News

Prof. WANG Shengwei co-authors white paper on enhancing building energy flexibility through smart technologies

Prof. WANG Shengwei, Director of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) and Prof. Lasantha MEEGAHAPOLA, Associate Professor of School of Engineering of RMIT University, have recently published a white paper titled “Delivering Demand Response Services to the Power Grid via Smart Building Load Flexibility”.   The white paper, a deliverable from a research project supported by the PolyU–RMIT FutureLab, explores the provision of demand response services through smart building load flexibility. The project “Advanced Grid Support Services from Smart Buildings and Building Microgrids” involves experiments on load flexibility, building data analytics and developing machine learning models to identify load flexibility in smart buildings, and building microgrids to provide grid support services.   Demand response, a method of power balancing, encourages customers to adjust their energy usage in response to price signals. Digitalisation and advances in communications technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning further enhance buildings’ potential for demand response.   The white paper demonstrated how building energy flexibility can be characterised by power adjustment direction, capacity, availability, predictability and response time. The team also analysed ancillary service frameworks in Australia, China and Hong Kong, and concluded by examining the regulatory and policy landscapes across the three places and posing open industry and research questions. Overall, advancements in electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, smart energy conversion, and digitalisation provide substantial opportunities for leveraging smart building load flexibility for demand response services to power grids. Effective regulations, policies, and market mechanisms will be critical for unlocking building load flexibility.   Read the full paper at: https://zenodo.org/records/14571315

Prof. Lin LU Vivien integrates green radiative cooling coating with photovoltaics for energy saving in buildings

We are delighted to share with you that Prof. Lin Lu Vivien lead investigator of RISE and her research team, was interviewed by Sing Tao on 21 Jan 2025, regarding to integrate the solar-driven adaptive radiative cooling (SARC) coating they developed, with bifacial solar photovoltaics (PV) to achieve synergistic enhancement in thermal management and power generation, transforming buildings from energy consumers into energy harvesters, with the support of the PolyU Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme. This Scheme aims to support the application of university research outcomes and to take the campus as a testbed to apply research solutions, with a goal of achieving carbon neutrality on campus and supporting Hong Kong’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The team is planning to install bifacial PV panels on the rooftops of the under-construction PolyU Kowloon Tong Student Hostel, with new coating applied on the corresponding area under the panels, to enhance power generation while radiatively cooling the buildings.   The carbon dots (CDs)-driven photoluminescent radiative cooling nanocoating can be applied to building rooftops and exterior walls. This novel coating can automatically adjust its absorption and emission of solar and thermal radiation in response to changes in environmental temperature or light conditions, helping to mitigate the heat island effect caused by building materials. It uses photoluminescence technology to convert ultraviolet light into visible light, thereby improving the absorption and utilisation of light by PV and increasing its conversion efficiency.   Compared to traditional coatings, this novel coating can effectively improve effective daytime solar reflectance from 92.5% to 95%, increase the cooling effect by 10% to 20%, and reduce the temperature by up to 25°C when applied to concrete rooftops. This nanocoating is environmentally friendly, water-soluble, volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-free, and can be produced in various colours, thus demonstrating significant application potential. Press Release: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/media/media-releases/2024/0924_polyu-researchers-unveil-novel-carbon-dots-driven-green-radiative-cooling-coating/ Online coverage: Sing Tao Headline - https://polyu.me/4hofXLG (Chinese only)    

RISE Research: Prof. Siqi BU develops real-time assessment method for addressing multiple stability problems in power systems

Prof. BU Siqi, Member of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and his colleagues recently published a research paper titled “Real-time Multi-stability Risk Assessment and Visualization of Power Systems: A Graph Neural Network-based Method” in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. The paper proposed a real-time Multi-stability Risk Assessment (MSRA) method based on a graph neural network (GNN) for addressing multiple stability problems in renewable energy-integrated power systems effectively, including rotor angle (small-disturbance and transient), voltage (short-term and long-term), frequency and converter-driven stability. The team employed a GraphNorm method to tackle the over-smoothing problems and improve the generalisability of GNN. The method proposed by the team can simultaneously and continuously predict the risks of the multiple types of stability based on real-time data, and visualise the stable and unstable operation regions (SURs) based on alpha shapes. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified in the IEEE 39-bus system, the 179-bus western electricity coordinating council (WECC) system, and the Great Britain (GB) system. Read the full paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10819251/metrics#metrics  

First International Conference on Digital Intelligence for Energy Systems was successfully held on 5-8 January 2025

