• Energy Research
• OA Publications Mandate: No close
• 2019 close

Wind is proving to be a commercially viable source for generating electrical power. The UK is exploiting this opportunity with its consistent wind resource using wind turbines fixed to the seabed along its coastline up to 50 metres in depth. Other coastal regions around the world are considering offshore wind turbine projects and, despite some being too deep for fixed seabed wind turbines, floating wind turbines may provide the solution. 18 miles offshore Peterhead, Scotland, such a test program is in operation. Known as Hywind Scotland, the project deploys five interconnected floating turbines supplying sufficient electricity to power 20,000 UK households. The next step in development is to design floating foundation structures with commercial potential for mass production. Test level projects may then be scaled up to develop floating windfarms deploying hundreds of interconnected units supplying commercially viable electricity to the world's major coastal cities. Designs for the floating bases upon which the turbines stand remain a challenge. The Hywind floating bases must be assembled in deep water Norwegian fjords and specialist heavy lift floating cranes for construction which add to the project cost. Alternative floating base designs present different construction challenges such as large widths that make assembly and launch difficult using facilities found in typical ports. Also, the UK currently has to rely on intellectual property rights owned in the US, Norway, France and Japan to take advantage of this new technology. CPDSYS Ltd is investigating how to optimise floating wind turbine foundation design and intallation. It has developed the Drop Keel concept, a compact, shallow draft design which Atkins Engineering has analysed and identified as possessing operational performance and motion characteristics acceptable for commercial wind turbine operation. Scale model tank tests are planned with Strathclyde University for a 10MW capacity unit followed by further analysis to investigate the relationship between wave motion, aerodynamic performance and motion control systems. The objective is to produce a full scale Drop Keel foundation design protected by UK Intellectual property rights that not only supports renewable power opportunities in the UK's deeper coastal waters but also meets the demands of a global export market. CPDSYS is also investigating how the Drop Keel concept may support marginal deep water oil and gas fields by providing a source of electricity in remote marine locations that could assist with recovery of hydrocarbons similar to the way that pump jacks (nodding donkeys) power onshore oil wells.

Spinetic Energy Ltd is undertaking a radical re-engineering of wind harvesting technology, creating a panellised, modular, linkable system, designed to be as installable and cost effective as solar PV. Spinetic's "Wind Panels" will be deployable at community scale without use of cranes or other heavy equipment. Being modular, human-portable on site, and installable without specialist labour, Wind Panels are ideal for providing low cost renewable power at remote/developing world deployments. The Wind Panel design is inherently suitable for mass-production, but many of its production processes are, in principle, also amenable to manual production using relatively low-skilled labour, and without heavy industrial or high power equipment. This could make Wind Panels manufacturable on-site in remote/developing world locations, using locally sourced materials, thus significantly reducing embedded energy, and providing local employment and repair/maintenance capability. This project will examine the feasibility of designing Wind Panel components and manufacturing processes suitable for production of modular, containerised "micro-factories" for Wind Panel construction, maintenance and end-of-life re-working for other uses, e.g. in housing/irrigation projects.

