Licentiate Seminar: Marieke Rynoson Advances Research on PV Performance in High-Latitude Regions
Marieke Rynoson, PhD Student, Dalarna University (Photo credit: Sarah Ramsay)
On April 25, Marieke Rynoson reached an important milestone by defending her licentiate thesis, "Improving PV Performance Prediction for High-Latitude Regions: Insights from Irradiance Modelling and Building Energy Simulation."
In a dynamic presentation filled with clear visuals and detailed analysis, Marieke explored the challenges of accurately forecasting photovoltaic (PV) performance in regions like Sweden. Her studies, based on local conditions, investigated how well the building energy simulation software IDA ICE models PV systems. Her findings reveal that IDA ICE provides results comparable to those from specialized PV design tools — a promising outcome for integrated modelling approaches. Future research will further explore the impact of shading on PV output.
After the presentation, Justin N.W. Chiu from the Energy Technology department at KTH Royal Institute of Technology served as opponent, sparking a lively discussion around tool selection, statistical methods, research design, and the wider context of PV simulation research.
Additional questions from Tomas Persson (examiner, Dalarna University) and members of the audience further deepened the conversation.
The event was moderated by Xingxing Zhang from Energy Engineering at Dalarna University and attended by Marieke’s family, friends, academic colleagues, and supervisors: Christopher Bales (Dalarna University), Joakim Munkhammar (Uppsala University), and Jingchun Shen (Dalarna University).
Congratulations to Marieke Rynoson on this well-deserved success and her valuable contribution to the field of solar energy research!
Access Marieke Rynoson's thesis here.