The Ph.D. Program in Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency, in the University of Zaragoza, is taught since course 2003/2004. The PhD. program was awarded the 'Quality Seal' from the Education Ministery (Ref. MCD2003-00435) since the course 2003/2004 and was renewed uninterruptedly in all published calls. Later on, the PhD. program was distinguished with the "Excellence Mention" by the Education Ministery (MEE-2011-0262), valid for courses from 2011-2012 to 2013-2014.
The current Ph.D. Program in Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency obtained the positive verification from the Universities Council dated September 25, 2013, and its official character and registration in the Register of Universities, University Centers and Degrees were established by means of the Council of Ministers Agreement, published in BOE on February 7, 2017. The program comes from the previous doctoral program in “renewable energy and energy efficiency”, regulated by RD 1393/2007, whose registration was published in the Official Gazette of February 10, 2010, which in turn came from the grouping of previous programs regulated by RD 778/1998 "Renewable energy and energy efficiency" (interdepartmental between the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering) and "Electrical Engineering", both of the University of Zaragoza.
With the creation, at the beginning of 2009, of the Mixed Research Institute, CIRCE, where most of the teachers involved in the PhD. program took part, the new version of the PhD. was assigned to that Research Institute.
This Ph.D. program has as main professional opportunities (among others):
Administrative support:
IUI Mixto Centro de Investigación de Recursos y Consumos Energéticos (CIRCE)
Edificio CIRCE / Campus Río Ebro. Mariano Esquillor Gómez, 15, 50018 Zaragoza
Academic Information:
Teléfono: 976762402
Email: melero@unizar.es
Administrative Information:
Teléfono: 976762145 - Ext.: 842145
Email: docter@unizar.es
Adaptation for students with specific disability needs:
Students with special education needs derived from specific disabilities will follow the same admission procedure as the others.
The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program will evaluate case by case and will put the student in touch with the University Office of Disability Care where qualified technicians will be in charge of providing the student with specific tools for her specific educational needs.
The students of the program acquire the basic competences indicated in article 5 of Royal Decree 99/2011 on doctorate. They are the following:
The RD 99/2011 highlights the high professional training of doctors in various fields, especially those that require creativity and innovation. Therefore, the doctors of the program will have acquired, at least, personal skills and abilities to:
The requirements for access to doctoral studies are set by the RD 99/2011, of 28 January. In general, access to the programme is open to those who hold an official Spanish Bachelor's and Master's degree or equivalent, having passed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in these two degrees.
Students with a foreign degree issued by a country included in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) may apply for admission directly (info). If the degree was issued by a non-EHEA country, the application for admission with a foreign degree that has not been recognised (info) must be submitted.
Interested parties can find more information about acceso and admission at the Doctoral School section and at the administrative office of the programme (see contact details in the general information section of the programme).
Interested students can obtain further information about
Oferta de plazas: 15
Nevertheless, other university master's degrees may also be suitable, preferably in Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency or any other from the Energy field. Energy engineering is a multidisciplinary field, and students trained in masters of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, materials engineering, etc. from an educational institution of the European Higher Education Area have room in the doctoral studies. Moreover, those similar candidates coming from third countries will also be accepted whenever the title they hold grants access to doctoral studies in their own country.
The access profile is defined as the level of master studies with engineering knowledge in the fields of electrical engineering (circuit theory, electrical machines, power systems) or thermal engineering (thermodynamics, heat transfer, thermo-technology, thermal engines) or with a sufficient basis allowing their acquisition autonomously.
Students with this profile will have direct access to the doctorate.
Selection criteria:
Candidates to the doctoral studies shall be admitted by the academic committee.
To obtain such admission, the candidate must request it to the academic committee of the program within the established period in the annual academic calendar.
To apply for admission, the candidate must submit the following documentation:
Whenever there are more applications than places, the weighting of the admission criteria will be as follows:
In the personal interview, the candidate's motivation will be assessed. Moreover, any needed clarification related to the curriculum vitae and/or the rest of the documentation will be requested.
In addition to the profiles mentioned in the previous section, candidates from a master of architecture and from the field of business administration and law could also be acepted. In all these cases, the admission is made contemplating training complements.
Those profiles must complete their training in the following subjects:
The offer of specific subjects for these training complements is not foreseen, but it will be recommended to take subjects of other degrees. Precisely the proposed range (4-6 ECTS) is to adapt to the current offer. For example, the following subjects of the master's degree in renewable energies and energy efficiency:
And the introductory course "Renewable Energies" (6 ECTS) currently in the degree of Industrial Technologies would cover such complements.
