• Energy Research
• UK Research and Innovation close
• 2016 close

A cost-effective Condition Monitoring (CM) technique is essential to raise the availability of large Wind Turbines (WTs), whether onshore or offshore for the following reasons: The high construction cost of large WTs increasing the need to improve payback; Large WTs are prone to failure from extreme environments, such as rain, sand, lighting, tornado, snow and ice, and also subject to constantly variable load; large WTs breaking down have long downtimes due to access difficulties; and furthermore, in most large WTs, subassemblies are installed in the space- limited nacelle on the tower at a height over 60 (m) making replacement difficult. The use of a reliable CM system will enhance the maintenance and prevent critical WT subassemblies from being fatally damaged. However, to date, an appropriate CM system, specifically designed for WT, is not existed. This is an essential need for wind farms because the monitoring signals collected from a WT are non-stationary and nonlinear, both in time and frequency, while the conventional CM Systems are notorious in dealing with nonlinear and non-stationary signals. The inaccurate analysis of WT signals results in frequent spurious alarms, which cause unnecessary shut down of the WTs, whilst, sometimes not detecting real faults. This imperfect performance leads to serious reduction in wind farms availability and hence increases the cost of wind power. A novel WT CM technology has been developed by Zigoorat Ltd, which is distinguished by both its excellent capability in processing non-stationary/nonlinear signals and its efficient computational algorithm. In addition, it has substantially greater fault detection precision as well as easy installation mechanism compare to existing products in the market.

The installation of photovoltaics today is largely evaluated in terms of quantity and the success of any market stimulation evaluated on the basis of how well the targets are met. This may cause significant problems for the national infrastructure and may lead to significant unnecessary costs for grid stabilisation. However, these factors are sometimes assessed too simplistically. When considering PV in a national context, it is also largely seen as a homogenous swarm of devices, i.e. all of them reacting rather similarly. This does not consider different orientations (system elevation determines the seasonal maximum, system orientation determines the daily maximum) or regional differences in the environmental conditions such as weather fronts passing in a matter of days over the country rather than instantaneously or the North experiencing a different weather front than the South; nationwide smoothing might very well limit the need for power control. Thus the overarching question in this proposal is 'How can we maximise the benefits and limit the costs for UK plc while having a vibrant PV market?'. The work is split into four topical areas (work-packages), which answer the four key questions: - How much PV are we likely to get with different policies and where is it likely to be installed? This will consider different socio-economic drivers, cost curves of PV and work on installation scenarios giving links to likely social background of installations, locations (as in regions) and quantities. - How much energy will this generate when and where? Based on current installations a model for the performance prediction of systems based on their post-code will be developed and validated against existing FIT data and other available monitoring data. A spin-off of this activity will be the widespread investigation of current installations, that will inform any further discussions on subsidy streams, and the potential for detailed condition monitoring with sparse data will be investigated. The model will be connected with the socio-economic drivers to stochastically locate future installations (using GIS and post-code classifiers), and estimate the energy yield for each system and aggregate to generation regions. This means that essentially for every system (which is today in the range of 400000 systems under the FIT) installed an hourly generation needs to be calculated, which will require very complex speed optimisation in the calculations. - How will it impact the infrastructure? Grid simulations will be carried out bottom up as well as top down to see if there are issues either locally or nationally with the proposed installations. This will allow the recommendation of further measures to strengthen infrastructure and will allow a cost-benefit analysis of PV technology to be undertaken. - What feedback will there be? Most policies will have effects on the questions above and thus it is foreseen that a feedback methodology will be created, calculating the costs/benefits for UK plc as well as evaluating likely responses of the policy makers and grid operators. The collaboration between the different groups will be tightly managed, so that the project outcomes interface well. Tools will be generated and made available with non-proprietary data for public use.

The aim of the proposed research is to provide the necessary knowledge to allow the development of a pre-prototype High Performance Vacuum Flat Plate Solar Thermal Collector with minimal materials content. The development of a thin evacuated solar collector offers new and exciting prospects for integrating solar collectors into building designs and for their use in medium temperature (100-200 Celsius) applications such as air conditioning or low temperature process heat. The research planned will develop technology for the effective utilisation of the solar energy resource and fits within EPSRC's Energy theme. Solar thermal energy is predicted to be a significant growth market with the potential to make a significant contribution to reducing fossil fuel use in the building energy sector. The research is targeted at providing new knowledge and techniques that will enable the advances in technology necessary for a step change in solar thermal collector performance to be realised and a range of new products and application areas developed. Such new products will encourage inward investment and lead to the creation of new companies that can contribute significantly to the transition to a low carbon society whilst maintaining and improving quality of life.

