Past

The Low Down On Renewable Energy

This class has passed
This class has passed

What’s it all about?

The role of renewable energy generation in combating climate change is undeniable and pretty well understood by most people. Yet many myths surrounding the efficiency and reliability of renewable energies such as solar power persist – some of these myths even enter into political discourse, influencing the voting public.

What will we cover?

In this class you will learn the low down on renewable energy, the different types  – wind power, hydro power, solar power and storage. We’ll focus on solar energy – and talk about the emerging ways we can capture and use sunlight and how we might capture more of it and more efficiently. Promising to be informative but jargon-free and with demonstration devices to show you the science that these new developments are based on. By the end of the class you will have a grasp of how these technologies work and a better understanding of the exciting future for renewables.

Siobhan BradleyWho will be teaching?

Dr. Siobhan Bradley is a postdoctoral fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Exciton Science at the University of Melbourne. She is a chemist with a background is in solar energy – the various ways to absorb, use and store energy from the sun’s rays. Her current work involves shooting lasers at molecules in solar devices to understand how well they absorb sunlight and improve the efficiency with which they convert solar energy into electricity.