Italian PhD course

Dottorato Nazionale

on

"PHOTOVOLTAICS"

Call 2024

Links to the call (in Italian and English language):

Bando (in italiano)

Scheda (in italiano)



Call (in English)

Details (in English)


The National PhD on Photovoltaics is proposed to respond to the request that comes from many parts, not only at a national level, but also at the international one. Photovoltaics, in fact, represents one of the pillars of the energy transition and play a key role in achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal. The recent international crisis and its effects on Europe's supply of fossil fuels is leading to a further acceleration of the transition, to the advantage of technologies, including photovoltaics, which have reached great technological maturity and which can provide answers to the demand for energy in a short time. As a result, the European effort in terms of research and development as well as production throughout the supply chain is increasing. An example is the reactivation and strengthening of plants, also in Italy, in Catania, where Enel will upgrade the cell and panel production plant from the current 200 MWp to 3 GWp in 2024. On a European scale, the production chain, from the cells to modules, it will have to be able to provide 20 GWp for plants to be installed in Europe by 2025. This effort would lead to at least 50 billion euros of photovoltaic production in Europe; in Italy, 400 million euros will be dedicated to achieving the national target of 2 GWp of annual production capacity by December 2025. Following the crisis linked to the supply of natural gas and oil, Europe has set itself an even greater target ambitious, which is the achievement of 1 TWp of photovoltaic capacity by 2030.

As a result of these investments, 178.000 new jobs are estimated to be created in Europe. The training of the professional figures necessary to face this effort is the object of attention by the European Commission. The "Pact for Skills" is an invitation from the European Commission to public and private organizations to join forces and take concrete actions to qualify and retrain people in Europe, in order to support an equitable and resilient recovery and realize the ambitions of green and digital transitions and the EU industrial and SME strategies. The working table on renewable energy highlights how a training that integrates core competencies for the sector in question is necessary in this field, for example in the physical, chemical, electrical, electronic, plant engineering sector, with training in the field of digital systems and electrical energy storage systems.

The proposal for the National Doctorate is part of this trend, aimed at the third-level training of professional figures who will strengthen the Italian R&D and industrial chain in the photovoltaic sector. The doctorate will be organized in curricula, which will cover the following aspects:

Curriculum A - “Solar cells technologies and lifecycle”

The PhD candidates will acquire knowledge and skills leading them to understand and be able to innovate materials, structure and technology of solar cells. The whole panorama of technologies will be studied,  from the established silicon based technology, up to new concepts based on hybrid and organic materials, quantum dots solar cells, multijunction and concentrator devices. Always taking into account the environmental impact and the life cycle.

  Basic knowledge will be acquired in the common courses that will be given to the doctoral students. Such knowledge will include the fundamental mechanisms of the light-matter interaction, the intrinsic thermodynamic limits in the photovoltaic conversion process and the structure of photovoltaic conversion devices. The goal will be to allow students to handle the figures of merit of solar cells and modules, and to understand how they depend on the topological and technological choices available to the designer. The dependencies of characteristic parameters on operating and environmental conditions, such as temperature and irradiance, will be studied, along with  interactions occurring when several solar cells are connected to each other to form solar modules and complex systems. Parasitic parameters and physical-chemical mechanisms leading to the onset of unexpected and unwanted phenomena, such as overheating or degradation of performance induced by some operating conditions, will be studied as well.

The availability of state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories at the locations involved in the PhD program will allow candidates with solid knowledge of the technological processes used in the fabrication of solar cells. In particular, thin film deposition techniques relying on Chemical and Physical Vapor Deposition, wet chemistry based approaches and the deposition of functional coatings by means of physical / chemical techniques will be studied. A special focus will be given to the relationship between technological processes and electrical performance of photovoltaic devices, with the aim of developing in PhD candidates critical skills aimed at overcoming bottlenecks towards more performing and sustainable future devices.

 The knowledge of basic physics, chemistry and technologies will be completed by giving to PhD candidates the ability to analytically model all phenomena involved in the photovoltaic conversion and by the knowledge of the most advanced numerical analysis tools that allow to recreate in a virtual environment the structure and optoelectronic properties of photovoltaic devices.

At the same time, students will acquire all needed knowledge to characterize, by means of advanced measurement techniques, the figure of merit of solar cells, the optoelectronics properties of absorber layers and individual technological processes. This goal will be pursued by providing proper training on characterization instruments and techniques available in the laboratories involved in the program.

