European Solar Engineering School (ESES)

A couple of ESES Alumni met in May 2012 at the AESE in Denver. On the photo below you see Simon Geisshüsler (ESES 2006), Lars Kunath (ESES 2011) now both working for Velasolaris and Paul Platt (ESES 2011).

The summer holidays are over and soon the new students will start with the ESES programme 2012/2013.
The number of applications has increased compared to last year. In total 25 students have been admitted to the programme. In addition, we expect more than 15 exchange students to study some or all courses. The applicants come as every year from all over the world. The countries with the most applications are France, Germany and Greece.

Some changes will be seen for the coming programme:

• The main part of the Solar Electricity course will be taught in two intensive weeks in September. The course will be provided in collaboration with the University of Applied Science Ulm/Germany. Prof. Thomas Walter will teach the contents related to solar cells. Solar radiations and PV systems will be taught by Dr Mats Rönnelid and Dr Bengt Perers, respectively.  Six Master students from Ulm will come to Borlänge to join the course. The course will also include two guest lectures by Jussi Maunuksela (University of Jyväskylä) and Anthony Pereira (CEO Altpower).
• Dr Eva Lindberg is soon retiring and will not teach courses within ESES anymore. Dr Frank Fiedler will take over the course coordination for her courses.
• The course Solar Thermal will be taught by Dr Bengt Perers. He is one of Sweden most experienced experts on solar collectors and solar thermal systems and has taught this course already some years ago.
• Dr Tomas Persson will be in charge of the Solar Thermal Design course. He will be supported by Klaus Lorenz. Both have been working for many years with heating systems especially solar heating systems.
• Prof Tara Kandpal will as very year join us for two weeks and teach the Solar Management course and part of the course Solar Thermal For Hot Climates.
• Dr Chris Bales will focus his engagement for ESES on the topic Solar Cooling which is part of Solar Thermal For Hot Climates.
• Dr Elieser Tarigan will come to Borlänge during September and October and will teach the bioenergy topic for the RET course. Hydropower in the same course will be taught by Hervé Boileau from our partner University in Chambery. Wind energy will be taught by Martin Hagen an expert from the German engineering company Renerco.

The first lecture will be on Tuesday 30th of August.

Also during Autumn 2011 a number of guest lectures of experts in various fields of solar energy have taken place.
In September Prof Thomas Walter gave the student insight in the latest developments within thin film photovolataics. Thomas Walter is Professor at the University of Applied Science Ulm/Germany. Among others he is leading a research group with focus on degradation and long term stability tests for CIS solar cells.

After an inspiring year in Borlänge, Ard graduated from ESES in 2003 and returned to his home country, The Netherlands, to finish his Master’s studies in Applied Physics at the University of Twente. His Master’s thesis was on thin films of Transparent Semiconducting Oxides, an important part of many photovoltaic cells. After that, Ard temporarily 'left' solar and pursued a PhD at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials at the University of Groningen, on thin films of ferroelectrics. After his PhD he decided to return to solar energy and joined Tempress Systems in Vaassen (NED), one of the main suppliers in the world of solar PV diffusion furnaces which are used to fabricate "the heart" of crystalline silicon solar cells: the p/n-junction. As a solar process development engineer, his main tasks are not only to improve the diffusion process for solar PV applications, but also to develop new methods to fabricate n-type solar cells, which is done in the so-called joint "Panda" project together with Yingli Solar and the Energy Research Center of The Netherlands (ECN).

ESES has established  a number of Erasmus student exchange agreement with Universities in several countries in Europe among them the Hamburg University of Applied Science (HAW).
HAW offers a great opportunity to have a broader view in the field of renewable energy. For the exchange semester, solar thermal, PV, power grid, wind energy, fuel cell, project financing and project assessment and analysis, etc are proposed. Furthermore, the renewable energy department of HAW offers students participation in industrial exhibitions and visit of renewable companies. Professors here for each subjects have a serious attitude in the field of their profession and they always welcome students for questions. Study and research system here is quite different from that in Sweden, but it will not take long to adjust to it.