Energy is not useful simply to sustain life. It plays an important role in man’s struggle against the eccentricities of nature. The more he uses it to harness and utilize other forms of it, the more control he gains over his environment, achieving goals much beyond mere survival.
It is essential, however, to effect the desired conversion with reasonable cost, both financial and social.
The Solar Engineering Unit of NTUA’s School of Chemical Engineering, commonly known as “Solar Laboratory”, supports teaching, research, and technological development related to solar energy and to systems which utilize it (active, passive, photovoltaic, energy storage).
Founded by Prof. John Palyvos in 1967 is now located in Room H1.502 of the Chemical Engineering building (near the Unit Operations Laboratory) and has outdoors facilities on the roof right above.
The Solar Engineering Unit’s equipment includes sensors and instruments for monitoring, recording, storing, processing, and presenting all the physical quantities which are used in the usual computations (e.g. basic design, sizing, and simulation) of solar energy, energy storage and photovoltaic applications.