Doctoral students, as researchers in training and students of the University of Zaragoza, must register annually with the corresponding fees for the academic supervision of the doctoral programme while they continue their doctoral training. The enrolment period will be the one established for this purpose in the calendar of the corresponding academic year.
As a general rule, enrolment will be done online through the Virtual Secretariat of the University of Zaragoza, having previously obtained a personal identification number (PIN) and password from the identity management service of the University of Zaragoza. Those who are unable to enrol online will be allowed to do so in person by going to the Doctoral School Section during opening hours. For the first, second and subsequent enrolments, doctoral students will have to present various documents about their previous studies, depending on whether they have been studied in countries within or outside the European Education Area.
The website of the Doctoral School provides complete and updated information about the enrolment procedure including key points, prices, discounts and insurance, legalisation and translation of documents and various practical details.
The procedures for the supervision of students on the programme are set out in article 11 of Royal Decree 99/2011 regulating doctoral studies. Thesis supervision is also covered by Title I of the Regulations on Doctoral Theses of the University of Zaragoza.
Doctoral students admitted to the programme will register annually for academic supervision at the University of Zaragoza. The academic committee of the programme will assign a thesis supervisor and a tutor, who may or may not coincide. The thesis supervisor will be responsible for the overall management of the student's research tasks, for the coherence and suitability of the training activities, for the impact and novelty of the subject matter of the doctoral thesis in his/her field, and for guiding the planning and, where appropriate, its adaptation to that of other projects and activities in which the student is enrolled. The tutor is responsible for ensuring that the training and research activity is in line with the principles of the programme and the Doctoral School and will ensure the interaction of the PhD student with the programme's Academic Committee, the body responsible for supervising the progress of the research and training and for authorising the presentation of the thesis of each PhD student on the programme.
The supervision of doctoral students will be set out in the Doctoral Charter which, once enrolment has been completed, will be signed by the doctoral student, his/her tutor and supervisor, the programme coordinator and the director of the School for Doctoral Studies. For further information on thesis supervision, please contact the programme's administrative office (see contact details in the programme's general information) or the programme coordinator.
The mechanisms for monitoring doctoral students are in accordance with the provisions of Article 11. Doctoral supervision and monitoring of RD 99/2011, of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral studies.
Before the end of the first year of enrolment, the PhD student must present a document that includes the research plan and the personal training plan. This may be improved and detailed throughout their stay on the programme and must be endorsed by the supervisor and tutor.
The research plan shall include, at least, the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and timetable for achieving them.
The personal training plan will contain a forecast of the different training activities to be carried out during the doctoral thesis (courses, seminars, mobility actions, etc.).
The activities document is the record of all the activities - stays, courses, attendance at conferences, etc. - that the PhD student carries out from enrolment in the doctoral programme until the submission of the doctoral thesis.
These documents, as well as the director's and tutor's reports, are managed through the doctoral management application, SIGMA.
The academic committee of the programme will annually evaluate the progress of the doctoral student in terms of his/her research plan and the activities document together with the reports that the director and tutor must issue for this purpose. A positive evaluation will be a prerequisite for continuing on the programme. In the event of a negative evaluation, the PhD student must be evaluated again within a maximum period of six months. In the event that significant shortcomings continue to occur, the Academic Committee must issue a reasoned report, after hearing the interested party, and the doctoral student will be definitively withdrawn from the programme.
Once the thesis has been completed, the PhD student must proceed to its deposit and defence in accordance with the provisions set out in the thesis regulations of the University of Zaragoza and in the procedure that develops it, available on the EDUZ regulations website
The Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza offers its doctoral students various transversal training activities focused on facilitating the acquisition of the necessary skills to actively participate in the knowledge society and to successfully manage in a complex and changing labour market. The activities in module 1, Communication skills, help PhD students to effectively disseminate research and its results and to share knowledge in an attractive way, both in writing and orally. Module 2, Scientific Information Management, provides training in searching, processing and managing bibliographic information. Module 3 includes activities that improve the doctoral student's readiness to manage in a professional environment. The activities in module 4, Research and Society, provide doctoral students with a space for reflection on issues of interest to participate fully and responsibly in today's diverse, digital and global society. Module 5 contains activities on instrumental or technical aspects necessary to apply cutting-edge research methodologies.
The training offer is completed with online activities for all G9 doctoral students, teaching and research training activities organised by the Institute of Education Sciences of the University of Zaragoza and with those carried out within the framework of inter-university and international Doctoral Conferences.
The complete offer for each academic year is published here.
