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FOSS

FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy-University of Cyprus
University 1 Avenue
Aglantzia, 2109, Nicosia
P.O. Box.20537
1678, Cyprus

www.pvtechnology.ucy.ac.cy
www.psm.ucy.ac.cy

Organisation name

FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy-University of Cyprus

Department(s)/Unit(s)

The FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy performs pre-standardized research with two of its principle laboratories:

PV Technology Laboratory (www.pvtechnology.ucy.ac.cy): The PV Technology Laboratory comprises of a state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor infrastructure for PV research at the level of cells/modules and systems, enhanced with grid integration issues and activities.

Power System Modelling Laboratory (www.psm.ucy.ac.cy): The Power System Modelling (PSM)Laboratory performs high quality research in the following areas: Electrical Control and Analysis of DC Corrosion, Engineering Cost/Benefit Analysis and Risk Management for R.E., Earthing/Lightning Protection, Solar Applications and LV systems. It benefits from state-of-the art software tools that are either commercially available or developed in-house.

Location

Nicosia, Cyprus

Total number of employees

16 (14 scientific persons are occupied full time in the field of Renewable Energies).

Mission

FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy was created in order to play a key role in research and technological development activities in the field of sustainable energy within Cyprus and at international level with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the relevant energy and environment objectives set out by Europe. In particular, FOSS strives to become a centre of excellence in energy that will act as a structure where world-standard R&D work can be performed, in terms of measurable scientific production (including training) and/or technological innovation. In FOSS significant research expertise from the University of Cyprus as well as from industry has been assembled that spans a host of fields: Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Environmental, Chemical engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Economics, Finance, Computer Science as well as Architecture.

FOSS aims to be established as a regional research and innovation (R&I) hub of excellence which will generate novel ideas, provide a strong stimulus for interdisciplinary co-operation and be an internationally respected,state-of-the-art training and education centre. The Centre of Excellence will generate an effective research and innovation culture in Cyprus and the surrounding region, promoting effective cooperation between academia, industry and business sectors, as well as contributing to the transfer of knowledge from advanced European clusters to the region. The Centre will create a test-bed and"living lab” in the areas of energy and sustainability and will be a major driver to facilitate commercialization of innovation in energy-related fields in Cyprus, Europe and MENA.

Objectives

Thematic Areas

Renewable energy sources (RES) with an emphasis on solar energy

Distributed generation and microgrids

Smart electricity networks

Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB)

Enabling technologies including energy storage and ICT

Application Areas and Research Projects

Energy efficiency and energy saving

Demand Side Management

Energy in Smart cities

Electric mobility

Integrated services

Energy Policy and Energy economics

Education and awareness work on sustainable energy matters

Laboratories/Facilities

The FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy is equipped with the following facilities:

The outdoor facilities of the centre consist of diagnostic equipment for the measurement and monitoring at high resolution of all the important environmental and operational parameters of PV systems (including the spectrum on an accurate two-axis tracker and at the plane of array). All the installed sensors,data-acquisition and monitoring equipment are in accordance to the accuracy requirements set by the IEC 61724 standard. Currently, more than 25 different grid-connected PV systems, of different technologies, each one having a nominal power of ~1 kWp are being monitored and connected to the central data-acquisition system. The PV technologies are installed outdoors both at fixed and tracked mounting set ups and range from mono-crystalline,poly-crystalline and amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) and other high efficiency solar cell technologies from a range of manufacturers such as TSMC, Honeywell, Oerlikon, Schott Solar,T-Solar, Q-Cells, BP Solar, Sanyo, SunPower etc. Active tracking systems are also installed with the latest in concentrator technologies, covering the majority of the current and up-and-coming PV technologies. Outdoor equipment further include grid-connected programmable inverters, module current-voltage curve tracing loads, maximum power point trackers, along with a newly developed PID setup for accelerated degradation tests and material insulation tests.

The facility further includes stand-alone systems for storage and vehicle charging connected to data-acquisition devices to monitor important performance parameters related to the field of electric mobility.

