• Energy Research
• OA Publications Mandate: No close
• 2021 close

Offshore wind is proving very attractive for operators, especially due to the higher yields and less resistance from onshore homeowners and stakeholders. It is predicted that it could provide all the UK's electricity requirement, with minimal emission and visual impacts. However, there exist a major barrier to further exploitation due to the high levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) from offshore wind (£140/MWhr), which is 2-3 times higher than other key renewable sources (onshore wind and solar) and nuclear (a large non-renewable, but low emission source). The high LCOE is caused by the severe environmental conditions, which results in high operational, reliability and maintenance (O&M) costs, with the seabed turbine foundations (largely monopiles) accounting for over 25% of all lifecycle O&M costs, often caused by marine biofouling. Current methods of fouling prevention (dangerous: diver-deployed cleaning tools such as brushes and power jets) or ROVs (high annual costs ~ £30k/MW) are proving very costly and ineffective -- creating the need for an innovative solution to tackle this problem. The project will develop a fouling management system consisting of a mobile survey and cleaning robot that will eliminate the need for divers and ROVs. The robot will be placed on the turbine structure at sea level and will journey down below sea level to the work place. The robot will travel autonomously over the entire subsea monopile surface, imaging the fouling in real time. It will simultaneously activate its cleaning function at every fouled location and remove the fouling with an innovative guided power ultrasound technique. On returning to the sea surface the robot would simply be transported to the next turbine scheduled for treatment, and the cycle repeated. Overall O&M costs will be reduced by at least 50% compared with present diver/ROV techniques. This would mean a £7/MW (5%) reduction in LCOE.

Since it emerged into the public eye in the 1940s the British nuclear establishment has worked hard to manage its public image and retain public trust. It has done so in the face of opposition that has grown particularly vocal since the 1970s and as economic arguments for the nuclear programme have become increasing difficult to sustain. To do this it pioneered new techniques for what is now known as science communication, from public talks and leaflets, exhibitions and visitor centres, information films and videos and privatisation publicity to a spectacular nuclear train crash that was broadcast live to the nation. These activities are well-documented in The National Archives, but apart from the fire in 1957, have received little attention. Instead scholars have concentrated on opponents of nuclear power. This literature has also portrayed the nuclear industry and the people within it in simplistic and homogenous terms, whilst stressing the diversity within the protest movement. This project will fill this gap by focussing on how Government departments and state agencies that supported the development of nuclear power promoted and defended their commitment from the late 1950s. The student will explore how organisations formulated their external communications strategies, collaborated with (and challenged) each other, the wider industry and international associates and how these strategies changed over time. The project is framed as a contribution to the history of science communication but it will also offer lessons for current policy makers, including those interested in major infrastructure projects.

There is much interest worldwide in energy storage, which is still currently dominated by pumped hydro. The new systems based on thermal storage (as opposed to chemical batteries and the like) that will be considered in this project show particular promise due to their relatively high energy density and the low cost of materials. This project will contribute to the body of work in this area that has been undertaken at CUED for several years and received excellent recognition, both nationally and internationally. It will link in to the EPSRC-funded Generation-Integrated Energy storage work. The project aims to explore the range of working fluids and cycle configurations (especially transcritical cycles) for thermo-mechanical energy storage technologies and develop design rules based based on concepts such as power density and energy density. In the current literature, few working fluids have been compared in terms of their performance, and transcritical cycles have been relatively sparsely studied. This will be mainly computer-based, with cycle analysis methods coded in Matlab or Python. Furthermore, the project will include developing accurate cost models for the aforementioned cycle configurations. This will enable cost-efficiency optimisation thereof.

The proposed project aims to develop an innovative BeeSave device to kill Varroa mites in beehives. The device uses a phase change material (PCM) pack. Research shows that Varroa mites can be killed during all development stages if they are exposed to temperatures ranging between 40°C to 47°C for ~ 150 minutes. These temperatures are safely tolerated by honey bee brood and adults and do not damage the honeycomb, which will be supplied by the integrated PCM pack installed in the beehives. The innovative system is compact, robust and low cost and does not require electricity. The technology is highly portable and simple to use, as heat is released by triggering the metal disk installed inside the device.

On our planet, solar energy is an abundant renewable resource. The conversion of solar into thermal energy is currently the most efficient way to use this resource. Concentrated Solar Power plants, which use mirrors to focus the solar energy to generate high temperatures, are however costly, and require large installations. Flat plate collectors, which today have efficiencies of 50% at a temperature of 120C, are potentially a cost effective solution. The problem here lies in the conversion of this low-grade heat into usable energy. At Southampton University, we recently developed the condensing engine (CE) - a heat engine which employs water as working fluid with an operating temperature of 100C. The engine uses the condensation of steam and the arising vacuum as driving force, rather than the pressure of steam. It operates at atmospheric pressure, so that safety issues are minimal. The use of steam expansion gives an efficiency of 10% or more. In combination with flat plate collectors, the CE has the potential for the development of a simple, cost-effective, modular solar thermal system, which produces electricity as well as fresh water from the condensation process. In this project, we will develop a theoretical framework for a solar thermal system for electricity production and desalination with the aim to assess its overall productivity. For the key component, the condensing engine, a theoretical model will be developed.as basis for its optimisation. Based on the results, an experimental 100 Watt engine will be built and tested. Recent theoretical work suggests that through heat recovery from the condensation process, the power output can be increased by 30-35%, and the water production by 70 to 80%. This would lead to a novel, 2-stage energy conversion cycle and would improve the cost-effectiveness of the system substantially. The heat-recovery condensation process will be developed, modelled, and tested in the laboratory. The project will result in an optimised solar thermal energy and desalination system with novel, efficient and cost-effective components. The project runs in cooperation with Synext Ltd., Delft/Netherlands. The simplicity of the system, and its modular character mean that it would also be well suited for deployment in developing countries where there is an urgent need for both energy and clean water. This aspect will also be explored in cooperation with synext Ltd.

