Dr. James Barry

Biography

James Barry studied physics and mathematics at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, where he completed his MSc in theoretical particle physics in 2009. After a three month research visit to the Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) in Heidelberg in 2009 he returned to complete his PhD at the University of Heidelberg, working in the MANITOP group at the MPIK. In his PhD thesis he investigated the phenomenological consequences of sterile neutrinos of different mass scales in extensions to the Standard Model.

From 2014 to 2017 he worked as a research scientist at the Batterietechnikum (formerly Project Competence E) at KIT, where he primarily developed intelligent control algorithms for battery storage systems for renewable energy applications. It was while working with data from the 1 MW solar field at KIT Campus Nord that he developed an interest in the cloud-induced fluctuations of solar irradiance as well as methods of forecasting solar power generation, which led him to pursue further research in energy meteorology.

His current position as a postdoc at the IUP is funded by the MetPVNet project. This multidisciplinary project allows for collaboration with scientists from both atmospheric physics and meteorology as well as solar energy research. The ultimate goal is not only to improve forecasts of solar power generation but also to employ remote sensing techniques in order to use solar power systems as sensors for the atmosphere.

Research interests

• Energy meteorology
• Atmospheric radiative transfer
• Solar photovoltaics
• Energy storage

Publications

• Barry, J., Böttcher, D., Pfeilsticker, K., Herman-Czezuch, A., Kimiaie, N., Meilinger, S., Schirrmeister, C., Deneke, H., Witthuhn, J., and Gödde, F.: Dynamic model of photovoltaic module temperature as a function of atmospheric conditions, Adv. Sci. Res., 17, 165–173, doi:10.5194/asr-17-165-2020, 2020.

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