The indoor facilities consist of an environmental chamber, a solar simulator, a UV chamber, thermal and electroluminescence imaging apparatus, cell and lens characterization systems and spectral response measuring equipment. Apart from research purpose usage, the indoor equipment is suitable for standardized and non-standardized indoor tests based on the requirements set by IEC 61215 and61646 and to enable accurate degradation studies of different PV technologies to take place, which include accelerated aging investigation, correlation of indoor-outdoor degradation effects and new degradation effects studies such as PID. The environmental chamber can further be used for durability and exposure tests of material and devices (modules and batteries) at different thermal and humidity exposure cycles.

In addition, the centre also administrates a distributed network of 30 pilot plants installed in Cyprus comprising of domestic consumers with an installed smart meter, metereological station and PV system. The pilot plants are used in order to acquire real data-sets of the production and consumption profiles with the scope of optimizing smart energy management systems and tariffing schemes. The acquired data-sets are stored at central database servers maintained by the personnel of the centre and in close collaboration with the Electricity Authority of Cyprus.

Furthermore, the centre operates a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) facility with the support of industry technology leader Corinex Communications. The facility is equipped with the latest in Corinex BPL-to-the-meter technology, with facilities for testing and validating BPL communications performance on LV and MV lines utilizing bi-directional data from smart meters installed at the laboratory.
Finally, FOSS also benefits from state-of-the-art specialized software tools that enable the interface of a rack of the commercially available Real Time Digital Simulator RTDS^®, to Multi Agent Control Systems that optimize the combined integration of PV systems with battery storage.Additional software tools already present and continuously upgraded with software packages in order to provide the necessary resources to meet the mandates assigned to each research area that include: Matlab, Comsol, PSCAD, Digsilend, PowerWorld, PSPICE, PVSyst, RETScreen, ProfiSignal, Loggernet, AutoCAD, Agilent etc.

Technology expertise

The FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy performs pre-standardized research with two of its principle laboratories:

PV Technology Laboratory (www.pvtechnology.ucy.ac.cy): The PV Technology Laboratory comprises of a state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor infrastructure for PV research at the level of cells/modules and systems, enhanced with grid integration issues and activities.

Power System Modelling Laboratory (www.psm.ucy.ac.cy): The Power System Modelling (PSM) Laboratory performs high quality research in the following areas: Electrical Control and Analysis of DC Corrosion, Engineering Cost/Benefit Analysis and Risk Management for R.E., Earthing/Lightning Protection, Solar Applications and LV systems. It benefits from state-of-the art software tools that are either commercially available or developed in-house.

