This month, the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC), Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and RenewableUK organised a joint webinar to discuss the critical work coming out of the Offshore Wind Sector Deal towards delivering green hydrogen from offshore wind, including an in-depth analysis of the Offshore Wind and Hydrogen: Solving the Integration Challenge report.

READ THE REPORT: https://tinyurl.com/y6b33ahm

For this month's episode, we give you the highlights from an extremely well-attended session with an august panel of policy-makers and technology experts.

SPEAKERS

Jane Cooper, Head of Stakeholder and Regulatory Affairs, UK, Ørsted, and OWIC Hydrogen Workstream Lead

David Wallace, Senior Strategy Manager, Research and Disruptive Innovation, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult

Barney Wharton, Director, Future Electricity Systems, RenewableUK

Dr Graham Cooley, CEO, ITM Power

Rita Wadey, Deputy Director, Hydrogen Economy, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), UK Government

The UK has enough natural resources of offshore renewables to provide all the country’s energy requirements, including transport and heating, with spare for export to Europe. Key to capturing this opportunity will be the development of coastal communities and local UK supply chains for all phases of the project life cycle.

At the ORE Catapult, we are at the heart of this energy revolution and growth. We are already working with established UK companies in these regions with a vision to catalyse clusters of activity with world-renowned expertise up and down our coast. Today we are focusing on the opportunities that are available in Wales and the South-West.

This month's episode is hosted by Fiona Smyth, Graduate Marketing and Communications Executive for ORE Catapult, and includes the guests:

- Chris Williams, Commercial Manager, Bombora Wave Power

- Simon Cheeseman, Wave and Tidal Energy Sector Lead, ORE Catapult

- Magnus Harrold, Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence Innovation Manager, ORE Catapult

In this episode, we widen the focus of our lens to discuss the UK’s green recovery and the opportunity presented by offshore renewables. We bring together leading voices on climate change and renewable energy to discuss the UK’s future green recovery. With ‘Green Recovery’ a hot topic and the country facing years of after-effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, our guests outlined where the opportunities lie for offshore renewable energy – and the action needed to realise them.

ORE Catapult's Head of Communications Lee Madigan is joined by an August panel of guests to examine the question from the policy, technology and societal points of view.

GUESTS

Baroness Brown of Cambridge, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Climate Change, Sector Champion for the Offshore Wind Sector Deal and a non-executive director at ORE Catapult.

Melanie Onn, Deputy Chief Executive at RenewableUK and former Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby.

Dr Stephen Wyatt, Director of Research and Disruptive Innovation at ORE Catapult and a Board member on Offshore Wind Growth Partnership.

Andrew Hodgson, Chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NE LEP) and the Skills Advisory Panel for the North East of England.

At the beginning of the year, our Analysis and Insight Manager, Tom Quinn, wrote a blog titled ‘ORE Catapult’s 2020 Predictions in Offshore Renewable Energy’ that identified five key trends in offshore renewables that he predicted would take off this year. These included:

1. The long-awaited UK energy policy white paper will be published by the Government

2. New market entrants

3. Hydrogen gathers momentum

4. First wind project taking financial investment decision on a merchant basis

5. Data and digital challenges and opportunities

Six months on, he is joined by Gavin Smart, Head of Analysis and Insights at ORE Catapult, to discuss just how accurate our predictions have been so far, and what the remainder of 2020 has in store for offshore renewable energy developments.

You can read Tom's full blog here: https://ore.catapult.org.uk/blog/ore-catapults-2020-predictions-in-offshore-renewable-energy/

Planning operations and maintenance activity is a challenging task. It can be difficult to predict if sea conditions will allow turbine technician transfer via crew transfer vessels (CTVs) to take place, and often marine operators have a limited source of information for making this decision.

This is where the SPOWTT project comes in. SPOWTT – which stands for Safety and Productivity of Offshore Wind Technician Transit - provides a forecasting and monitoring tool to help match future assets to the environmental conditions. The project took a novel approach by using digital technology to create a decision-making tool that allows marine coordinators to make a more informed decision regarding crew transfers. The SPOWTT project has, for the first time, measured in parallel the motion of crew transfer vessels in certain weather conditions and sea states, as well as the psychological and physiological well-being of the technicians onboard.

Today, we are joined by:

- Andrew Stormonth-Darling | Programme Manager at ORE Catapult

- Fiona Earle | Director, Centre for Human Factors, University of Hull

- Gijs Struijk | Head of On Board Specialists | Performance at Sea for MARIN

- Joana Santos | Internal Project Manager at Siemens Gamesa

- George Moore | Business Development Manager at Specialist Marine Consultants Ltd

With the UK now well underway in working towards net-zero by 2050, the way we produce, use and store energy is changing. Our sources of power, heating and transport must decarbonise if we are to achieve the net-zero targets outlined by the Committee on Climate Change, but current methods of offshore renewable energy production cannot achieve this alone.

