The forecasting of marine weather, waves and tidal currents using models and in-situ measurements is vital for offshore operations and maintenance (O&M) in the marine infrastructure and marine renewable energy (MRE) sectors. Offshore O&M is limited by strict wave height thresholds at the offshore point of operations (typically 1.5m) and with the UK set to spend £2bn per annum by 2025 on O&M for the offshore wind industry alone the prediction of viable working windows for O&M is critical. In the tidal stream MRE sector the combined forces of waves and tidal currents on underwater tidal turbines can lead to dangerously high physical and electrical loads placed on equipment and infrastructure. Poor knowledge, and thus prediction of the local variability in weather, wave and tide conditions result in conservative thresholds for MRE operations. This, in turn, reduces the time MRE devices are in operation (and therefore energy generation), increasing investor risk and harming the financial development of the MRE sector as a whole. Existing wave and current monitoring and forecasting technologies rely on expensive in-situ measurements of the marine environment (e.g., floating wave buoys and devices on the sea bed) and models driven by these measurements or other large-scale simulations. Although very precise, the project partners have identified traditional wave and current monitoring techniques to be inadequate in terms of spatial coverage, timeliness and accuracy in complicated, high-energy coastal environments. These environments have previously proven to be difficult for wave and current observation and validation due to high equipment costs and risks of failure. As such there is a paucity of reliable, large-scale measurements of waves and currents in these high-energy marine environments. Marine navigational radar ('X-band') is a mature technology for the remote sensing of the marine environment, capable of generating estimates of tidal current speed, ocean wave parameters and water depths over wide areas. However the current state-of-the-art in X-band radar oceanography has been found lacking in the high-energy, dynamic and complicated coastal environments that marine energy projects are operating. This project aims to develop a step-change in the way we process radar data to generate measurements of the marine environment, paving the way for a system that can produce the environmental information the marine industry requires. NOC has a 20 year history at the forefront of marine radar oceanography and is well-placed to deliver this much needed development. To achieve this aim an open-source wave model will be integrated with the NOC's tried-and-tested radar analysis toolbox to produce a hybrid model/observation system. This system will combine modelled and observed wave information in such a way that minimises the errors in both; effectively generating a 'most likely' wave measurement over wider area every 10-15 minutes in near-real-time. The system will be developed using radar data and validated using ground-truth data recorded at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) on Orkney; the world's largest and most successful MRE test facility. Once validated, the system will then be demonstrated in a real-world setting at the OpenHydro test platform at EMEC. This project includes researchers with expertise radar oceanography, marine observation and the numerical modelling of the marine environment. Our project partners include EMEC, the marine energy company OpenHydro and JBA consulting; a company at the cutting-edge of operational forecasting. This new and innovative environmental monitoring system will be developed with the guidance of our partners and the successful system used to supply the basis for high-impact solutions for the partners and their clients.

Identifying and understanding extreme and fatigue loads on tidal energy converters (TEC), understanding environmental extremes (other than main resource), and determining accessibility, serviceability criteria, fault intervals and associated device life cycles, are all important factors that can determine CAPEX and OPEX cost of devices and array deployments. This project will provide a holistic vision for design optimisation to ensure, reliability and survivability for floating TECs (FTECs). Computational modeling and real sea deployment measurements will provide a tool to inform the optimum operational strategy and maximise survivability and reliability for FTEC devices and arrays. Swansea University will develop a versatile BEMT code to enable the study of FTECs numerically at a fundamental level and physically by working closely with project partners Oceanflow Energy, EMEC and Black and Veatch to determine the most important parameters to be measured for this type of technologies. Measurements taken at the Sanda Sound deployment site for the Oceanflow Energy 1:4 scale EVOPOD prototype, including loads on the device and sea condition datasets, will be used to validate the BEMT model for FTECs. A generic BEMT FTEC model will then be tested using environmental data, including extremes, provided by EMEC. In collaboration with Black and Veatch the resulting load predictions will be used to estimate component fatigue and failure. This will lead to the development of an operational strategy and design guidance to maximise survivability and reliability of FTECs.