At a more advanced level, it is expected that candidates, depending on their aptitudes, concentrate their studies on salient aspects of specific technologies, chosen among the most promising in the current panorama. For example, PhD candidates will be allowed to deepen technology and/or modeling and characterization of heterojunction solar cells, thin film solar cells  (CdTe, CIGS, CZTS, Sb2Se3, SnS), multijunction solar cells and solar cells based on emerging technologies, such as those based on Perovskite or others.

Last but not least, in all courses, emphasis will be placed on the recycling process at the end of life of solar modules and materials. How the properties of the materials affect the expected lifetime of solar cells, thus determining the Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROEI), will be also studied.

The interdisciplinary nature of the PhD  program will be guaranteed by the provision that candidates will spend part of their time  in different laboratories of the national network and they will attend courses held by both academic and industrial experts with different backgrounds.

Curriculum B - “Module and system design and integration” 

Photovoltaic power plant design requires specific solutions depending on the application and on the integration to perform into new or existing contexts. The PhD candidate will study the aspects related to design of large plants, from those ones concerning the modules and their installation, grounding, electrical interconnection and architecture, up to the electronics aspects and the whole balance of system. System level aspects will be studied, in relation to the global performance and efficiency as well as to the lifetime, operation and maintenance. Electrical architectural aspects will be analyzed in order to ensure the best performance, both in terms of power, in specific operating conditions, as well as in terms of energy. System level design for plants including other renewable energy sources, e.g. exploiting wind energy, and storage devices based on different technologies, as well as power-to-gas systems will be the subject of investigation from the students.

Design issues that are specific for innovative photovoltaic applications will also be studied. In this class fall, for instance, photovoltaic building integration, agrivoltaics, floating installations and mobility applications.

Cells technologies ensuring the best adaptation to buildings and electronics aimed at improving the electrical power production in the mismatched conditions that are typical of photovoltaic technology integration in such a context will be the subject of in-depth analyses.

The improved land exploitation by integrating photovoltaic generators with existing or new crops and farms represents an opportunity for reducing the agricultural carbon footprint and improving biodiversity. Such an application gives rise to significant issues requiring a multidisciplinary background, e.g. for balancing the effects of the electrical energy production with the specific crops productivity, as well as specific design competences and photovoltaic technologies.

PhD students’ interest will also be focused on the photovoltaic integration into the landscape by exploiting natural or artificial lakes. These installations avoid to reduce the land availability for other purposes, but require to face technical issues concerning operation and maintenance, reliability and lifetime that will be the subjects of didactical and research efforts. 

The photovoltaic integration into vehicles, ships and, more in general, in the mobility sector, gives rise to solve specific problems. The PhD candidate will afford issues related to the integration into the hybrid or plugin energy system of the vehicle, at the same time by complying with aspects related to aerodynamics, aesthetics, and overall efficiency. Technological problems related to the photovoltaic productivity and modules lifetime in harsh conditions, which characterize many mobility applications and requiring transversal competences in materials engineering, physics and chemistry at least, will also be afforded.   

Curriculum C - “Monitoring and Diagnosis”

The PhD candidate will afford studies that are related to all the approaches to the monitoring and diagnosis of photovoltaic systems, with relation to all their parts, from the modules to the supporting structures, to wirings and connection components, up to power electronics and electrical energy storage systems.

The methodologies to use will be inevitably based on a number of competences, which will be given to all the student through the common part of the education plan. Indeed, interdisciplinary knowledge will be needed to have a holistic view of the approaches used in actual and future applications. Image based diagnostic, in the infrared and visible ranges, will need a glance to algorithms for image processing and to issues related to images acquisition through drones. A solid background on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is build up in order to apply powerful data driven approaches to images as well as to electrical, atmospheric, operational data acquired on the modules, on electronics, on switching converters, on the power plant more in general.

Studies on model-based approaches will also be covered, these ones needing a transversal and multi-disciplinary basis related to multi-physics approaches that include electrical and thermal aspects. The competences needed will be provided in the common part of the education plan and they will be related to all the parts of the photovoltaic plant, including the modules and the balance of system.

Approaches based on the analysis of the electrical quantities measured on the photovoltaic plant will be studied, both in the time and in the frequency domain. Model-based and data-driven methods will be exploited also for studying innovative methodologies exploiting digital twins.

