The opening of Siemens new £310m offshore wind (OSW) turbine blade factory in Hull is a milestone for the industry. It coincides with increased investment in operations and maintenance activities to service the increasing capacity of OSW farms, especially by the world's largest OSW developer, DONG Energy. This proposal brings together these two major players with world-leading academic researchers in a £7.64m, 5-year programme. Focussing on TRL1-3 it will address the fundamental research problems that will help to reduce the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) from OSW and to support UK supply chain growth. The £3.83m requested from EPSRC unlocks £2.50m investment by the industrial players in lower TRL activity that they would not otherwise fund to this level. A further £1.31m is invested by the academic partners.

Birds colliding with wind turbines are seen as one of the key environmental issues associated with wind farms. Before these wind farms are built, we use models to predict how many birds might collide so that we can ensure they are built in places where they do not pose an unacceptable risk to bird populations. However, the data that are used for these models are often very limited, meaning that estimates of the number of collisions likely to occur can be quite imprecise. We have collected high-resolution tracking data from lesser black-backed gulls in the north west of England. These data give detailed information about how birds move around the landscape, including in and around operational offshore wind farms. We will use tracking data to model collision risk within operational wind farms. These data will be used to show the distribution of birds within these wind farms and also to help predict collision risk at individual turbines, which is affected by both the height and speed at which birds fly (data which can be obtained from the tracked birds). This information will allow us to show, for the first time, how the risk of birds colliding with turbines varies across the wind farms. This will enable us to make recommendations about key areas to direct efforts for recording collisions and also where measures to prevent or reduce collisions are likely to be most effective. By recording bird distributions and relating behaviour to environmental conditions, we will be able to start to understand how collision risk varies in relation to changing conditions. This will enable us to use predicted wind conditions to make short-term forecasts about when and where birds are most likely to collide with turbines. This has the potential to help reduce collisions by allowing companies to identify when any individual turbine is likely to pose a high risk to birds, enabling them to better target measures to reduce collisions.

Durham University is launching a multidisciplinary Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Energy in October 2009 with an initial cohort of 15 postdoctoral students. This proposal seeks funding to enhance their learning experience by providing additional training during an extended programme of study that will broaden their understanding of wider energy issues and provide them with skills that will better equip them to deal with future energy challenges. This proposal describes a 5 year plan that will offer enhanced training opportunities for 63 PhD students. Durham University will fund the CDT Director, however secretarial support is being sought from EPSRC (0.25 FTE). To support the wider activities of the CDT funding for module development and annual events are also requested. Energy is fundamental to society and the provision, security of and access to energy supplies is a key challenge in the 21st century. Shortage of supply, concerns about climate change and national and global policy are driving society to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and move towards a low carbon future. Energy is a multidisciplinary topic and in order to remain competitive within this sector, the UK will require a critical mass of versatile individuals trained in a wide range of skills. These individuals will be faced with the many research challenges that this sector presents and will be future decision-makers. The reliance of society on energy means that this sector can offer graduates an exciting, rewarding and secure career choice with many opportunities for diversification. The Durham Energy Institute (DEI) has been recently established at Durham University in response to the multi and interdisciplinary research challenges and opportunities offered by the energy sector. This institute will build upon the existing track record for energy research and promote a step change in inter-disciplinary energy related research activity across the Faculties of Science and Social Sciences/Health. The DEI covers the spectrum of energy research at Durham University and actively encourages research at the boundaries between disciplines. The relatively small and compact nature of the university naturally stimulates interactions between departments and disciplines. The DEI focuses heavily on energy technologies and the societal aspects of energy use and is anticipated to have research income of around 15M per annum. The DEI has a Development Board who meet twice a year. The board comprises senior academics, representatives from the private sector and from local and national government including Ofgem, Fairfield Energy and DONG Energy. This collective represents a large body of expertise and experience which can be used to develop and deliver the multidisciplinary CDT training programme and areas for research.Both UKERC and the ETI are delivering a step change in the ambition and level of UK energy research. They have recognised the importance of enhancing energy research capacity and of undertaking multidisciplinary research. The CDT has been developed in response to these needs and forms an integral part of the DEI. The CDT will produce a skilled and diverse range of researchers equipped to address the challenging research problems that face every aspect of the energy sector. There are no other training programmes that offer such broad training on all aspects of the energy sector. Existing UK energy related CDTs offer training within specific fields e.g. Wind, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Nuclear Fission, E-Futures, Low Carbon Futures and Demand Reduction in the Built Environment. The Durham University CDT will draw upon the expertise currently located within the Anthropology, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geography, Government and International Affairs, Law, Mathematics and Statistics and Physics Departments and will be truly unique in its multidisciplinary approach.

