CPE at the Imperial Festival 2016

Light, Water, Power!

CPE postdocs and students presented two stands at the Festival, both of which were extremely busy all weekend!

"Light, Water, Power!", presented by the Durrant Group (Chemistry), demonstrated solar fuels and PV technologies. "Buckets of Energy" was presented by CPE researchers from Physics, who discussed a range of energy storage technologies with the public.

Robert Godin, from the Durrant Group, reported: “Solar Fuels and PV researchers at Imperial College presented a stand called ‘Light, Water, Power!’ at the Imperial Festival in May.  The researchers used various demonstrations to tell the public about current research in the field of solar fuels generation and PV that takes place at Imperial College (and worldwide). The Festival gave researchers the chance to interact with members of the community at large, get the public interested in solar energy, talk about solar 'beyond silicon', disseminate knowledge about solar energy conversion, and guide and encourage prospective students. The interactive demonstrations on hand highlighted real-world applications of both sides of solar technologies, photovoltaics (PV) and solar fuels. Aspiring photochemists could learn about the origins of different coloured light and how this impacts solar cell design. A demonstration solar hydrogen production cell using a hematite photoanode was on hand to show the promising future of solar fuels. The molecular processes of water splitting to generate oxygen and hydrogen was explained using simple coloured balls.”

As one Imperial Chemistry alumnus said "My daughter loves the spectrometer that she made and we are going to have a go at recreating your demonstration of producing hydrogen and oxygen using a 9V battery and two pencils. As a chemistry graduate myself it was great to see some of the current research from the Chemistry Department." 

CPE researchers from the Department of Physics presented a stand called “Buckets of Energy: Can We Store Sunlight?”  The stand featured tabletop demonstrations of a few energy storage technologies, including pumped hydropower, compressed air, and batteries. Researchers discussed with festivalgoers how they thought we could meet our energy needs with renewables when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. This stand was presented by Sheridan Few, Michelle Vezie, Joby Hollis, Matt Dyson, Ross Warren, Jonathan Ngiam, Alexandra Paterson and James Nightingale.