19 Aug 2014
Loughborough unveils ‘world’s most advanced’ PV Remote Lab for distance learners
Loughborough University is set to launch the world’s most advanced Photovoltaic (PV) Remote Laboratory for distance learning students.
The ground-breaking new laboratory has taken almost four years to build and students from around the world who enrol on the distance learning version of the Masters course in Renewable Energy Systems Technology in October will be the first to use it.
Students on the Masters course need to understand how different types of solar panels perform. However, characterising solar panels is a complex activity with up to four variables influencing performance at any one time.
The new laboratory enables students to remotely control and investigate all these variables and, as a result, analyse and understand different PV device performance.
The laboratory has been a labour of love for the two people who came up with the idea and drove the project – academics Dr Richard Blanchard and Dr Sheryl Williams, from the School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering.
Dr Williams said: “This innovative technology is the latest addition to our continually evolving distance learning student experience and we believe it’s the first time a lab of this nature has been built in terms of its complexity and the number of controllable variables.”
Read the full press release