Offshore wind farms are gaining popularity in the UK due to the current interest in the need for greener energy sources, security of energy supply and to the public's reluctance to have wind farms on-shore. Offshore wind farms often contain hundreds of turbines supported at heights of 30m to 50m. The preferred foundations for these tall structures are large diameter monopiles due to their ease of construction in shallow to medium water depths. These monopiles are subjected to large cyclic, lateral and moment loads in addition to axial loads. It is anticipated that each of these foundations will see many millions of cycles of loading during their design life. In coastal waters around the UK, it is common for these monopiles to pass through shallow layers of soft, poorly consolidated marine clays before entering into stiffer clay/sand strata. One of the biggest concerns with the design of monopiles is their behaviour under very large numbers of cycles of lateral and moment loads. The current design methods rely heavily on stiffness degradation curves for clays available in the literature that were primarily derived for earthquake loading on relatively small diameter piles with relatively small numbers of cycles of loading. Extrapolation of this stiffness deterioration to large diameter piles with large numbers of cycles of loading represents the key risk factor in assessing the performance of offshore wind turbines. Further research is therefore required. The proposed project aims to understand the behaviour of large diameter monopiles driven through clay layers of contrasting stiffness and subjected to cyclic lateral and moment loading. Centrifuge model tests will be conducted taking advantage of recent developments at the Schofield Centre that include a computer-controlled 2-D actuator that can apply both force or displacement controlled cyclic loading to monopiles in-flight. In addition it is possible to carry out in-flight installation of the monopiles to simulate the insertion of these monopiles into the seabed. New equipment will be developed for the in-flight measurement of soil stiffness and dynamic response comparative to the state-of-the-art equipment which is now used in the field. The main outcome of the project will be a better understanding of the response of the monopiles in layered soil systems to large number of loading cycles (lateral and moment loads). The results will be directly compared to the current design practices and guidelines for improved design will be developed. The outcome of this project will allow an accurate estimation of the behaviour of offshore monopile foundations under very large numbers of cycles of loading, thus leading to a confident estimation of the life cycle of the foundation. This is critical in determining the economic viability of an offshore wind farm given that the capital costs are high and the revenue stream is relatively low but continues for the life of the wind farm.

The UK electricity system faces challenges of unprecedented proportions. It is expected that 35 to 40% of the UK electricity demand will be met by renewable generation by 2020, an order of magnitude increase from the present levels. In the context of the targets proposed by the UK Climate Change Committee it is expected that the electricity sector would be almost entirely decarbonised by 2030 with significantly increased levels of electricity production and demand driven by the incorporation of heat and transport sectors into the electricity system. The key concerns are associated with system integration costs driven by radical changes on both the supply and the demand side of the UK low-carbon system. Our analysis to date suggests that a low-carbon electricity future would lead to a massive reduction in the utilisation of conventional electricity generation, transmission and distribution assets. The large-scale deployment of energy storage could mitigate this reduction in utilisation, producing significant savings. In this context, the proposed research aims at (i) developing novel approaches for evaluating the economic and environmental benefits of a range of energy storage technologies that could enhance efficiency of system operation and increase asset utilization; and (ii) innovation around 4 storage technologies; Na-ion, redox flow batteries (RFB), supercapacitors, and thermal energy storage (TES). These have been selected because of their relevance to grid-scale storage applications, their potential for transformative research, our strong and world-leading research track record on these topics and UK opportunities for exploitation of the innovations arising. At the heart of our proposal is a whole systems approach, recognising the need for electrical network experts to work with experts in control, converters and storage, to develop optimum solutions and options for a range of future energy scenarios. This is essential if we are to properly take into account constraints imposed by the network on the storage technologies, and in return limitations imposed by the storage technologies on the network. Our work places emphasis on future energy scenarios relevant to the UK, but the tools, methods and technologies we develop will have wide application. Our work will provide strategic insights and direction to a wide range of stakeholders regarding the development and integration of energy storage technologies in future low carbon electricity grids, and is inspired by both (i) limitations in current grid regulation, market operation, grid investment and control practices that prevent the role of energy storage being understood and its economic and environmental value quantified, and (ii) existing barriers to the development and deployment of cost effective energy storage solutions for grid application. Key outputs from this programme will be; a roadmap for the development of grid scale storage suited to application in the UK; an analysis of policy options that would appropriately support the deployment of storage in the UK; a blueprint for the control of storage in UK distribution networks; patents and high impact papers relating to breakthrough innovations in energy storage technologies; new tools and techniques to analyse the integration of storage into low carbon electrical networks; and a cohort of researchers and PhD students with the correct skills and experience needed to support the future research, development and deployment in this area.