Operation-and-Maintenance (O&M) strategies will be afforded to guarantee the highest possible power production along the system lifetime and to extend its Remaining Useful Life (RUL). Prognostic approaches and mitigation actions will be investigated and their feedback over control strategies to improve the RUL will be a topic of interest for the students.

The off-line and on-line implementations of methods and algorithms will be the subject of an in-depth analysis, with a special emphasis on the features offered by modern embedded systems and architectures, to exploit edge-computing features and cloud facilities.


Curriculum D - “Power Electronics and Control”

All photovoltaic generation systems are concerning power electronic converters and their control in order to create suitable electric energy links among the different systems involved in the energy conversion scheme. In fact, photovoltaic plants can be directly or indirectly connected to electric grids, storage systems, local loads, electrolyzes for (green) hydrogen production, electric vehicle charging stations, nitrogen liquefaction, etc. All these applications require voltage/current level adaption and/or an ac/dc conversion that can be performed only by power electronic converters with suitable modulation and control.

The PhD candidate will afford studies and improve knowledge related to the analysis, design, testing and control of the above-mentioned power electronic converters. A particular focus is addressed to circuitry and hardware, from power semiconductor devices to power converters and power processors topologies, modulation strategies and to control algorithms.

The power converters design and control require a certain number of basic skills, which will be given to all the student through the common part of the education plan. An interdisciplinary approach is also necessary to make the PhD candidate to have an overview of the technology. The principles of switching converters applied to electrical energy management, as well as the mathematical modeling of power electronic circuits and photovoltaic generators, play a key role for design of the power processor for photovoltaic applications. A solid background on circuit theory, dynamic systems and control theory is given in order to enable the PhD candidate to follow the project of power converters from the initial design up to optimization and verification tests on prototypes, in the view of industrialization and to arrive to final commercial products.

Studies on thermal modeling of power semiconductor devices and their cooling systems will also be covered, giving a multi-physics and multi-disciplinary overview that correlates electrical and thermal aspects, such as power losses and overtemperatures, key points for reliable and efficient converters.

The PhD candidate will also gain knowledge in the field of control theory and will apply control schemes to photovoltaic systems for electricity generation. Traditional and advanced algorithms for maximum power point tracking, as well as control schemes for grid-following and grid-forming inverters will be topics of interest for the PhD candidate. Particular emphasis will be given to the control issues related to photovoltaic generators in case of partial shading and slow- and fast-changing irradiance, together with temperature transients.

The topics of multilevel inverters, isolation converters, interleaved schemes, and innovative power semiconductors, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices, will complete the PhD candidate knowledge in the field of the electricity power conversion applied to large photovoltaic generation systems.


Curriculum E - “Solar intermittency and storage

The intrinsic intermittent behavior of the solar source calls for a number of studies, which are useful in order to optimize the operations of photovoltaic (PV) plants.

On the one hand, the PhD candidate will study the integration of photovoltaic plants with energy storage systems (ESS) based on different technologies such as electrochemical, chemical, mechanical and thermal storage, which are used both for energy shift and peak shaving applications.

PV plants and ESS will be integrated in different environments such as nano and microgrids, energy communities and solar-powered e-vehicle charging stations with or without vehicle-to-everything (V2X) capabilities.

On the other hand, the PhD candidate will also tackle the intermittent behavior of the solar irradiance thanks to the opportunity offered by different forecasting tools. These, in fact, allow the forecasting of the solar irradiance and of the operating temperature, which play a key role in the prediction of the power produced by the PV plant.

The studies described above represent the background for the development of efficient battery management systems (BMS) and energy management systems (EMS), which are used for the optimization of the power and the energy fluxes, from both the economic and the environmental points of view. Another aspect to consider is the development of those ancillary services used to make the pairing of PV plants with ESS a reliable source of flexibility for the power system.

For these purposes, the PhD candidate will need to develop different forecasters for the prediction of the load, of the state of charge and health of the storage systems, of the voltage and the frequency of the grid, of the electricity price and of the carbon intensity.

The key competencies required of the candidates, in order to successfully complete this curriculum are: the design of power systems including PV generators and ESS, artificial intelligence-based techniques for the development of control and forecasting tools, optimization techniques and instruments for the assessment of the sustainability of the different developed systems, such as LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), LCOE (Levelized Cost Of Energy) and EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested).  


