ICoN student, Anuradha Herath, outlines how his research aims to optimise the harvesting of waste heat energy from an engine, to improve efficiency and enhance environmental sustainability.

Mobile phones and computers can overheat when they are used for a long time or when heavy­ duty software is running. Frequent heating of these devices may reduce their performance or life span - but a nanowire based device could significantly mitigate this issue. 

Sunlight is arguably the most abundant clean source of energy that is capable of enabling “indefinite” and sustainable economic growth, with minimum detrimental impact on the environment. Crystalline silicon solar cells have been continuously advancing in efficiency and reducing in cost of fabrication over the last 40 years, and in some locations in the world at the current prices, they are capable of producing electricity from sunlight at a comparable cost to the price of electricity generated from fossil fuels.

The development and implementation of renewable energies generated by wind, solar or tidal powers are increasing and set an important milestone for the change towards a sustainable energy society. However, the revolution of the energy landscape is only possible with the implementation of stationary and mobile energy storage technologies able to balance energy fluctuations or use on demand.