The forecasting of marine weather, waves and tidal currents using models and in-situ measurements is vital for offshore operations and maintenance (O&M) in the marine infrastructure and marine renewable energy (MRE) sectors. Offshore O&M is limited by strict wave height thresholds at the offshore point of operations (typically 1.5m) and with the UK set to spend £2bn per annum by 2025 on O&M for the offshore wind industry alone the prediction of viable working windows for O&M is critical. In the tidal stream MRE sector the combined forces of waves and tidal currents on underwater tidal turbines can lead to dangerously high physical and electrical loads placed on equipment and infrastructure. Poor knowledge, and thus prediction of the local variability in weather, wave and tide conditions result in conservative thresholds for MRE operations. This, in turn, reduces the time MRE devices are in operation (and therefore energy generation), increasing investor risk and harming the financial development of the MRE sector as a whole. Existing wave and current monitoring and forecasting technologies rely on expensive in-situ measurements of the marine environment (e.g., floating wave buoys and devices on the sea bed) and models driven by these measurements or other large-scale simulations. Although very precise, the project partners have identified traditional wave and current monitoring techniques to be inadequate in terms of spatial coverage, timeliness and accuracy in complicated, high-energy coastal environments. These environments have previously proven to be difficult for wave and current observation and validation due to high equipment costs and risks of failure. As such there is a paucity of reliable, large-scale measurements of waves and currents in these high-energy marine environments. Marine navigational radar ('X-band') is a mature technology for the remote sensing of the marine environment, capable of generating estimates of tidal current speed, ocean wave parameters and water depths over wide areas. However the current state-of-the-art in X-band radar oceanography has been found lacking in the high-energy, dynamic and complicated coastal environments that marine energy projects are operating. This project aims to develop a step-change in the way we process radar data to generate measurements of the marine environment, paving the way for a system that can produce the environmental information the marine industry requires. NOC has a 20 year history at the forefront of marine radar oceanography and is well-placed to deliver this much needed development. To achieve this aim an open-source wave model will be integrated with the NOC's tried-and-tested radar analysis toolbox to produce a hybrid model/observation system. This system will combine modelled and observed wave information in such a way that minimises the errors in both; effectively generating a 'most likely' wave measurement over wider area every 10-15 minutes in near-real-time. The system will be developed using radar data and validated using ground-truth data recorded at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) on Orkney; the world's largest and most successful MRE test facility. Once validated, the system will then be demonstrated in a real-world setting at the OpenHydro test platform at EMEC. This project includes researchers with expertise radar oceanography, marine observation and the numerical modelling of the marine environment. Our project partners include EMEC, the marine energy company OpenHydro and JBA consulting; a company at the cutting-edge of operational forecasting. This new and innovative environmental monitoring system will be developed with the guidance of our partners and the successful system used to supply the basis for high-impact solutions for the partners and their clients.

A global demand for energy in parallel with concerns about global warming and energy security are motivating many nations to look for novel and sustainable sources of energy. At the same time the Oil ad Gas Industry is looking to decommission significant infrastructure as it comes to the end of its life cycle. There is a clear transition underway which brings challenges of infrastructure management. Among the issues raised by the offshore industries are those arising from the biological colonization of their structures. This project is aimed at describing the connectivity between structures and understanding the consequences for other sectors when structures are removed or added to the network in the norther North Sea. The project has been designed with several sectoral, governmental and industrial partners and there will be a strong emphasis on converting the scientific results into action at sea. The importance of colonization arises both from the need to make the developments efficient (to produce a reliable source of energy cost effectively) and to ensure the developments are environmentally acceptable. "Environmentally acceptable" covers a multitude of points, ranging from maintaining healthy sea life to avoiding conflicting with other sea users, including fishers who may have a prior claim on the development sites. The research in this project will be diverse to cover the many factors. A keystone of the project will be deployments of a Standard Monitoring System designed to facilitate data collection using practical and effective methods. That system centres on settling plates that will be progressively colonized by biofouling marine invertebrates. These organisms can impede the performance of the energy capturing devices, but can also be a foundation of thriving sea life. Structures including suitable niches can provide living space for larger organisms such as crabs and lobsters, adding to their "reef effect". The reef effect can be important to enhance marine life (biodiversity) but should also be beneficial to commercial fisheries, compensating fishers for some loss of access. However, there can also be dangers such as potentially adding to the spread of invasive species, and the research will also consider that. Ultimately, we want to find a way to ensure that offshore infrastructure is a positive addition to the marine environment and our research will be directed to that end.

