solar research. There are many research projects and studies going on within KTH that might be related to one another, yet this often happens in isolation and rarely do we know about what our peer PhD students do. I believe by sharing knowledge, expertise or just thoughts on certain topics can be of great benefit for all of us and can bring about future collaborations or help us with our research overall. “
“When talking about solar research in particular, the uncertainty of so many aspects and the novelty of the technology make fostering these cooperations very relevant. These do not only strengthen KTH as a research institution but can also promote solar to the public. Usually nobody associates Sweden with a sunny place, so it’s good to show that there are actually a lot of people at KTH performing high quality solar energy research.”
How many are you working with solar power at KTH?
“That is exactly what we want to figure out! As there is little information shared between the schools, there is not really any documentation or record of how many of us are working on related topics. That is the main goal of this group, to get all of us together and understand the many disciplines from which we are looking at solar power. So far, we have reached around 10 PhD students. If you add at least one of their supervisors working with solar, we can have a 20 people estimate. But we are hoping that we can reach more and more and that new PhD students will join our group!”
What’s on your agenda, what will your meetings look like?
“First meeting was more of an introduction to define the goals of the group. The second consisted in introducing our research fields a bit more in depth with some presentations and Q&As. After the summer the idea is to start bringing guests to give seminars, organize workshops and maybe study visits. We also got some funding from the KTH Energy Platform to help us get started. Besides that, we might join conferences or even host some events. The idea is to share and disseminate knowledge, between KTH but also outside.”
If you could wish for a special guest for your meetings, who would you hope to see?
“Maybe Anna Werner, CEO of the Swedish Solar Energy Association. It shouldn’t be too hard to get her to come and meet with us. Then I can think of CEOs of other important players in the Swedish market, such as Svea Solar, Alight, Otovo, etc. If we want to be even more ambitious, we could ask Ebba Busch to attend one of our meetings. Johan Lindhal is also a relevant player. He is the Secretary General at European Solar Manufacturing Council among other things.
If someone wants to join your group, what should they do?
Reach out to us any time! You can contact me for instance, bph@kth.se .