Energy conversion

Currently, renewable energy sources are the main driver for future electricity generation. This trend is growing faster in the developed countries in order to reduce the green house effect and also in response to the limited supply of oil, gas and coal which are currently the ma…

Control of spectral thermal emission from surfaces may be desirable in some energy related applications, such as nano-scale antenna energy conversion and thermophotovoltaic conversion. There are a number of methods, from commercially available paints to advanced surface gratings…

Nitride metal/semiconductor superlattices are a promising materials system for high temperature (>800K) thermionic energy conversion devices. This dissertation specifically investigates various properties of the (HfxZr 1-x)N/ScN metal/semiconductor materials system and introduce…

This thesis presents a supervisory hybrid controller for the automatic operation and control of a wind energy conversion and battery storage system. The supervisory hybrid control scheme is based on a radically different approach of modeling and control design, proposed for the …

Nanowires have emerged as promising components for future electronic and energy conversion devices, but many of their unique properties are poorly understood. Specifically, nanowires are natural conduction channels which behave in new and different ways than their corresponding …