In 2008, the UK Government pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% before 2050. Renewable energy solutions are a key part of this commitment with deep geothermal energy systems playing an important role in this strategy. The southern region of the Cheshire Basin in the northwest of the UK is one of only a handful of economically suitable sites in the country. The basin holds around 4.6M GWh of potentially available energy, more than 6 times the national heat demand of the UK. To exploit this resource, Cheshire East Council (the CASE partner) have instigated a programme of long-term Deep Geothermal Energy (DGE) research in collaboration with local universities and Public/Private sector partners. Over 250K pounds of initial research funding has been invested into the DGE project and this 4-year, collaborative CASE studentship with Keele University's Applied and Environmental Geophysics Group forms the next stage in this ambitious development programme. In order to evaluate, characterise and optimise the delivery of deep geothermal energy as heat to homes and business in the East Cheshire region (and potentially to some 2 million consumers in the future), this CASE studentship project will attempt to simulate the transfer of heat energy from the deep geothermal reservoir (at a depth of nearly 4km), through a borehole array system and across to potential customers as low-carbon, cost-effective heating in a single, combined 'multiphysics' geothermal model. The ultimate goal of the project is to create a realist, accurate, flexible model that can be used to predict, optimise and probabilistically characterise the energy return of the Deep Geothermal Energy system when it comes online in 3-4 years' time. In addition, it is expected that the model will help inform and optimise the design of future DGE systems planned by Cheshire East council in the future. To achieve this, the student will; 1) Use sophisticated geological modelling, characterisation and visualisation tools to generate a 3D model of the hydrogeological conditions at the depth of the intended borehole array using existing geophysical, borehole, structural and sedimentological data plus new information from the planned investigation work and borehole drilling at the DGE site. 2) Model/simulate the 3D coupling of fluid and thermal fluxes in the active region of the borehole array system in order to predict the volume, flow and temperate of extracted waters from DGE system. The model will utilise hydro/petrophysical data information gained from the boreholes and physical/geometrical design information from the installed borehole array. 3) Test, validate, revise and optimise the models (with reference to real thermal, flux and flow data provided by the licenced DGE system operators) in order to provide a single model that best simulates the whole of the energy system at the point of delivery. Cheshire East Council have an ambitious 25-year strategy to develop more DGE systems in the Cheshire Basin and the ability to model, characterise and optimise the design of future installations, based on the work undertaken in this studentship, has clear and significant financial, developmental and socio-economic benefits to all parties involved (i.e., the Council, consumers, developers and licenced operators). This studentship will also provide the selected candidate with a challenging, yet highly-rewarding project within one of Europe's leading near-surface geophysics research groups and, arguably, the most forward-looking local council with respect to renewable energy development. The project links the diverse and multidisciplinary fields of geology, geophysics and numerical modelling with the broader disciple of energy-related environmental engineering and district heat network design. As such, it represents an unrivalled opportunity for a talented student to work in a rapidly developing and increasing important sector of the energy market.

Low-cost atmospheric deposition of semiconductor absorbance layers for application in photovoltaic solar cells that do not require expensive instrumentation continue to attract interest of researchers and engineers alike. This project is based on our recent discovery of combinations of solvents capable of dissolving various inorganic salts, which were successfully applied in the fabrication of CIGS PV devices. However, the nature of solutes remains unclear. Therefore this project is dedicated to fill this gap and to carry out investigation of the solutions of metal chalcogenides relevant to the formation of semiconductor thin films. Apart from chalcogenides, pure metals and metal oxides will be also investigated. We aim to establish exact chemical composition of the dominating species of metal complexes in the solutions that will enable better understanding of the underlying chemical processes and will facilitate development of conditions for thermal decomposition of the complexes to form semiconductor films with given stoichiometry and composition. The main focus will be on, but not limited to, the complexes of Cu, Zn and Sn comprising the CZTS thin films. The results will be used in fabrication of efficient solution processed solar cells.

Managing energy resources for sustainable economic growth and addressing the ‘Energy Trilemma’ of security of supply, low cost to consumer and decarbonising is imperative. For energy technologies to become truly transformative, as renewable energy and electric vehicles increase, energy storage technologies underpinning UK capabilities and delivering on this Energy Trilemma become more critical and key to supporting the UK’s energy policy. The TESS project is a novel thermal store that aims to decouple power generation from power requirements, to enable more use of daylight renewable generation and output power at night. This reduces emissions by enabling more EV usage and green power to charge them, whilst simultaneously removing load imbalances to the national grid. TESS is a cost-effective, disruptive, enabling technology with increased benefits, offering growth opportunities for EV and other applications. It does not employ lithium batteries, thereby reducing lithium dependancy, easing security of supply, and is inherently safer.