DrBenedict Winchester

I am a Research Associate in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London and a College Lecturer in Physics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. I completed my Ph.D. as part of the Grantham Institute's interdisciplinary Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet (SSCP) Doctoral Training Partnership.

My research focuses on solar technologies (PV modules and combined photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors) in energy-access and sustainable development contexts, looking at their potential to help meet clean–water and energy–access goals (SDGs 6 and 7). More recently, I've begun looking into agrivoltaics: solar installations co-located with agriculture, which could be regular PV panels above pasture land or more sophisticated panels which share sunlight with crops.

To do my research, I develop and utilise open-source models of these solar collectors as well as energy systems and desalination technologies to ask questions surroundig performance, feasibility and affordability.

When I'm not on-campus, I live aboard a narrowboat on the London canal network, and so have an affinity with off-grid living. In my spare time, when I'm not dealing with the hundreds of jobs that stack up when living afloat, I enjoy choral singing, playing the piano, and analogue film photography.