We are delighted to share with you that the First International Conference on Digital Intelligence for Energy Systems was successfully held on 5-8 January 2025! It is our honour to have Ir Dr Otto Poon Lok To BBS, OBE to join our ceremony. We would like to thank you Ir Professor Christopher Chao, our Vice President (Research and Innovation) and Ir Kwok-ying Poon Raymond JP, Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) to deliver the welcome speech and the opening speech. In the Conference, around 200 speakers and participants from different countries, such as Denmark, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Mainland China etc. were invited to share their valuable insights and innovative ideas towards Smart Energy. Besides, different experts from academic, industry and government were invited as panellists in the below three sessions, which greatly boost up the discussion atmosphere for discussion! Debate between “promoters” and “challengers” in energy field Dialogue between power generation, distribution and consumers Dialogue between scientists, professionals and policy makers Participants joined different parallel workshops and sessions in these days happily and actively! Furthermore, we had a Best Paper Award Presentation during the closing ceremony. Five best papers are selected. At the end of the closing ceremony, Professor Kashem Muttaqi, announced an existing news which is the 2nd international Conference will be held in Australia two year later! Undoubtedly, this Conference build up a large platform, bringing different international experts, students and colleagues to exchange the knowledge and technologies on smart and sustainable energy from power generation, distribution and demand sides. It is a milestone for us to organise more research events to gather all the experts in energy field in the future! Thank you so much for all the participants to join our Conference!   More Detail: Conference website: https://events.polyu.edu.hk/rise_digital_intelligence/home PAIR 抖音 channel: 理大高等研究院PAIR的抖音 - 抖音 香港理大建築能源與自動化研究室WeChat: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZB5510O9tDwfokooLj9xsg     

RISE Research: Organic solar cell breakthrough from Prof. Gang LI’s team

Prof. Gang Li’s research team published a paper “19.5% Inverted Organic Photovoltaic with Record Long-lifetime via Multifunctional Interface Engineering featuring Radical Scavenger” on Nature Communications on 04 December 2024, which reported breakthrough in both efficiency and lifetime of organic solar cells.  Advances in improving the operational lifetime of highly efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) and understanding photo-degradation mechanisms in molecular level are currently limited, especially on the promising inverted OPV, posing critical challenges to commercialization. Here, the authors report a radical scavenger capped zinc oxide nanoparticles as the electron transport layer, achieving operationally stable devices with efficiency of 19.47%. Dr. Huang Jiaming is the first author. Dr. Jiehao Fu is equal contribution author.  The paper is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54923-6  

Prof. CHAI Yang elected as IEEE Fellow

Professor Yang CHAI, our RISE member has been elected to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Fellow Class of 2025 for his contributions to bioinspired in-sensor computing.  Headquartered in the United States, IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The IEEE Fellow grade recognises unusual distinction in the profession and is awarded to persons with outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.  Congratulations to Professor Chai!  Online coverage: The Paper - https://polyu.me/3ZJRtXf NetEase - https://polyu.me/41lYdeY Sina - https://polyu.me/3ZKXrXW Sohu - https://polyu.me/4f4aub7 qq - https://polyu.me/3OHl90P  

Prof. Raymond WONG discusses enhancing organic solar cells for carbon reduction on RTHK Programme Infinite Future

Prof. Raymond WONG Wai-yeung, Executive Committee Member of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), Associate Director of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), Member of the Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) and the Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports), and Dean of the Faculty of Science, was featured in the RTHK programme Infinite Future, sharing how enhancing the photovoltaic (PV) efficiency of organic solar cells can help reduce carbon emissions. Prof. Wong’s current research focus is on the design and preparation of novel high-performance photofunctional materials, and optoelectronic applications, particularly the luminescence and stability of these materials. His team has developed high-performance organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with various colour emissions. Through molecular design, the team has developed a type of novel high-performance deep‐blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials. OLEDs made with this deep-blue material have achieved an external quantum efficiency of over 35%, which is one of the highest in the world. The team has also achieved a PV conversion efficiency of over 19% in organic solar cells using transition metal complexes. The ultra-thin and highly flexible characteristics of organic solar cells can be integrated with wearable electronic devices, enabling these wearable electronics to be self-powered using sunlight. Prof. Wong also mentioned that the future research directions for these two types of optoelectronic devices are mainly further improving energy conversion efficiency through the molecular design of high-performance active materials and the structural design of devices; enhancing their stability and lifespan; and developing organic semiconductor electronic technologies and applications. He believes that achieving low-toxicity or non-toxic active materials in the future can help reduce environmental pollution and achieve sustainable development.   Online coverage: RTHK - https://polyu.me/3Z2YSza (Chinese only)

8 RISE members recognised amongst the world′s most highly cited researchers in 2024

We are delighted to announce that 8 RISE members are recognized as highly cited researchers 2024 by Clarivate Analytics! It shows significant contributions of our RISE members and their efforts in different research fields. We highly appreciate the efforts of our RISE members and wish them even greater success in their academic career, to brings more impactful research achievements and innovative deliverables to local, nations and the world.  In this year, there are 6,636 highly citied researchers. Their papers rank in the top 1 % by citations for a field or fields and publication year in the Web of Science. Totally, sixteen PolyU academics are recognised amongst world’s most highly cited researchers. Congratulations to our highly cited researchers! RISE highly cited researchers in 2024     Name (by alphabetical order of surname)  Category  Prof. Yang CHAI (AP)  Cross-Field  Prof. Haitao HUANG (AP)  Cross-Field  Prof. Gang LI (EEE)  Cross-Field  Prof. Tao WU Tom (AP)  Cross-Field  Prof. Feng YAN (AP)  Cross-Field  Prof. Xiao ZHANG (ME)  Cross-Field  Prof. Jinyue YAN Jerry (BEEE)  Engineering  Prof. Bolong HUANG (ABCT)  Chemistry   PolyU Press: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/media/media-releases/2024/1202_sixteen-polyu-academics-recognised-amongst-most-highly-cited-researchers/ Reference: https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/  

