The fundamental objective of the MARES group (Materials and renewable energy for engineering, environment and sustainability) is to conduct research in different areas of engineering with the aim of improving sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of various industrial activities. To achieve this objective, the group specializes in three fundamental sectors, which form its three main lines of research described below. Since most of the members of the group carry out their professional work in the field of university teaching in engineering, the group has a fourth line that is considered transversal, and which falls within the field of research in education.
The main research lines of the group are the following:
This line analyzes the technical-economic feasibility and life cycle analysis (LCA) and LCC (Life-Cycle Cost) of different types of marine renewable energies, such as: offshore wind energy, wave energy, marine photovoltaic energy, tidal energy, etc., as well as the various sources of renewable energy storage, such as: green hydrogen, batteries, etc. The research carried out within this line is fundamental to meeting the decarbonization objectives proposed by the European Union, aligning with several of the established SDG goals, as it involves promoting the development and implementation of renewable energies and the replacement of more traditional and more polluting forms of energy generation.
This line focuses on the optimization of the composition and structural states of metallic materials with the aim of increasing their durability. The group specializes in metallographic, mechanical, and tribological characterization of materials, with the goal of finding alternatives that increase the sustainability of systems.
The third line of the group is the efficient management of electrical energy. Within it, studies and analyses are carried out on the efficiency and waveform quality of supply in low-voltage distribution networks, quantifying existing disturbances and implementing solutions that allow increasing the efficiency of electrical installations. The specific objective of this line is the analysis of losses and additional costs incurred as a result of using non-optimized electrical systems.
Teaching innovation from the point of view of new teaching methodologies, new systems of teaching assessment, etc., applied to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) degrees.