Curriculum F - “Distributed generation and grid connection”

The PhD candidate will be able to develop studies and improve knowledge related to the large and widespread integration of distributed Photovoltaic generation into the present and future power systems, specifically in low and medium voltage distribution grids.  Analysis of the technical, economic, and regulatory problems posed by the variable solar energy source in the evolving of power systems will be within the expertise developed by the candidate.

The study of large-scale distributed grid-connected photovoltaics requires a certain number of basic skills, such as recognition, modelling (deterministic and probabilistic) and simulation of solar energy source, PV technologies and distribution grids.  Power converters basic and control strategies of active and reactive power required for PV grid connection is also required. Such skills will be given to all the student through the common part of the education plan.

An interdisciplinary approach is also necessary to let the PhD candidate have an overview of the PV grid interaction. The knowledge of power systems studies, such as: load flow, optimal power flow, stability analysis (angle, frequency and voltage stability)  and short circuit analysis, play a key role for the deep qualitative and quantitively understanding of the impact of  role of photovoltaic systems in the future smart distribution grids. 

A solid background on circuit theory, dynamical systems and control theory is given to enable the PhD candidate to define the steady-state and dynamic operating point of the PV systems when they are involved in the provision of ancillary services for the Transmission System Operator (TSO) and/or Distribution System Operator  (DSO) within a general liberalized schemes of selling of such services. The microeconomics background will allow to evaluate the economic opportunities coming from the participation of PV systems in the energy and ancillary services markets.

Studies on power quality in distribution grids with distributed PV generation will also be covered including topics such as: power quality standards and applications, evaluation and analysis of voltage fluctuation and flicker and harmonic analysis.

In most cases the PV systems inject into the grid the net power, as a difference between the generated power and the local load, so the PhD candidate will also gain knowledge in the field of the characteristics of the net load in a distribution grid with distributed PV generation. Specifically, methodologies to optimize the self-consumption and self-sufficiency or cost-effectiveness of grid-connected prosumers by optimizing the sizes and/or operation of photovoltaic (PV) systems with or without electrochemical batteries and with the implementation of flexibilization of local load will be considered.

The topics of techniques for mitigating of the impacts of high-penetration photovoltaics (e.g. energy storage technology; demand response; cluster partition control; community-detection-based optimal network partition, aggregation) and design and implementation of stand-alone multisource microgrids with high-penetration photovoltaic generation, will complete the PhD candidate knowledge in the field of the interaction of extended distributed photovoltaic systems with the power system.


UNIVERSITY NETWORK

COMPANIES FUNDING 18 SCHOLARSHIPS

AVAILABLE SCHOLARSHIPS PLAN

AVAILABLE SCHOLARSHIPS 

SHORT DESCRIPTION

University: L'Aquila

Curriculum: D - “Power Electronics and Control” 

Thesis title: Convertitori modulari multilivello per impianti di generazione di energia elettrica da fotovoltaico 

Thesis tutor: Prof. Carlo Cecati

Thesis co-tutors

Short description of the research activity:

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involved: SOLIS 



University: Cagliari

Curriculum: D - “Power Electronics and Control” 

Thesis title: Development of conversion systems for DC management of photovoltaic plants oriented to green hydrogen production

Thesis tutor: Prof. Alfonso Damiano

Thesis co-tutors

Short description of the research activity: The activity involves the development of innovative conversion system configurations for the DC management of photovoltaic systems devoted to green hydrogen production. Specifically, the activity involves the development of a power conditioning system from photovoltaic plants aimed at optimizing the alkaline electrolyser usage for minimizing hydrogen production cost. For this purpose and with the aim of maximizing conversion efficiency, the photovoltaic plants will be interconnected to the electrolyser with multi-port DC/DC converters. The latter will be characterized by four bidirectional ports for managing DC power flows from the PV plant to the electrolyzer, the electrochemical storage system, and the grid. The management of the power flows as well as the sizing of the equipment will be the PhD target. The PhD activities will be developed for 12 months at the Renewable Energy Platform of Sardegna Ricerche where part of the mentioned equipment is already located.

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involved:  



University: Cagliari

Curriculum: A - “Solar cells technologies and lifecycle” 

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Michele Saba

Thesis co-tutors

Short description of the research activity:

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involved:  CNR



University: Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"

Curriculum: D - “Power Electronics and Control”

Thesis title: Combined use of PV and Thermal cells: increase of the energy conversion efficiency and thermal finger print based diagnosis of faults.