Prof George LIU was Invited to Represent Hong Kong and Present Hong Kong (China)’s Region/Country Report at the 2024 ASAIHL Conference

(Hong Kong, 23 November 2024) At the recent 2024 ASAIHL Conference (Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning) held at the Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia on 19-22 November 2024, our RISE member Prof. George Zhizhao Liu was invited to represent Hong Kong and present Hong Kong (China)’s Region/Country Report at the conference. The theme of this year’s ASAIHL conference is “University’s Role in Advancing Climate Crises Reduction.” An the conference, Prof. Liu gave an invited talk titled “AI and Satellite Remote Sensing: the State-of-the-art Technology to Map the Most Abundant Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas –– Water Vapor”, which illustrated the importance of accurate water vapor observation in the climate change and extreme weather studies and showcased the research work conducted in Prof. Liu’s Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE) in the field of climate change. Water vapor, as the largest greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, plays a critically important role in climate change and extreme weather events. This might be against the orthodox opinion that usually believes the carbon dioxide (CO2) is the largest greenhouse gas. Water vapor accounts for approximately 50% atmospheric greenhouse gas, depending on the weather conditions. Nevertheless, the accurate observation of water vapor is still a global technical challenge. A large number of satellites have been launched and many have the capability to observe water vapor at different wavelength channels. Unfortunately the water vapor data accuracy of most of these satellite sensors is low and cannot meet the requirement for climate change and extreme weather studies. Prof. Liu’s Micro-LARGE Lab insightfully pinpointed this problem and has developed different AI-based novel algorithms to significantly improve the accuracy of water vapor observations of different satellite sensors. The Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL), founded in Bangkok, Thailand in 1956, is a non-governmental organization starting with eight state universities in Southeast Asia but now with university memberships extending to Europe, North America, Africa, and Oceania. ASAIHL’s purpose is to assist member institutions to strengthen themselves through mutual self-help and to achieve international distinction in teaching, research and public service. In addition, Prof. Liu also recently gave a specially invited conference presentation at the 6th National Mesoscale Meteorology Conference hosted by the Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai) at Zhuhai, Mainland China on 7-10 November 2024.  

RISE Member Achievement: Professor George LIU appointed as the Chief Scientist of Meteorological Observation Center of the China Meteorological Administration

We are pleased to share with you that Professor George LIU, our RISE member has been appointed as the Chief Scientist of the Meteorological Observation Center, China Meteorological Administration (CMA)! The China Meteorological Administration is China’s national agency responsible for weather forecasting service and climate research in China and globally. The Meteorological Observation Center, one of the major organizations under CMA, is responsible for constructing China’s real-time meteorological observation platform and providing accurate, timely meteorological observations to support China’s national/global operational weather forecasting services as well as to share with the World Meteorological Organization. In addition, the Meteorological Observation Center also takes a leading role in the development of new meteorological observation techniques and equipment, such as China’s Meteorological GNSS Network. Prof. Liu is an internationally respected scholar with both industrial and academic experiences in academic research as well as applications of geomatics technologies. Over the years, Professor Liu’s Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE) has made significant contributions to the community through unique developments and innovations in various areas, including Global Positioning System (GPS)/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) precise positioning algorithms and data quality analysis, ionosphere scintillation monitoring and 3D Total Electron Content (TEC) modeling, impact of space weather on satellite navigation and flight operation, monitoring of atmospheric water vapor and 3D modeling, retrieval and calibration of satellite remote sensing water vapor data, and assimilation of atmospheric water vapor in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. The NWP rainstorm forecasting scores are significantly improved after the assimilation of water vapor data. Prof. Liu is a technical authority in atmospheric water vapor observation using GPS/GNSS and remote sensing satellite techniques. He is the only China’s representative of the GNSS Water Vapor Working Group of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Upper-Air Network. His Micro-LARGE Lab is the first one in the world to calibrate all-weather (including cloudy condition) near-infrared (NIR) band satellite remote sensing water vapor data and also the first one to assimilate all-weather NIR band satellite remote sensing water vapor data into NWP. His Micro-LARGE Lab is the first one internationally to study and evaluate the impact of space weather on flight operation from an economic cost perspective and to propose response strategies, which was highly commended by senior scientist at the NASA JPL and was selected as a research highlight in the Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Journal (IF: 42.1). Multiple algorithms developed by the Micro-LARGE for GNSS data processing have been widely used by research groups in many universities, research institutions and industries worldwide. Prof. Liu’s appointment with the Meteorological Observation Center, CMA, will further enhance the collaboration between PolyU’s and Hong Kong’s scientists and the CMA as well as the Mainland China meteorological community. Big Congratulations to Professor Liu!