There is much interest worldwide in energy storage, which is still currently dominated by pumped hydro. The new systems based on thermal storage (as opposed to chemical batteries and the like) that will be considered in this project show particular promise due to their relatively high energy density and the low cost of materials. This project will contribute to the body of work in this area that has been undertaken at CUED for several years and received excellent recognition, both nationally and internationally. It will link in to the EPSRC-funded Generation-Integrated Energy storage work. The project aims to explore the range of working fluids and cycle configurations (especially transcritical cycles) for thermo-mechanical energy storage technologies and develop design rules based based on concepts such as power density and energy density. In the current literature, few working fluids have been compared in terms of their performance, and transcritical cycles have been relatively sparsely studied. This will be mainly computer-based, with cycle analysis methods coded in Matlab or Python. Furthermore, the project will include developing accurate cost models for the aforementioned cycle configurations. This will enable cost-efficiency optimisation thereof.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

The subject area of study focuses on the noise reduction of wind turbine blade noise emission. Due to government limits on noise pollution, wind turbines have to run on a lower power yield in order to reduce the blade noise emission, and therefore incur energy and financial losses to the customer and provider respectively. The reduction of the noise emissions will enable the operator to run the turbines at a higher yield per decibel, generating more energy while remaining within the noise pollution limits. This will be achieved through the development of a blade trailing edge serration design to later be manufactured and retrofitted onto existing turbines to reduce their noise footprint. Research of the issue will be heavily based on aero-acoustic experimentation and data capture, to find correlations between flows, noise, and energy losses in the trailing edge flows. Finally, the research will result in the a number of serrations to be developed and tested for final practical implementation on commercial wind turbines.

The Erigeneia project targets to enable the high penetration of PV technology and to utilize its potential value in the energy system by developing a local and central energy management system (EMS) that will combine photovoltaics (PV) with battery energy storage systems (BESS). The project will match the technical requirements imposed by the distribution system operators (DSO) with the upcoming new market regulations, capitalizing on the positive effects of PV and BESS combination. In addition, a tool for intra-hour energy forecasting will be developed and integrated into the EMS to provide a more accurate and reliable operation plan for the DSO. The proposed work is expected to have significant impact on the further penetration of PV given that the existing grid infrastructure will be utilized in a more efficient way, by increasing the hosting capacity hence deferring grid reinforcement. By promoting grid-friendly self-consumption of PV generation, grid congestion issues will be avoided. Since the EMS will increase the power usage predictability, the current expensive power reserves will be replaced by the local EMS control strategies of the combined PV and BESS EMS. Furthermore, the users will take advantage of the provided flexibility in order to lower their cost of electricity, by gaining from the new upcoming policies of Time of Use (ToU) and dynamic tariffs. Finally, a versatile algorithm capable of estimating the optimum size of BESS and PV to meet all the needs of prosumers will also be developed. Field trials will take place in Cyprus (domestic EMS) and Turkey (community EMS) and novel or more effective ancillary services will be provided to the network operators (e.g. power smoothing, voltage regulation). Finally, the economic impact of the proposed solutions will be quantified. The proposal is fully in line with the SET plan and Solar Energy Industrial Initiative objectives for effective integration of solar energy technologies in the energy system.

The UK has significant wind power resources and leads the world in offshore wind power generation. In 2018 the wind industry provided 17% (57.1 TWh) of the UK electricity supply \[UK Energy Statistics, 2018\] and is forecast to increase substantially over the coming decade \[National Grid FES\]. In order to ensure renewable energy can be deployed effectively to combat climate change and to ensure costs to consumers remain low the industry must continue to develop new technologies and operate more efficiently. Currently wind turbines can incur significant hidden losses and must routinely be tested for performance loss. This reduces the amount of power they can generate and increases the costs of operation. This project will develop a unique method for accurately predicting wind turbine output and hence enable the monitoring of performance losses for every wind turbine at a farm without the need to regularly perform performance testing. An accurate online performance monitoring technology would allow wind turbine operators to reduce the risk of structural blade failure and other common component failure (such as yaw or pitch actuation). The project will provide robust evidence to the industry that validates the technology as a credible monitoring technology for the optimisation of site yield and reduction in periodic maintenance; reducing costs and increasing asset production. The technology will enhance the UK's position as leader in effective management and optimisation of wind assets, reducing the cost of energy for consumers and lowering the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) by up to 2.7% (based on ORE Catapult modelling). This project will provide the basis for a UK technology to be exported to the global wind industry, creating skilled jobs, and supporting further deployment and utilisation of wind farms to help combat climate change.