The profiles of the students in the doctoral program are very variable. Its multidisciplinary character can include students with a broad income profile in terms of previous specific acquired skills. Moreover, their situation can also be different. Regarding this last, the students can be classified into the next groups:
1. Students who have just graduated from the master's degree and having financing that allows them to dedicate exclusively to the completion of their doctorate (FPI, PFU or similar scholarships or foreign students who have received scholarships in their country of origin). Fortunately or unfortunately, the reality is that students from engineering have lower average grades compared to other degrees and in this Ph.D. program the students of this profile have always been the minority.
2. Researchers who do NOT have funds allowing them to dedicate exclusively to the completion of the doctorate. The typical profile is that of a student with a research vocation that has not obtained one of the aforementioned scholarships but has a researcher contract in a research Institute or University Research Center, Technological Center or OPI or, University Teacher. These students must attend their paid work in the first place, but they have the advantage over other part-time students, that their doctoral training is interesting for their work and that part of their research can be developed as part of the objectives to fulfill in his remunerated work. In this case, they will be part-time students, but they probably will have a flexible schedule or a license or similar plan to, for example, carry out mobility activities. These students are also acquiring in their own work some of the competencies needed also in the doctorate program, specifically:
· CB15 Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their fields of knowledge in the modes and languages commonly used in their international scientific community.
· CA01 Develop in contexts in which there is little specific information.
· CA03 Design, create, develop and undertake innovative projects in their field of knowledge.
· CA04 Work both as a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
3. Engineers of R & D departments of companies and administrations that collaborate with doctoral program researchers This type of students have a late doctoral vocation, and usually take advantage of being involved in a research project at their company/administration of a certain entity. In this case, they are part-time students, with very limited availability for mobility actions, but because of their professional career, they know other work areas and, therefore, mobility is less necessary.
Given that in this doctoral program the most usual profile is type 2, a design case by case of the training plan is proposed. It will be designed by the tutor in agreement with the student and approved by the academic committee. This training plan will be an important part of the research plan, whose preparation and monitoring constitute one of the compulsory activities of the doctorate. In general, this work plan must comply with the following guidelines:
1. The initial working plan, presented with the first version of the research plan, will establish the training activities for the first three years of the doctorate. For the following years, it will be updated in the case that the student has not yet completed his doctoral thesis.
2. Activities related to transversal training will be achieved in the first two years.
3. Mobility will be started by the second year.
Specific training activities are:
Title: Preparation and monitoring of the research plan. Obligatory (Yearly updated while enrolled in the program)
Duration: 20
Control procedures: Reports will be approved by the academic
committee and will be included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: Attendance
at conferences and preparation and presentation of papers. Obligatory (At least one conference presentation)
Duration: 20
Control procedures: With the attendance report prepared by the
student and justified with corresponding documents (attendance certificate,
poster or paper presentation evidence, presentation certificate). The report will
be included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: Preparation
of research papers. Obligatory (Publication of, at least, two international conference papers or one paper in an indexed journal, all in the English language)
Duration: 150
Control procedures: With the letter of acceptance of the journal or
conference.
Title: Preparation
of the final thesis report and defense of the doctoral thesis. Obligatory
Duration: 999
Control procedures: Defence act with a committee.
Title: Presentation of papers in internal seminars. Obligatory
Duration: 10
Control procedures: Certificate from the responsible of the
seminars. The report will be included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral
Student.
Title: Organization
of internal seminars. Optional
Duration: 10
Control procedures: Certificate from the doctoral program
coordinator or from the delegate of the academic committee.
Title: Mobility.
Optional
Duration: 80
Control procedures: The secondment will be authorized by the
academic committee. When finished, the secondment responsible will issue a
report (or the thesis supervisor) covering the details of the secondment (dates,
group, activities, ..) The report will be included in the Activities Document
of the Doctoral Student.
Title: “Software libre para investigadores”. Optional
Duration: 25
Control procedures: Evaluation and attendance control. Both will be
included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: Técnicas de “data mining”.
Optional
Duration: 45
Control procedures: Evaluation and attendance control. Both will be
included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: Eco-innovación empresarial para el
ahorro de recursos y energía y la mejora de la competividad. Optional
Duration: 20
Control procedures: Attendance control and final work. Both will be
included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: El Análisis de Ciclo de
Vida como herramienta de Eficiencia Energética: Ecoeficiencia. Optional
Duration: 25
Control procedures: Attendance control and final work. Both will be
included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: Instrumentación y análisis de señales
para monitorización y control de sistemas térmicos. Optional
Duration: 25
Control procedures: Attendance control and final work. Both will be
included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Title: Técnicas de medida en laboratorio. Optional
Duration: 20
Control procedures: Attendance control and final work. Both will be
included in the Activities Document of the Doctoral Student.
