News – Page 6 – ANCEHA.NO

May 09

Clean Energy Seminar, 9th of May 2018, JetWing, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Establishment of Norway- Sri Lanka research consortium on Clean Energy Technologies

Both Norway and Sri Lanka have committed to a decrease in CO2 emission, and both have long term plans to increase the share of clean energy technologies to tackle future energy demands. Research and higher education institutions and research groups in Norway and Sri Lanka have greater focus on clean energy technologies, and public interest and private investments are on the rise in both countries.

Under the NORPART (Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation) program managed by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) has recently signed a MoU on higher education and research collaboration with University of Jaffna (UoJ), Sri Lanka in clean energy technologies. Other institutions, such as the University of Bergen (UiB) and the University of Agder (UoA) from Norway and the University of Peradeniya (UoP) from Sri Lanka are also included as partners in this project. For research on innovative clean energy technologies to result in solutions for practical applications, it is of utmost importance that the private sector and the research institutions work together. In 2017, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo funded a new project led by HVL to establish a research consortium on clean energy technologies that includes both higher education and research institutions and the private sector in Norway and Sri Lanka. As the first step to achieve this goal, a Norwegian-Sri Lankan Clean Energy Seminar is arranged in Colombo on 9 May 2018, in collaboration with Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association (SLEMA) bringing together the academia and the private sector.

The main objectives of this clean energy seminar are four-fold:

1. To establish an arena to present the Norwegian and Sri Lankan private sector working on clean energy technologies such as solar, wind and hydrogen

2. To facilitate a meeting place for the academia and private sector in the field of clean energy technologies from both countries that would lead to the establishment of a sustainable research consortium

3. To obtain in-depth knowledge on the energy regulative measures and policies in Sri Lanka

4. To facilitate and motivate the private sector and Universities from Norway and Sri Lanka to initiate future partnerships including joint-ventures

Mar 14

Cooperation agreement with The University of Jaffna

On Tuesday 14. March, HVL and the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for education and research cooperation.

The inauguration ceremony, held in Jaffna, marked the kick-off of a five-year NORPART project within clean energy technology.

The project supports the exchange of staff and students at master and Ph.D level as well as the development of a master programme within clean energy technology at the University of Jaffna (UoJ). The project is funded by the Norwegian government and has a budget of 4,7 million NOK.

The main research topic in the NORPART project is a new generation of solar cell technologies. As the worlds energy demand is growing there is a need to find alternative and sustainable sources for energy.

The project coordinators, Prof. Dhayalan Velauthapillai from HVL and Professor P. Ravirajan from UoJ have been conducting research on the new generation of solar cell technologies based on new nanomaterials. These technologies will lead to low weight, flexible and cheap solar cell technologies in the future, for instance in paint form and thin films.

The research activity will include master level students, Ph.D students and fellow researchers from two Sri Lankan universities, one Indian university, and three Norwegian universities.

May 07

Collaboration agreement on nanomaterials

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences recently signed a five-year collaboration agreement with Coimbatore Institute of Technology on nanomaterials for clean energy and health applications.

The agreement marks the start of a four year funded project within the government funded UTFORSK programme.

The project will be managed by the Department of Computing, Mathematics, and Physics at Campus Bergen and has a budget of 2 million NOK. The University of Bergen and relevant enterprises in India and Norway are also part of the project collaboration.

The focus for the collaboration is student and staff mobility, development of a joint postgraduate course in Nano Materials for Solar Cell Applications, the involvement of enterprises in Norway and India for student internships and development of new theoretical and experimental models in the field of nanomaterials for clean energy and health applications.