SOLTRAIN provides financial support for masters theses or other student theses that deal with topics of solar thermal energy. In July 2020, eight students from five partner countries were awarded bursaries for the first round of bursary applications for SOLTRAIN 4.
A total twelve applications were received and two topics did not meet the tender criteria, resulting in ten applications being evaluated by the steering committee, of which eight projects, which contribute to the overall aims of the SOLTRAIN project, were approved.
Two bursaries each were awarded to students from Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa respectively and one each to a student from Namibia and Mozambique. The bursaries were awarded to two female and six male students.
Broadly, the topics awarded dealt with potential analyses on the transition of domestic hot water technology to solar thermal systems, as well as more technology-oriented topics. Three student projects focus on potential analysis for the health sector (Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana respectively). One project analyses the domestic hot water technology transition to solar thermal systems and connected barriers and opportunities in Maputo, Mozambique and one project analyses the possibilities of using solar thermal energy in the industrial sector in Lesotho.
The technology-oriented topics deal with the techno-economic assessment of a solar thermal industrial-scale system using compound parabolic collectors in South Africa, the numerical and experimental investigation of the thermal performance of a solar absorber and nocturnal radiator (SAANR) hybrid panel for climatic conditions of Gaborone, Botswana and the development of a pilot-scale solar thermal dryer for the treatment of faecal sludge from on-site sanitation facilities.
The SOLTRAIN bursaries are meant to encourage students to work on solar thermal topics, to build up knowledge and capacity in the partner countries, to promote solar thermal topics within the scientific community in the SOLTRAIN-participating countries and to strengthen the regional co-operation on solar thermal issues. This is also important to further improve the visibility of SOLTRAIN and to foster the implementation of the Roadmap Implementation Plans that were defined for each partner country in the area of comprehensive stakeholder workshops in former phases of the SOLTRAIN project.
During the course of the SOLTRAIN 4 project, there will be a second application round for bursaries launched in 2021.
