Via EUREC Member, ORE Catapult
The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has appointed two of the UK’s top universities to join its £3.1million research Hub.
ORE Catapult’s HV Electrical Laboratory
The Universities of Strathclyde and Manchester will join the Catapult to form the Electrical Infrastructure Research Hub (EIRH). With a five-year investment of around £700k from ORE Catapult, and £2.4m match funding from its university partners, the Hub will address research topics and themes including:
- component reliability and availability;
- system and sub-system optimisation;
- smart energy systems of the future (including energy storage solutions).
Over its five-year lifespan, the EIRH will be supported by at least 10 PhD students, three post-doctoral researchers and world-leading expertise from both the university partners and ORE Catapult’s electrical infrastructure research team.
“The UK’s wind, wave and tidal industries are developing at pace,” says Paul McKeever, ORE Catapult’s Head of Strategic Research, “and the offshore wind industry has announced its most ambitious plans to date that would see 30GW of installed capacity by 2030. One of the biggest challenges associated with these plans will be to address how we best convert, transmit and store energy from our offshore renewable assets in an effective and reliable manner.
“Our academic collaboration with the Universities of Strathclyde and Manchester will enable us to pool existing academic and industry skills and resources to tackle this challenge, driving forward key research and helping to leverage the vital public and private finance that will underpin the activities.”