Main research topics

PV, grid integration, solar energy

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Organisation name	FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy-University of Cyprus
Department(s)/Unit(s)	The FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy performs pre-standardized research with two of its principle laboratories: PV Technology Laboratory (www.pvtechnology.ucy.ac.cy): The PV Technology Laboratory comprises of a state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor infrastructure for PV research at the level of cells/modules and systems, enhanced with grid integration issues and activities. Power System Modelling Laboratory (www.psm.ucy.ac.cy): The Power System Modelling (PSM)Laboratory performs high quality research in the following areas: Electrical Control and Analysis of DC Corrosion, Engineering Cost/Benefit Analysis and Risk Management for R.E., Earthing/Lightning Protection, Solar Applications and LV systems. It benefits from state-of-the art software tools that are either commercially available or developed in-house.
Location	Nicosia, Cyprus
Total number of employees	16 (14 scientific persons are occupied full time in the field of Renewable Energies).
Mission	FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy was created in order to play a key role in research and technological development activities in the field of sustainable energy within Cyprus and at international level with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the relevant energy and environment objectives set out by Europe. In particular, FOSS strives to become a centre of excellence in energy that will act as a structure where world-standard R&D work can be performed, in terms of measurable scientific production (including training) and/or technological innovation. In FOSS significant research expertise from the University of Cyprus as well as from industry has been assembled that spans a host of fields: Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Environmental, Chemical engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Economics, Finance, Computer Science as well as Architecture. FOSS aims to be established as a regional research and innovation (R&I) hub of excellence which will generate novel ideas, provide a strong stimulus for interdisciplinary co-operation and be an internationally respected,state-of-the-art training and education centre. The Centre of Excellence will generate an effective research and innovation culture in Cyprus and the surrounding region, promoting effective cooperation between academia, industry and business sectors, as well as contributing to the transfer of knowledge from advanced European clusters to the region. The Centre will create a test-bed and"living lab” in the areas of energy and sustainability and will be a major driver to facilitate commercialization of innovation in energy-related fields in Cyprus, Europe and MENA.
Objectives	Thematic Areas Renewable energy sources (RES) with an emphasis on solar energy Distributed generation and microgrids Smart electricity networks Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) Enabling technologies including energy storage and ICT Application Areas and Research Projects Energy efficiency and energy saving Demand Side Management Energy in Smart cities Electric mobility Integrated services Energy Policy and Energy economics Education and awareness work on sustainable energy matters
Laboratories/Facilities	The FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy is equipped with the following facilities: The outdoor facilities of the centre consist of diagnostic equipment for the measurement and monitoring at high resolution of all the important environmental and operational parameters of PV systems (including the spectrum on an accurate two-axis tracker and at the plane of array). All the installed sensors,data-acquisition and monitoring equipment are in accordance to the accuracy requirements set by the IEC 61724 standard. Currently, more than 25 different grid-connected PV systems, of different technologies, each one having a nominal power of ~1 kWp are being monitored and connected to the central data-acquisition system. The PV technologies are installed outdoors both at fixed and tracked mounting set ups and range from mono-crystalline,poly-crystalline and amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) and other high efficiency solar cell technologies from a range of manufacturers such as TSMC, Honeywell, Oerlikon, Schott Solar,T-Solar, Q-Cells, BP Solar, Sanyo, SunPower etc. Active tracking systems are also installed with the latest in concentrator technologies, covering the majority of the current and up-and-coming PV technologies. Outdoor equipment further include grid-connected programmable inverters, module current-voltage curve tracing loads, maximum power point trackers, along with a newly developed PID setup for accelerated degradation tests and material insulation tests. The facility further includes stand-alone systems for storage and vehicle charging connected to data-acquisition devices to monitor important performance parameters related to the field of electric mobility. The indoor facilities consist of an environmental chamber, a solar simulator, a UV chamber, thermal and electroluminescence imaging apparatus, cell and lens characterization systems and spectral response measuring equipment. Apart from research purpose usage, the indoor equipment is suitable for standardized and non-standardized indoor tests based on the requirements set by IEC 61215 and61646 and to enable accurate degradation studies of different PV technologies to take place, which include accelerated aging investigation, correlation of indoor-outdoor degradation effects and new degradation effects studies such as PID. The environmental chamber can further be used for durability and exposure tests of material and devices (modules and batteries) at different thermal and humidity exposure cycles. In addition, the centre also administrates a distributed network of 30 pilot plants installed in Cyprus comprising of domestic consumers with an installed smart meter, metereological station and PV system. The pilot plants are used in order to acquire real data-sets of the production and consumption profiles with the scope of optimizing smart energy management systems and tariffing schemes. The acquired data-sets are stored at central database servers maintained by the personnel of the centre and in close collaboration with the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. Furthermore, the centre operates a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) facility with the support of industry technology leader Corinex Communications. The facility is equipped with the latest in Corinex BPL-to-the-meter technology, with facilities for testing and validating BPL communications performance on LV and MV lines utilizing bi-directional data from smart meters installed at the laboratory. Finally, FOSS also benefits from state-of-the-art specialized software tools that enable the interface of a rack of the commercially available Real Time Digital Simulator RTDS^®, to Multi Agent Control Systems that optimize the combined integration of PV systems with battery storage.Additional software tools already present and continuously upgraded with software packages in order to provide the necessary resources to meet the mandates assigned to each research area that include: Matlab, Comsol, PSCAD, Digsilend, PowerWorld, PSPICE, PVSyst, RETScreen, ProfiSignal, Loggernet, AutoCAD, Agilent etc.
Technology expertise	The FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy performs pre-standardized research with two of its principle laboratories: PV Technology Laboratory (www.pvtechnology.ucy.ac.cy): The PV Technology Laboratory comprises of a state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor infrastructure for PV research at the level of cells/modules and systems, enhanced with grid integration issues and activities. Power System Modelling Laboratory (www.psm.ucy.ac.cy): The Power System Modelling (PSM) Laboratory performs high quality research in the following areas: Electrical Control and Analysis of DC Corrosion, Engineering Cost/Benefit Analysis and Risk Management for R.E., Earthing/Lightning Protection, Solar Applications and LV systems. It benefits from state-of-the art software tools that are either commercially available or developed in-house.
Main research topics	PV, grid integration, solar energy