Sustainable Energy Research Centre (MQ SERC)
Sustainable Energy Research Centre (MQ SERC)
With the world’s growing and ageing population and the ever-increasing impacts of urbanisation and climate change, the management of our energy resources is vital to maintaining our quality of life. A global transition to a sustainable energy system is essential to meeting the increasing energy demand and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, one-third of which currently relates to energy supply.
By 2050, it is predicted that 63% of the world’s total primary energy supply will come from renewable energy sources.
The Sustainable Energy Research Centre was established to capture these opportunities and drive the global clean energy transition by combining the expertise of researchers, industry, and government to develop innovative solutions for the production and utilisation of renewable and sustainable energy sources and technologies.
Photovoltaics and solar energy
Our research members are leading the development of nanomaterial-based photovoltaic materials to support next generation high efficiency solar cells, as well as revolutionary device fabrication technologies to reduce the cost of power generation. Our work in photovoltaic optics focusses on developing unique optical characterisation capabilities and modelling expertise.
Hydrogen production and utilisation
Hydrogen is a clean energy source which does not directly contribute to CO2 emissions. Our research members are pioneers in sustainable hydrogen production, hydrogen utilisation, and best practice in hydrogen safety.
Our synthetic biology techniques use engineered bacteria for rapid and efficient production of hydrogen from renewable feedstocks such as cane sugar, and our innovative chemical techniques produce hydrogen in an entirely renewable energy driven chemical looping process through the catalytic reduction of steam using metallic iron and raw biomass.
We offer scientific and technical expertise in relation to the safety aspects of hydrogen energy. We provide numerical and analytical modelling of potential accident scenarios, consequence assessment of the potential accidents, and risk analysis. We have expertise in modelling and analysis of fire, explosion, toxic release dispersion modelling and impact assessments.
Grid integration
Our research members are leaders in energy management including demand-side management and energy distribution for residential and commercial systems, microgrid and grid integration modelling, electric vehicle coordination as well as wind power and PV solar integration in remote communities.
Energy economics
Australian wholesale electricity prices are among the highest in the developed world and extremely volatile. Our economic experts investigate financial innovation strategies for electricity markets moving from fossil-fuel fired power generation to a renewable energy model, to guarantee the economic sustainability of the energy sector thereby decreasing the associated cost flow-on effects to the end user.