Dr. Amy Fleischer Tapped for U.S.-Egypt Solar Workshop
Dr. Amy Fleischer, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, will represent Villanova and the College of Engineering at this month’s U.S.-Egypt Joint Workshop on Solar Energy Systems and Materials, scheduled for March 11-14. She will present “Energy Storage Using Phase Change Materials with Applications in Solar Energy Systems.”
Phase change materials are materials that undergo a solid-liquid phase transformation at a temperature within the operating range of the application. During the phase change process, energy is absorbed and stored in the material through the latent heat of fusion. This stored energy can then be shed when required through material solidification.
“In many locations, the availability of solar energy does not match the demand cycle. As such, there is a need for efficient energy storage in order to load match the supply and demand. This load matching can be accomplished by energy storage in phase change materials,” says Dr. Fleischer. “My presentation will give an overview of phase change energy storage fundamentals, current state-of-the-art, and applications to solar energy systems.”
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S.-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Research Board, and the Science and Technology Development Fund, the event draws together solar energy experts from North America and the Middle East to exchange information on solar energy advances. According to the organization, “The workshop aims to provide the U.S. with both excellent potential graduate students [and] a test-bed for solar technologies…The workshop will [also] provide the Egyptian side with much-needed training…in this important sector.”
Dr. Amy Fleischer, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Photo Credit – Crane Photography