Physical sciences, Earth sciences

Insulated walls and new windows sound like good news for anyone renting a room. But across Europe, energy renovations can also push rents up and leave the most vulnerable behind. The EU-funded PREFIGURE project is studying local initiatives that manage to make homes energy-efficient, affordable and inclusive at the same time – and at the end you can check how energy-smart your own way of living is.

Solar cells have a weak spot: the stronger the sunshine, the hotter they get, and hot cells lose efficiency. The EU-funded NANOSPLIT project found a way around it – hybrid nanofluids made of zinc oxide sheets and gold nanoparticles that work as intelligent light filters. Part of the sunlight is turned into electricity, while the rest becomes useful heat for hot water or space heating – and at the end, you can check how you use energy yourself.

An EU research project ends, the final report is filed – and then what? HiEFFICIENT, which ran from 2021 to 2024, shows that the story can go on: its power electronics for electric vehicles are turning into chargers, inverters, a spin-off company and a follow-up project. It offers a concrete, step-by-step look at how semiconductor research actually reaches real cars — and at the end you can check whether power electronics might be the right field of study for you.

The same moisture that settles as dew on the grass each morning may one day keep the lights on. The EU-funded CATCHER project has been developing a technology that turns water vapour in the air into electricity, working day and night, whether or not the sun shines or the wind blows. Its converters have already run for thousands of hours in demanding laboratory tests — and at the end you can check whether you have a head for the energy of the future.

A solar panel usually brings to mind a heavy slab of glass bolted onto a roof. The technology behind the EU-funded DIAMOND project points somewhere else entirely: to a thin film of crystals that captures light more efficiently than silicon and could be made in Europe instead of shipped in. Behind that film sit whole degree programmes, from solid-state physics to materials chemistry and process engineering - and a short test at the end asks how close the reader already stands to that kind of work.