The 2020 Taiwan International Smart Energy Week recently took place in Nangang, Taipei. The three fields of "Solar Photovoltaics," "Wind Energy," and "Smart Energy Storage" are connected to form an energy triangle, with a total of 130 manufacturers and 500 booths, to showcase the best solutions for energy creation, energy storage, and energy conservation. In addition to Taiwan's high-quality energy manufacturers and technology companies, more than 10 seminars and forums on technology and trend were also held, attracting more than 10,000 industry professionals to visit and purchase, making it the only renewable energy in Taiwan Exhibition Platform. The Department of Optoelectronics at STUST won the first place in the 2020 Solar Optoelectronics Innovation Design and Application Competition. This award was presented by President Ing-Wen Tsai at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Taiwan International Smart Energy Week. The winners were deeply honored.

【Wei-Shuan Hsu (right) from the Department of Optoelectronics at STUST came to the stage to receive the award and took a photo with President Ing-Wen Tsai (left). (source: President Tsai’s Office)】

The government is now promoting the 5-plus-2 innovative industries as well as the upgrading and transformation of the photovoltaic industry. The most important target is the domestic 20GW system. In order to guide the development of the country’s photovoltaic industry towards system terminal innovation, the Solar Photovoltaic Innovation Application Product Design Competition Award was especially held to call for innovative and diffusive application of photovoltaic system to assist the industry in injecting creative water and exciting new ideas. It also helps find solutions to the current situation to break through the current situation, develop a new niche product layout in the future, and expand the terminal diversified outlets, and to enhance the industrial competitiveness.

【From left to right, they are students from the Department of Optoelectronics at STUST, awarded the first prize in the Solar Photovoltaic Innovation Application Product Design Competition Award: Yu-Shiu Ou, Wen-Ze Lin, Wei-Shuan Hsu, and their advisor Rui-Tang Chen.】

The award-winning work "Greenhouse Solar Module" by the Department of Optoelectronics at STUST is a team led by Associate Professor Rui-Tang Chen, Yu-Shiu Ou, Wen-Ze Lin, and Wei-Shuan Hsu. This work uses a diffuser film to evenly distribute sunlight onto the plants, making the whole crop grow uniformly and meeting the different illumination requirements of different plants. The light color can be changed by adjusting the size of the light-transmitting area and adding pigments. For example, crops that need low light to grow, such as figs, peonies, and rhododendrons, while it gives crops the best growing environment. In accordance with the wavelength of the transmitted light as required by different light demand, the color of the crop is found to be favorable for growth. Compared with traditional greenhouses and solar power plants, there is a larger space and flexibility for application. The upper cover of the solar panel is changed from 3.2mm, with the size of white glass cut down to less than 1mm. The lower substrate is made of transparent plastic film to reduce weight and increase toughness to make it lighter, in order to achieve the purpose of convenient replacement. Through such lightweight design, this work can replace solar panels according to the amount of light and the light color required by different crops. It is a technology that can be used at this stage or in the short term. Indeed, it comes with considerable market value.

Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, said that the winning work "Greenhouse Solar Module" is a product design that innovatively combines solar photovoltaics with such new technologies as energy storage, IOT, and AI. With this feature, the work came to the fore and won the first place in the 2020 Solar Optoelectronics Innovation Design and Application Competition Award, and awarded by President Ing-Wen Tsai. This is an affirmation of the achievements of STUST's teaching innovation. Gratitude should be given to the instructors and students for their efforts. STUST has always attached great importance to student practice. In addition to allowing students to understand the structure and concepts in theory, it also pays more attention to how to enable students to effectively apply these concepts to solve problems through practice. It is also hoped that students will learn by doing. Under the teaching method, it will have a long-term effect in the future.