Thesis tutor: Prof. Massimo Vitelli

Thesis co-tutors: Prof. Luigi Costanzo

Short description of the research activity:

It is well known that, in PV applications, the increase of the working temperature of the PV modules causes an undesired decrease of the energy conversion efficiency. Among the various techniques proposed in order to limit the increase of the operating temperature of the modules, an interesting one is based on the coupled adoption of PV modules and Thermoelectric Generators (TEGs). Such a technique exploits the difference between PV cells temperature and ambient temperature in order to generate additional electricity and, at the same time, the PV operating temperature is lowered as a consequence of the conversion of thermal energy into electric energy. Thus the overall conversion efficiency increases as a consequence of the above two phenomena. In addition to TEGs, also the adoption of cooling (Peltier) cells has been proposed. The main aim of the research activity is to fill the gap existing in the state of the art literature by identifying proper architectures of PV cells and thermoelectric cells with the double aim of increasing the total conversion efficiency and detecting and diagnosing the eventual occurrence of faults (usually associated to nonuniform distribution of the temperature) by means of proper thermal finger prints.

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative): third or fourth semester.

Industrial partner involved: Deagle (https://deagle.it/)



University: Milano Bicocca

Curriculum: A - “Solar cells technologies and lifecycle”

Thesis title: Caratterizzazione avanzata di dispositivi fotovoltaici/ advanced characterization of photovoltaic devices

Thesis tutor: Prof. Simona Binetti

Short description of the research activity

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involvedFuturasun



University: Napoli "Federico II"

Curriculum: E - “Solar intermittency and storage”

Thesis title: Architetture di battery management system e applicazione della tecnica di spettroscopia di impedenza nella diagnostica delle batterie

Thesis tutor: Prof. Pierluigi Guerriero

Short description of the research activity:

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involvedFAAM


University: Padova

Curriculum: D - “Power Electronics and Control” 

Thesis title: Development of power electronic converters based on bidirectional monolithic GaN devices for photovoltaic applications

Thesis tutor: Prof. Paolo Mattavelli

Short description of the research activity: The research activities will focus on developing advanced topologies using bidirectional monolithic GaN devices, including current-fed solutions. The goal is to demonstrate improvements in efficiency and performance for photovoltaic applications compared to the existing state of the art.

Semester to spend abroad: Polytechnic university of Madrid

Industrial partner involved:  



University: Padova

Curriculum: D - “Power Electronics and Control” 

Thesis title: Small-signal Dynamic interactions for grid-connected power electronics converters based on impedance methods

Thesis tutor: Prof. Paolo Mattavelli

Short description of the research activity: The research activities will concentrate on developing small-signal stability methods based on dq or sequence impedance. The objective is to create straightforward solutions to address the interactions of various photovoltaic inverters in future smart grids dominated by power electronics.

Semester to spend abroad: Chalmers University

Industrial partner involved:  



University: Palermo

Curriculum: C - “Monitoring and diagnosis

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Valerio Lo Brano

Thesis co-tutor

Short description of the research activity

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involved:  


University: Politecnica delle Marche

Curriculum: F - “Distributed generation and grid connection”

Thesis title: Intelligent systems for advanced monitoring and management of photovoltaic plants in real world scenarios

Thesis tutor: Prof. Emanuele Principi

Thesis co-tutors: Prof. Stefano Squartini, Prof. Gabriele Comodi

Short description of the research activity: The research will focus on advanced techniques for monitoring and managing grid-connected photovoltaic plants in real-world settings. This includes implementing advanced monitoring systems for gaining insights into plant operations, and studying Energy Management Systems to support Demand Response programs, enhance grid stability, and provide services to Transmission and Distribution System Operators.

