The Academy of Sciences of Cuba has recognized with the country’s highest scientific award the SURE Project promoted by the Imperial College of London and in which the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) is participating.
UPCT professor Antonio Urbina and the doctor for the doctoral program in Renewable Energies of the Polytechnic University Lucía Serrano have participated in the PEMAR Project that has received the 2019 prize of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, the most prestigious award given in the country in the scientific field.
The SURE Project (Sustainable Rural Energy), a multi-criteria decision software, to which the researchers introduce a series of conditioning features and factors on a specific area or population for the program to analyze the information and offer the best renewable energy solution, is part of this project.
Serrano explained that once the software proposes a photovoltaic technology as a solution, the researchers calculate the carbon dioxide that is avoided thanks to its use, also taking into account the places where it is manufactured and its installation, as well as showing the results for various technologies and being able to choose the one with the lowest environmental impact. For his part, Urbina stressed that this type of project can address the problem of rural electrification in a more sustainable way, and, at the same time, take into account meeting the demand of the project’s beneficiaries.
The universities of the United Kingdom, Colombia and Cuba collaborated in the development of the project, including fieldwork on the Caribbean island in rural communities where different alternatives of rural electrification were studied taking into account the local situation, the opinion of the inhabitants and the resources available.
By analyzing all the factors comprehensively, a more durable solution is obtained over time and with less environmental impacts.