Doctoral students enrolled on doctoral programmes benefit from the mobility grants established in various national and international calls for applications. The calls of the Erasmus+ programme stand out. In the Modality Erasmus+ Studies, doctoral students can choose from a wide range of destinations as most of the agreements signed by the University of Zaragoza with other universities include places for doctoral students from all branches.
This mobility is carried out in accordance with the procedure Q-312_1. Procedure for the Management of the International Mobility of Undergraduate, Master and PhD Students.
With regard to the Erasmus+ Internships mode, doctoral students have access to two calls: the University of Zaragoza's own call and the one carried out by the Campus Iberus of International Excellence for the universities that are part of it, including Zaragoza.
Other interesting mobility calls are the Erasmus+ Short Mobility, the UNITA mobility, the external internships, those specifically aimed at Ibero-American students and those that finance international stays for pre-doctoral students, among others.
The mobility of doctoral students at the University of Zaragoza is also encouraged through the signing of co-supervision agreements with several foreign universities.
The Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza has rules, regulations and procedures to facilitate the achievement of its various objectives. It is worth highlighting the Internal Regulations of the Doctoral School, the Instruction of the Doctoral School: Requirements for access, admission, dedication and permanence in the doctoral studies of the University of Zaragoza adapted to R.D. 99/2011. 99/2011; the Procedure for the elaboration of the Report on the Quality of Doctoral Studies and its different Programmes (ICED); the Code of Good Practices for the School and the doctoral programmes; the Doctoral Charter; the Procedure and model agreement to request the mention of doctorate industrial in the thesis or the Regulation of extraordinary doctoral awards. The aforementioned documents, drawn up with the participation and consensus of the various bodies of the Doctoral School, are published on its website.
The regulations section of the Doctoral School's website contains other important regulatory references for doctoral studies such as RD 99/2011 regulating official doctoral studies, the Regulations for Doctoral Studies (2012) and the Regulations on doctoral theses (2014), both from the University of Zaragoza.
Rules of duration and permanence in the doctorate are established in Instrucción de23 de mayo de 2018 de la Escuela de Doctorado relativa al acceso, admisión,dedicación y permanencia en los estudios de doctorado de la Universidad deZaragoza (R.D. 99/2011).
Full-time thesis should be complete in three years, from the date of admission to the doctoral program, although the Academic Committee of the program may authorize the extension of this period for one more year. Part-time doctoral students will have five years from their admission to the presentation of the thesis, and the Academic Committee may authorize an extension for two more years. Exceptionally, an additional year of extension can be added.
PhD candidates may request a change in dedication (full-time / part-time) as well as the temporary withdrawal for justified reasons of the Academic Committee. They can cause a definitive withdrawal and see their file closed in these cases: if the available time to deposit the thesis is exceeded or if they receive two consecutive negative evaluations of the research plan.
These processes are explained in detail on our website (info) and the doctoral students are told how to proceed in cases of temporary withdrawal (info).
Doctoral activity in an academic year is governed by the deadlines established in the specific doctoral academic calendar. This calendar, which is approved well in advance, sets the periods for application for access, admission to programmes, registration at the University of Zaragoza, presentation by doctoral students of the research plan and the activities document, as well as the deadlines for the defence of doctoral theses.
The website of the Doctoral School publishes the calendar for the current academic year, as well as for the two previous years.
For the realization of the doctoral thesis, the University, the involved departments and research institutes, the research groups and the involved teachers in the doctoral program, offer appropriate resources and services.
Regarding laboratories and equipment, the below described are available:
RENEWABLE ENERGIES RELATED EQUIPMENT
· Photovoltaic panels of different types for their mounting connections and measurements.
· Auxiliary tools, solar tracker, regulator, inverter, electrical charges, batteries, VI curves tracer for photovoltaics, sun radiation sensor.
· Electrophoresis system
· 6 kW wind turbine for teaching (13 meters height).
· Thermal solar panels (vacuum pipes and conventional) with auxiliary systems: supports, regulator, accumulator, expansion deposit, etc.
· Thermography camera.
ELECTRICAL METROLOGY LABORATORY (LME)
The laboratory fulfills the specifications of the standard ISO 17025. In 1997 it acquired the ENAC accreditation as Electricity Calibration Laboratory for DC current and low frequency. Later on, in 2007, a new ENAC accreditation was obtained for Wind Turbines and Distribution Electrical Grids Tests.
CALIBRATION AREA
· Electrical calibrations in the laboratory and “in-situ”:
· Multimeters.
· Amperimetric clamps (direct measurement up to 800 A a.c.)
· Insulation resistance testers.
· Ohmmeters.