Nuclear fission is currently internationally recognised as a key low carbon energy source, vital in the fight against global warming, which has stimulated much interest and recent investment. For example, RCUK's energy programme has identified nuclear fission as an essential part of the "trinity" of future fuel options for the UK, alongside renewables and clean coal. However, nuclear energy is controversial, with heartfelt opinion both for and against, and there is a real requirement to make it cleaner and greener. Large international programmes of work are needed to deliver safe, reliable, economic and sustainable nuclear energy on the scale required in both the short and long term, through Gen III+ & Gen IV reactor systems. A pressing worldwide need is the development of specific spent fuel reprocessing technology suitable for these new reactors (as well as for dealing with legacy waste fuel from old reactors). The REFINE programme will assemble a multidisciplinary team across five partner universities and NNL, the UK's national nuclear laboratory to address this fuel reprocessing issue. The consortium will carry out a materials research programme to deliver fuel reprocessing by developing materials electrosynthesis through direct oxide reduction and selective electrodissolution and electroplating from molten salt systems. Developing, optimising and controlling these processes will provide methods for, and a fundamental understanding of, how best to reprocess nuclear fuel. This is in addition to the development of techniques for new molten salt systems, new sensing and analysis technologies and the establishment of the kinetics and mechanisms by which molten salt processes occur. This will facilitate rapid process development and optimization, as well as the generation of applications in related areas. A key output of the programme will be the training and development of the multidisciplinary UK researchers required to make possible clean nuclear energy and generate complementary scientific and technological breakthroughs.

Reports concerning dwindling reserves of fossil fuels and concerns over fuel security are frequent news headlines. The rising costs of fuel are a daily reminder of the challenges faced by a global society with ever increasing energy demands. In this context it is perhaps surprising that so many of the renewable energy supplies available to us, namely, sunlight, winds and waves, remain largely untapped resources. This is mainly due to the challenges that exist in converting these energy forms into fuels from which energy can be released 'on demand' when we wish to play computer games, drive a car and so on. However, during plant photosynthesis fuels are made naturally from the energy in sunlight. Light absorption by the green chlorophyll pigments generates an energised electron that is directed, along chains of metal centres, to catalysts that make sugars. These sugars fuel us, and all animals, when their energy is released following digestion of a meal. However, using farmed plants to produce biofuels is controversial as agriculture is also required to feed the world. As a consequence, and inspired by natural processes, we propose to build a system for artificial photosynthesis. In essence, we wish to place tiny solar-panels on microbes in order to harness sunlight to drive the production of hydrogen - a fuel from which the technologies to release energy on demand are well-advanced. We will use dyes and semi-conductor particles as mechanically and chemically robust materials to capture the energy in sunlight and generate energised electrons. We will couple these particles to biology's version of conducting wires. These wires are made from heme proteins that span membranes that provide Nature's solution to compartmentalising water-filled chambers (i.e., the inside of the bacterium). The heme-wires are produced naturally by 'rock-breathing' microorganisms and after these wires have transferred the energised electrons across the membrane they will drive enzyme catalysis to produce hydrogen Our novel bio-mimetic photocatalysts will establish new principles for the design of homogeneous photocatalysts with spatially segregated sites for fuel-evolution and the supply of electrons that is needed to sustain this process. We imagine that our photocatalysts will proove versatile and that with slight modification they will be able to harness solar energy for the manufacture of drugs and fine chemicals.

Most solar thermal systems in Northern Europe have a separate antifreeze filled loop for protection against freezing and require a new tank fitted with a heat exchanger. When retrofitting to existing homes this means that a perfectly good tank (usually copper) needs to be replaced. We have developed an innovative solution that allows a domestic water supply to be heated directly, without the secondary fluid cycle. This increases the efficiency of the system and reduces capital and installation costs. Our solution allows the system to freeze but cause no system damage by using a compressible closed cell silicone sponge tube within an outer copper pipe. When it freezes the compressible tube takes up the expansion due to the ice and prevents pressure build up and damage to the system. This study will optimise the control strategies.