In 2008, fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas accounted for over 80% of the world’s total primary energy supply. But burning fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases which in turn lead to global warming. While fossil fuels will remain the key energy source in the near future, our first step to slow down climate change would be to use less energy. That’s why in the projects that follow, PolyU experts worked on a thermal storage system and an automated control system to cut down on energy consumption in buildings; plus a solar tracking system and a new modular lamp head to improve energy efficiency in street lights.
But in a long run, we aim at recovering more energy from renewable sources such as hydropower, geothermal, solar and wind energy so that less fossil fuel will be consumed. As a pilot scheme, a hybrid solar-wind power generating system was set up at Ma Wan Theme Park.
Apart from these projects, PolyU has research teams working on the following green energy sources:
| Solar Energy: | solar cells, photovoltaic cells, material growth techniques |
| Wind Energy: | design and application of wind turbines, power system operation and planning, wind power forecasting |
| Bio-Energy: | biodiesel production, production of bio-fuel using organic waste biomass, bio-fuel production based on algal bloom |
| Nuclear Energy: | evaluation of reactor system structural components, improvement in irradiation tolerance in materials, improvement of the reliability and performance of nuclear power stations, design next generation of nuclear power systems |
| Others: | fuel cells, solar thermal (a thermal energy storage material), thermal energy storage applications in buildings |