· Shunt and reference resistances
· Vattmeters and power factor/phase angle meters.
· Oscilloscopes.
· Voltage dividers.
· Current and voltage sources up to 5000 V.
· High voltage probes.
· Power quality analyzers, including harmonics, interharmonics, dips, overvoltages and flicker.
TEST AREA
· Wind Energy and power quality field tests
· Data acquisition for wind resource evaluation
· Power performance of wind turbines following IEC 61400-12-1:2005 and Measnet procedure
· Power quality field tests with Class A analyzers following UNE-EN 61000-4-30:2005 and UNE-EN 50160:2001.
RENEWABLE ENERGIES INTEGRATION LABORATORY
This laboratory has two 22kW test rigs for developing control systems for variable speed renewable energy generation. There is also another test rig with a power of 90 kW. The lab is constantly improved incorporating technical novelties.
The research lines that can be developed in the lab are:
· Analysis of the grid impact of renewable energies.
· Development of power electronic systems for grid connection.
· Improvement of the efficiency of wind and hydraulic sources using variable speed generators.
· Improvement of power factor control.
· Development of integrated systems including variable generation and storage.
· Distributed generation systems.
· Electrical mobility.
COCOMBUSTION AND BIOMASS PRE-TREATMENTS LABORATORY
Installations:
· Cyclonic combustor with 800 kW nominal power.
· Rotation combustor with 500 kW nominal power.
· Biomass dryer, rotating type, 50kg/h wet biomass.
· Biomass grinder (impact and cut types) with classificators.
· Auxiliary equipements: heat sink, feeding hopper, volumetric feeders, gas filters, security equipment and storage spaces.
Advanced instruments:
· Gas analyzer in a chimney.
· Flame measurements: fluctuations, radiation, temperature and velocity.
· Load cells for gravimetric calibration of the feeders.
· Wireless thermometry in the dryer. Temperature recording with mobile probes.
·
SPECIFIC SOFTWARE AVAILABLE
· Engineering equation solver, for thermal systems simulations
· PV-syst for photovoltaics simulations.
· HOGA for renewable energy integration.
Wind energy simulations:
· Wasp from RISO National Laboratory, Denmark
· Windpro from EMD
· Windsim from Windsim
· Windfarmer from Garrad Hassan
· Homer from NREL
EXTERNAL SUPPORT
For the development of the doctorate, it is important the collaboration of the CIRCE Foundation, which until now has been helping in the management and organization of studies in the field and putting their means at the disposal of doctoral students.
There is a general collaboration agreement between the CIRCE foundation and the University of Zaragoza since the foundation of CIRCE (1993) and this collaboration has intensified with the creation of the CIRCE research institute, a mixed research institute between both entities.
The CIRCE Institute has its own building that can also be used as a laboratory, since it is a unique building, "Zero Emissions", that has modern air conditioning systems based on bioclimatic architecture and renewable energy and is profusely instrumented with R & D purposes.
Maintenance and updating of materials and services:
At the University of Zaragoza: through the teaching budget of the centre and the departments involved in teaching and through annual calls for extraordinary budget for the improvement of teaching equipment, as well as public calls for infrastructure and equipment and patronage activities.
In the CIRCE foundation: through own funds of projects, public announcements of infrastructures and equipment and patronage activities.
The University
of Zaragoza has been sensitive to aspects related to equal opportunities,
taking as a priority objective to make university buildings and their
surroundings accessible through the elimination of architectural barriers. It
should be noted that current and future university infrastructures have among
their design standards the considerations prescribed by Law 51/2003.
Library and Documentation Service
The University has university libraries with extensive and easily accessible schedules. The libraries offer to the University Community a wide range of services such as the loan of books, access to collections in paper and electronic format, spaces with computers and individual workspaces and group work. In particular, the following libraries will facilitate access to documentary collections, bibliographic databases and scientific publications related to the Doctoral Program: Hypatia de Alejandria Library and Library of the Faculty of Sciences. Moreover, the involved departments also have their own specialized libraries in some cases.
Doctorate School and third cycle section
The Doctorate School is in charge of all the doctoral programs and the administrative rules for the thesis elaboration. The third cycle section is the unit in charge of the administrative support for doctoral studies. Its main services are:
· Providing information relative to doctoral studies.
· Support to the government and academic committees.
· Student enrollment and student records management.
· Support for the verification of the doctoral programs
International Relations Service
Through the reception offices of international students, the International Relations Service promotes mobility welcomes international students of Doctorate and facilitates their integration in the University. International Doctorate students are provided with support and information about the city, accommodation, Spanish and other language courses, medical assistance, grants and scholarships, etc.