IES Research Projects

Research Projects at the Institute for Energy Systems (IES). You can search keywords within Project Titles.

We also have many Energy Systems PhD opportunities for postgraduate students looking to join the School.

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Project Title Principal Supervisorsort ascending Project Summary
Land of the MUSCos

Professor Gareth Harrison

Present infrastructure service delivery, characterized by isolated supply streams for an uncontrolled demand, is uneconomical, inefficient, and ultimately unsustainable. What kinds of alternatives can be identified and implemented? In this project, we research and promote the establishment of Multi-Utility Service Companies, or MUSCos.

PolyWEC: New mechanisms and concepts for exploiting electroactive Polymers for Wave Energy Conversion

Professor David Ingram

Wave energy has a great potential as renewable source of electricity. Studies have demonstrated that significant percentage of world electricity could be produced by Wave Energy Converters (WECs). However electricity generation from waves still lacks of spreading because the combination of harsh environment and form of energy makes the technical development of cost effective WECs particularly difficult.

IDCORE: Industrial Doctoral Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy

Professor David Ingram

The drive to meet the UK’s ambitious deployment targets for offshore renewable energy technologies requires the development of new techniques and technologies to design, build, install, operate, and maintain devices in hostile environments at affordable economic cost with minimal environmental impact. It requires a supply of highly trained scientists and engineers to deliver their skills across the sector. The Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Exeter together with the Scottish Association for Marine Science and HR-Wallingford form a partnership to deliver the EPSRC/ETI Industrial Doctorate Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE).

TIDES: Tidal Demonstration for Energy Scheme

Professor David Ingram

A full tidal array has not been installed anywhere, commercially to date. A number of the leading turbine manufacturers have part or full scale working prototypes which are under-going testing in various sites the majority of which are enclosed in semi-test environments. In order to move this nascent technology into the commercial arena and expedite market deployment, it is necessary to establish an array of turbines in one site to verify the performance capability and environmental characteristics of a full array.

Structural Design of Wave Energy Devices

Professor David Ingram

The Structural Design of Wave Energy Devices project (SDWED) 2010-2014 is an international research alliance supported by the Danish Council for Strategic Research. The project is a five-year endeavour to harness the energy potential in wave energy at competitive costs.

TROPOS: Modular Multi-use Deep Water Offshore Platform Harnessing and Servicing Mediterranean, Subtropical and Tropical Marine and Maritime Resources

Professor David Ingram

TROPOS is a European collaborative project funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development, more specifically under the "Ocean of Tomorrow" call OCEAN 2011.1 – Multi-use offshore platforms. The TROPOS Project aims at developing a floating modular multi-use platform system for use in deep waters, with an initial geographic focus on the Mediterranean, Tropical and Sub-Tropical regions, but designed to be flexible enough so as to not be limited in geographic scope.

RealTide

Prof David Ingram

The aim of the RealTide project is to identify main failure causes of tidal turbines at sea and to provide a step change in the design of key components, namely the blades and power take-off systems, adapting them more accurately to the complex environmental tidal conditions. Advanced monitoring systems will be integrated with these identified sub-systems and together with maintenance strategies will be implemented at outset from the design stage to achieve an increased reliability and improved performance over the full tidal turbine life.

FASTBLADE, Structural Composites Research Facility

Conchúr Ó Brádaigh

FASTBLADE is commencing construction - see our facility site here.

The Structural Composites Research Facility (SCRF) is funded by a strategic equipment grant (EP/P029922/1). The grant started on the 1st of June 2017 and is due to complete on the 30sh of November 2020. The SCRF is to be setup as a Small Research Facility (SRF) and has been given the name FASTBLADE.

FASTBLADE will offer a suite of experimental and testing services to meet every client’s needs. The team can offer bespoke solutions to match every user’s needs and are supported by the world renown expertise and knowledge within the School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh.

Effective Marine Energy Design Subject to Ecological and Social Constraints

Professor Alistair Borthwick

Practical marine energy resources are subject to social and ecological constraints, such as conflict with other users of the sea and environmental protection. This research aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the practical constraints on marine energy developments, the extent to which they may limit the amount of power available for extraction and, most importantly, how energy production may be optimised within the limits set by these constraints. 

Clearwater: Demonstration of First Ocean Energy Arrays

Mr Henry Jeffrey

This project will design, build, install and operate an open ocean 4.5MW tidal energy farm in the Inner Sound in the Pentland Firth, off the Northern coast of Scotland. The project ("Clearwater") will demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of a multi-turbine tidal energy array, an essential step to catalyse development of commercial projects in the EU ocean energy industry. Project Clearwater provides a credible, robustly implemented transition from high cost single turbine demonstration deployments of marine turbines to economically viable multi-hundred turbine arrays in oceans and managed water assets across Europe and the wider global market.

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