Keynote Speakers
We are pleased to announce the keynote speaker for BEC2022.
Mariusz Malinowski
Bio: Mariusz Malinowski (Fellow, IEEE) received the Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Warsaw, Poland, in 2001 and 2012, respectively. He was a Visiting Scholar at Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark; the University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA; the Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany; and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. He is currently with the Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics, WUT. His current research interests include the control and modulation of grid-side converters, multilevel converters, smart grids, and power generation systems based on renewable energies. He has co-authored over 130 technical papers and six books. He holds two implemented patents. Prof. Malinowski was the recipient of the Siemens Prize in 2002 and 2007; the WUT President Scientific Prize in 2015; the Polish Minister of Science and the Higher Education Awards in 2003 and 2008; the Prime Minister of Poland Award for Habilitation in 2013; and the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) David Irwin Early Career Award in 2011 and Bimal Bose Energy Systems Award in 2015. His industry application received several awards and medals, the Innovation Exhibition in Geneva in 2006 and the Exhibition in Brussels "Eureco" in 2006.
“New technologies in the energy sector as a response to the challenges of the European Green Deal”
Abstract: The fast development of the energy sector, including the increasing number of renewable energy sources (RES), storage, electromobility, hydrogen, and smart grids done thanks to power electronics converters, helps to respond to the challenges of the European Green Deal. The proposed modern solution is the application of multifunctional power electronics converters that is able to not only meet the main basic requirements of the European Green Deal, but also respond to the future challenges defined by the constant progress of technology in all-new fields through highly efficient energy conversion and providing new functionalities in a modern distributed power system.
Matteo Chiesa
Bio: As a material scientist working on creating and implementating technologies necessary to adapt the current energy system into a more sustainable, competitive and secure one. I design and investigate engineered nanomaterials for solar energy conversion and storage systems. Currently I focus my research on tackling specific challenges related to the deployment of renewable energy under arctic conditions through a synthetic and symbiotic approach. I cultivate interdisciplinarity and combine technologies to create optimal solutions while ensuring their harmonious integration in a societal context to achieve sustainable living and the wellbeing of people. This approach has characterized my research at Masdar Institute (now KU) where, since 2007 I have systematically tackled several of the major challenges related to solar energy implementation in desert environment. The outcome of my research has been pivotal in the realization of photovoltaics projects promising electricity at record-low prices with PPA (power purchase agreement) bids reaching as low as 1.35c/kWh.
"Perspective on Emerging Next Generation Photovoltaics "
Abstract: Rapidly declining costs of renewable energy technologies have made solar and wind the cheapest sources of energy in many parts of the world. This has been seen primarily as enabling the rapid decarbonization of the electricity sector, but low-cost, low-carbon energy can have a great secondary impact by reducing the costs of energy-intensive decarbonization efforts in other areas. In this talk, we will consider, by way of an exemplary carbon capture and utilization cycle based on mature technologies, the energy requirements of the “industrial carbon cycle”, an emerging paradigm in which industrial CO2 emissions are captured and reprocessed into chemicals and fuels, and we assess the impact of declining renewable energy costs on overall economics of these processes. In our exemplary process, CO2 is captured from a cement production facility via an amine scrubbing process and combined with hydrogen produced by a solar-powered polymer electrolyte membrane, using electrolysis to produce methanol. We will reflect on the fact that solar heat and electricity generation costs currently realized in the Middle East lead to a large reduction in the cost of this process relative to baseline assumptions found in published literature, and extrapolation of current energy price trends into the near future would bring costs down to the level of current fossil-fuel-based processes. Lastly, a discuss around the perspective for emerging next generation photovoltaics technology is presented in light of energy security.