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative):  to be defined

Industrial partner involvedMAC Srl (www.mac-italia.com)


University: Salerno

Curriculum: A - “Solar cells technologies and lifecycle” (2 scholarships)

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Giovanni Spagnuolo

Short description of the research activity

3SUN - Advanced materials and processes for sustainable and high performance Silicon based Solar Cells

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative):

Industrial partner involved3Sun, Avancis


University: Salerno

Curriculum: B - “Design and integration” (2 scholarships)

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Giovanni Spagnuolo

Short description of the research activity

EGP - Progettazione e analisi di impianti solari fotovoltaici utility scale

SOLBIAN - Integrazione di sistemi fotovoltaici in mezzi per la mobilità stradale: VIPV – Vehicle Integrated PhotoVoltaics

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative):

Industrial partner involvedEnel Green Power, Solbian


University: Salerno

Curriculum: C - “Monitoring and diagnosis” (4 scholarships)

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Proff. Giovanni Spagnuolo, Flavio Giannetti

Short description of the research activity

Green Tech - Droni collaborativi e sistemi di automazione per l’ottimizzazione dei processi, caso d’uso:

diagnosi e ispezione per monitoraggio fotovoltaico

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative):

Industrial partner involvedHightek, Green Tech


University: Salerno

Curriculum: E - “Solar intermittency and storage” (9 scholarships)

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Walter Zamboni

Short description of the research activity

FAAM - Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy for Lithium-iron-Phosphate batteries for stationary and/or automotive applications

EGP - Sistemi Battery Energy Storage per uso stazionario

EDAG - BMS design and development for new Lithium-ion battery architectures

STMicroelectronics - Tecniche di diagnostica avanzata per sistemi di accumulo agli ioni di litio

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative): to be defined

Industrial partner involved:  FAAM, STMicroelectronics, EDAG, MINERVAS, Enel Green Power, Futurasun


University: Politecnico di Torino

Curriculum: F - “Distributed generation and grid connection”

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Filippo Spertino

Short description of the research activity

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative):

Industrial partner involved: OMNIANET



University: Torino

Curriculum: A - “Solar cells technologies and lifecycle”

Thesis title: Innovative polymeric incapsulants based on sustainable thermosetting resins for solar cells and integrated energy devices

Thesis tutor: Prof. Claudia Barolo

Short description of the research activity

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Research partner involved (tentative): DEMAK



University: Tor Vergata

Curriculum: A - “Solar cells technologies and lifecycle” 

Thesis title: Progettazione, fabbricazione e caratterizzazione di celle solari a perovskite anche con l’ausilio di sistemi di intelligenza artificiale e sviluppo automatizzato

Thesis tutor: Prof. Aldo Di Carlo

Thesis co-tutors

Short description of the research activity:

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involved:  HALOCELL



University: Trento

Curriculum: E - “Solar intermittency and storage”

Thesis title: Revenue maximization for a battery storage with optimal capacity repowering due to cyclic fade

Thesis tutor: Prof. Vincenzo Trovato

Short description of the research activity: Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are expected to contribute to mitigate the uncertainty and variability of renewable sources (e.g., photovoltaic energy). They might be installed in standalone configurations or integrated and co-operated with a renewable generator (e.g., PV farms). The BESS flexible operation may be able to support system stability and contribute to maintain supply/demand balance in scenarios where the level of renewable generation is higher/lower than expected. This Ph.D. proposal aims at developing a stochastic scheduling model which co-optimizes the optimal short-term market operation (hours) of a stand-alone BESS and its long-term (months-years) repowering actions required to compensate the operational energy capacity degradation of the asset. Ultimately, energy capacity degradation would depend on actual charging/discharging operation as well as other variables (e.g. the operating temperature of the cells and calendar ageing processes).

In this regard, one of the objectives of the Ph.D. proposal is to model and incorporate different types of uncertainties impacting the BESS operation and its performance (e.g., uncertainties on energy market prices, PV output, battery cells’ costs as well as on degradation parameters of the BESS). Furthermore, the Ph.D. project will model and integrate more realistic features typical of the BESS operation to improve the assessment of the energy capacity degradation, energy capacity revamping actions, its participation in ancillary services markets and the integration of photovoltaic energy.

During the Ph.D. program, the candidate will enhance his/her skills in the field of: multi-objective MILP and MIQCP optimization, mathematical-programming in Python, Julia, modelling and time-domain simulation of energy assets (e.g. in Matlab), dynamic programming algorithms, laboratory tests.

Semester to spend abroad:  

Industrial partner (tentative): Enel Green Power



University: Trieste

Curriculum: B - “Module and system design and integration” 

Thesis title

Thesis tutor: Prof. Alessandro Massi Pavan

Thesis co-tutors

Short description of the research activity:

Semester to spend abroad at (tentative)

Industrial partner involved: