Our research
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
Solar Electricity Reseach Center Sweden (SOLVE)
SOLVE is a national competence center financed in equal parts by academia, industry and the Swedish Energy Agency. The goal of the competence center, which is led by Uppsala University, is to develop knowledge that promotes and maintains the growth of solar cell markets in Sweden, to spread this knowledge within a broad network of actors in the solar energy field, and to promote the training of experts with good connections to business and industry. The Division of Civil Engineering and Built Environment participates with a doctoral student and several researchers in the areas of building and power grid integration and large-scale expansion of solar power. Read more about the competence center SOLVE at the SOLVE website.
Dynamic Mobility Nudge (DyMoN): Shaping sustainable urban mobility behaviour with real-time, user-generated and public open data
This project provides a solid conceptual and empirical understanding of the potential of combining real-time user-generated publicly available environmental and transport data with nudging methods for promoting sustainable urban mobility behaviours. The project investigates how to design effective nudging strategies, while ensuring the privacy and inclusivity of citizens of smart cities. DyMoN focuses on active mobility in Salzburg and Uppsala, considering also areas of larger cities such as Frankfurt.
Read more about the DyMoN project
Life-cycle assessments on Maintenance and Renovation for Sustainable built heritage
Constant care and long-term maintenance can be more sustainable and suitable for historic buildings compared to deep renovations, partly to preserve their cultural value and partly to minimize their energy use. Nevertheless, there is a limited knowledge base about this context and therefore the purpose of this project is, through evaluation and comparison of different renovation strategies, to provide an increased understanding of a coherent and continuous maintenance process for sustainable renovation of cultural heritage buildings.
Life-cycle energy optimization of new and retrofitting buildings
Recent studies depict that with respect to the entire life cycle, low-energy buildings do not necessarily outperform the conventional ones and can paradoxically result in an increased energy use. One reason for that is use of new building materials which can eventually require a significant amount of “embodied energy” to manufacture them despite their potential to minimize the operational energy use. The main purpose of this project is to develop and test optimization methods that consider the trade-off between embodied and operational energy and favorably minimize the building's energy use from a life cycle perspective.
Read more about the project "Life-cycle energy optimization of new and retrofitting building"
Flexibility and energy efficiency in buildings with PV and EV charging
In this project, different measures will be evaluated to see how they can contribute to increased flexibility and better utilization of decentralized solar PV generation. This idea is based on two previous projects where the combination of solar PV and battery storage has been studied from a residential building’s perspective, with the aim of increasing the utilization of the PV energy and reduce the losses in the building, by using storage and demand side management.
Read more about the project "Flexibility and energy efficiency in buildings with PV and EV charging"
Computer-driven optimizations for improving sustainability performance of buildings
Today, computer-driven optimizations are increasingly used in other sectors (e.g. aerospace) to make more sustainable decisions during design. However, their use is still limited in the building sector. The purpose of this project is to develop practical methods based on computer-driven optimizations and test them in several case studies to provide knowledge on how these methods can support sustainable decisions.
Activity-based urban building and mobility energy modeling for planning of future cities
In order to achieve goals for energy efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, cities around the world must change their local use and supply of energy. This requires studies of the effects of different urban designs, policy measures and the spread of new technology on the energy performance of entire cities. This project constructs a digital city model that can be used to calculate and visualize energy and power needs as well as greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and transportation at the city level.
Advanced statistical methods for determining the hosting capacity of medium and low voltage networks
Grid integration of new building-related technologies such as PV systems, electric vehicles, batteries, and home energy management systems requires improved spatio-temporal models. In this project, statistical models for solar irradiance, electric vehicle charging and flexible customers are developed. The aim is to propose a methodology that accounts for the complexities involved while still being useful for practical network planning.
Gotland’s sustainable energy system transition: resources, demand and planning
Gotland has favourable conditions for generation of solar and wind power and for transitioning to a sustainable energy system. The aim of this project is to investigate the possibilities for a 100% renewable energy system on the island. In a subproject on energy demand a spatio-temporal urban-scale simulation model of Gotland is developed, using several different state-of-the-art engineering techniques. Apart from studying the current energy demand, scenarios will be developed for Gotland’s future energy demand along with options for reducing it.
Solar cells on trucks for environmental friendly transports
One of the biggest challenges today is to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels to reduce the climate impact, and in Sweden a large part of the fossil fuels is used to drive transport. The goal of this project is to develop new systems with modern photovoltaic (PV) systems and batteries on trucks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport. The project is lead by Ångström Chemistry, but several industrial partners are engaged. Our division contributes by studying the implications if a large share of the trucks are equipped with PV and batteries and connected to the grid. Project member from the Division is David Lingfors.
Automatic mapping of solar panels and generation of solar forecasts through aerial imagery and machine learning
This project’s goal is to evaluate whether it is possible to determine where the solar systems in Sweden physically are installed, their power and orientation through a system using aerial imagery or satellite images and an image analysis method that uses machine learning. Both existing and new methods, developed within the project, are evaluated in a Swedish context. An important development is that the method should be able to estimate the power, slope and azimuth of solar systems satisfactorily.
Pro.Per.Her – Prosumers Perspectives in Heritage districts
The purpose of this project is to develop, test and evaluate a method how potential prosumers, living and/or working in culturally valuable environments, are motivated and given opportunities to integrate solar cells. The project will use participatory design methods, building integrated energy thinking, methods for assessing cultural values and energysystem technology in two pilot case studies.
Read more about the project Pro.Per.Her
Increased utilisation of the grid with combined solar- and wind power parks
The project aims to map the most resource-efficient locations for combined solar and wind farms in Sweden. It will also, through high-resolution measurements at transformers in connection with solar, wind and hybrid parks, increase the understanding of how the electricity grid, and components therein, are affected. With an increased share of solar and wind power in the electricity system, it becomes increasingly important to forecast production. By collecting validation data, the difference in the forecast error can therefore be studied for a hybrid park versus separate solar and wind farms.
Virtual testbed for strategic city and energy planning through integrated digital models
In order to achieve the energy transition required to reach national and global climate goals, new and innovative energy technology system solutions are needed. In this project a form of integrated virtual testbed is developed that provides the opportunity to investigate the effects of new energy technology and system solutions in both existing and new urban environments. The virtual testbed will be integrated with Uppsala municipality's GIS-based tools and tested on the entire city's existing buildings as well as on new urban development projects.