Research Focus Areas

This focus area mainly covers the topics of smart grid and district energy system planning, design and operation, including predictive analysis of renewable generation and energy demand, supply and demand flexibility, design and optimization of DCS (district cooling system), DHS (district heating system), CCHP (combined cooling, heat and power) and distributed renewable generations, micro grids and other grid control architectures, as well as smart multi-energy complementary operation strategy.

This focus area main covers the topics of smart building materials and façade, robust optimal design, control optimization, commissioning and diagnosis of building HVAC&R (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration) systems, smart built environment/occupancy sensing and building automation technologies as well as the development and applications of advanced IoT (Internet of Things), big data and AI (artificial intelligent) technologies for smart buildings.

This focus area covers the topics of chemical energy storage, electrical energy storage, and thermal energy storage, including both fundamental science, engineering design and optimization of fuel cells and electrolyzers, rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors and materials for sensible/latent thermal energy storage.

This focus area covers broad areas in renewable energy conversion technologies, including solar energy technologies (various types of solar cells, solar PV systems and applications, solar driven water desalination), Biomass energy technology, wind energy harvesting and deployment, green hydrogen generation technologies, and the synergetic combination of these renewable energy technologies such as solar fuel and solar PV hydrogen generation.

Energy materials have nowadays demonstrated a bright landscape in both academia and industry applications. This focus area covers the development and application of smart energy materials, including solar cell materials, battery materials, energy storage medium and building energy saving materials. Conducting research of these smart energy materials is fundamental not only to the progress of science and technology, but also to our daily life and production activities.