Global warming due to excessive CO2 emissions and fossil fuel depletion have urged the development of clean and cheap energy technologies to satisfy the ever-increasing energy demand and net reduction in CO2 emissions. Strategies to utilise CO2 captured from sources such as fossil fuel-based power stations are urgently required to mitigate climate changes. Renewable energy production is likely to be the cleanest method of producing electricity. However, renewable electricity generation through the use of solar, wind or tidal energy transfer is notoriously intermittent and can be inefficient on overcast, still days and non-existent between tides during still days. Developing technologies that are composed of diverse energy sectors including renewables, fuel cells and electrolysis cells is thus vital to fulfil efficient and flexible low carbon energy storage and conversion. This project will seek to explore and develop the recently discovered materials in diverse electrochemical devices for efficient energy storage and conversion. This include converting CO2 into value added fuels and producing electricity using practical hydrocarbons or biogas. The CO2-derived fuels can be regarded as a storage medium for excess renewable electricity supply, when excess renewable electricity is used to drive the CO2 conversion. These fuels have high energy density, are easy to store and transport, and are compatible with the existing fossil fuel infrastructure that hydrogen (H2) fuels are incompatible with. Additionally, the CO2-derived fuels can in turn be used to generate electricity when the renewables are "down", allowing extra fuelling to the system. The CO2 conversion device proposed can split steam and CO2 in the same flow, producing syngas (CO and H2) which is the feedstock for industrial synthetic fuel production. Further, the same device can reversibly work as a fuel cell to generate electricity. The materials used in these devices are critical to their output. Conventional fuel electrode materials (a mixture of nickel (Ni) and zirconia) have limitations due to their poor stability and durability under realistic fuel environments. Materials development in recent years has been focusing on alternative oxides preferably with the active components at nanoscale to maximise activity. The most exciting recent discovery is a group of titanate perovskites (with a formula ABO3), where their B-site metal, e.g. Ni, can move out of the perovskite lattice as the ambient conditions change. This exsolution of catalysts (metal, alloy, oxide) from the host lattice upon reduction can be used to decorate the electrode surface with nanoparticles offering high catalytic activity. Further, the exsolved nanoparticles are anchored to the surface of the parent perovskite, which makes them considerably more stable than catalysts added by conventional means. Nevertheless, the research on these materials in real electrochemical devices so far has been very limited. The project will seek to deliver exsolution materials processing approach for CO2 conversion to maximise performance. The methodologies to drive exsolution of nanocatalysts during CO2 electrolysis operations will be developed. Conversion of steam and CO2 in the same flow will be also investigated using these materials, with specific focus on generating products with desirable CO/H2 ratios for industrial fuels synthesis. Finally, switching the electrolyser to fuel cell using realistic hydrocarbons or biogas fuel will be conducted, aiming to advance the development of a low carbon electricity generation system with significant robustness and cost-competitiveness. The overall objective is to develop and demonstrate a novel, efficient, flexible and robust technology as one that can realise both the fuel production through CO2 conversion and low carbon electricity generation, to help addressing utilisation of sustainable renewable energy and CO2 recycling for fuel production and climate mitigation.