The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult is teaming up with the universities of Strathclyde and Manchester to form an electrical infrastructure research hub.
The £3.1m hub aims to accelerate research and development in order to meet the future needs of the offshore wind, wave and tidal industries.
ORE Catapult is providing £700,000 funding for the project, with the remaining £2.4m coming from the universities.
Research will focus on component reliability and availability, system and sub-system optimisation and smart energy systems, such as storage.
Keith Bell and Ian Cotton from the universities of Strathclyde and Manchester respectively, will act as scientific directors for the hub, working alongside ORE Catapult head of strategic research Paul McKeever.
The project will last five years, ORE Catapult said.
McKeever said: “The UK’s wind, wave and tidal industries are developing at pace and the offshore wind industry has announced its most ambitious plans to date that would see 30GW of installed capacity by 2030.
“One of the biggest challenges associated with these plans will be to address how we best convert, transmit and store energy from our offshore renewable assets in an effective and reliable manner.
“Our academic collaboration with the universities of Strathclyde and Manchester will enable us to pool existing academic and industry skills and resources to tackle this challenge, driving forward key research and helping to leverage the vital public and private finance that will underpin the activities.”
Bell said: “I’m delighted that the universities of Strathclyde and Manchester will have the opportunity to build on our established expertise and work with the Catapult and wider industry to come up with new solutions to problems.”
Cotton said: “The University of Manchester looks forward to working with the ORE Catapult and its partners to help improve the offshore renewable sector.”
Image: reNEWS
Boffins form Catapult electric team
By EBS