This is where Green Hydrogen comes in. In the latest Re-Energise podcast episode, want to dive head-first into the world of hydrogen to try and understand its place in the ever evolving offshore renewable energy sector. Our experts scope out the future possibilities, reveal key research from ORE Catapult on hydrogen-offshore wind integration and introduce new ground-breaking community projects being launched this year.

Gavin Smart joined ORE Catapult in April 2014 and holds the post of Head of Analysis & Insights. He is responsible for developing and maintaining ORE Catapult’s financial and economic modelling, which feeds directly into the organisation’s commercial strategy. He has previously worked as Senior Investment Analyst for a major European utility and offshore wind developer, as well as a Valuation and Business Modelling consultant in the Middle East.

David Wallace is ORE Catapult’s Senior Strategy Manager. He is responsible for aligning ORE Catapult's business strategy with its mission to drive technology developments that enable a vibrant offshore renewable energy sector capable of delivering major benefits to the UK economy. He brings a wealth of experience in shaping policy on renewable energy with the UK Government, and at international level, including for the International Energy Agency, and UN agencies.

Stephanie Mann is an Innovation Manager at ORE Catapult with a particular interest in novel technologies that could potentially disrupt the renewable energy sector. Prior to joining the Catapult, Stephanie came to the end of a four-year EngD with the Industrial Doctoral Centre for Offshore Renewable Energy (Idcore), working especially with novel wind in the data science team at E.ON.

Kacper Stefaniakis ORE Catapult’s Strategy Analyst responsible for roadmapping activities and supporting development of strategic initiatives that are necessary to meet the UK’s net-zero targets by 2050 (e.g. Milford Haven: Energy Kingdom). He is leading on the industry-wide innovation and policy roadmapping for Offshore Wind Innovation Hub. Prior to joining ORE Catapult, Kacper worked for McKinsey & Company.

Angeliki Spyroudi is Strategy Analyst at ORE Catapult who examines industry trends to give strategic insights of the offshore renewable energy market and has produced a variety of studies on cost modelling for novel technologies in the renewable energy space. She has most recently authored the cost analysis section of the final report for 'Solving the Integration Challenge Project'. Angeliki holds and MSc in Environmental Management and an MSc in Renewable Energy Technology.

Keep your eyes peeled for the 'Solving the Integration Challenge' that will be produced by ORE Catapult later this month.

Visit ore.catapult.org.uk and follow us @ORECatapult

This special episode covers a topic that has a particular resonance during these months of home-schooling due to the COVID-19 lockdown - engaging children in science. Three seasoned campaigners from ORE Catapult’s engineering and disruptive innovation teams talk about their experience of getting into STEM-based occupations and the different ways they are bringing this to local schools, online STEM channels, competitions and much more.

They debate questions about the imperative to skill-up our workforce of the future and some good examples of outreach.

Guest Biographies

Stephanie Mann is Innovation Manager in ORE Catapult’s Research and Disruptive Innovation team. Her project portfolio focusses on identifying and supporting high-potential SMEs with innovations at the cutting edge of offshore renewables, including hydrogen-wind, airborne wind and space applications. She runs her own YouTube channel Science with Steph, which explores the science at the heart of children’s stories and films to bring core principles alive for young people.

Lorna Bennet is a Mechanical Engineer working at the core of ORE Catapult’s engineering team. Lorna also leads a variety of STEM engagement and outreach activities to schools around our Scottish project sites. Lorna has an exciting portfolio of design and research work to her name in the wave power, oceanographic research, aerospace, oil and gas and construction industries - a perfect mix for firing young imaginations!

Jonathan Hughes is Validation Manager at ORE Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, a world-leading facility for the test and validation of novel technologies and the biggest test projects for leading manufacturers and operators. He specialises in electronic and electrical engineering and has worked at the Blyth facility for more than a decade, during which he has taken his ground-breaking project experience to local schools and colleges in his role as STEM Ambassador.

In this episode, we’re focussing upon the truly Mammoth Tasks that are involved in keeping the UK’s offshore wind farms going. We’re talking about inspecting, maintaining and repairing thousands of miles of subsea cables, millions of super-sized bolts and thousands of blades suspended above the ocean waves. This is heavy manual work, often undertaken in extreme conditions - fraught with risks, delays and heavy costs.

Please note that due to COVID-19 we are recording episodes remotely which may affect the audio quality in some places.

Peter Andrews founded EchoBolt in 2019 after many years managing offshore wind sites for E.ON, most recently the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. EchoBolt provides a range of consultancy and engineering integrity services to the wind industry, including advanced inspection and condition monitoring techniques and data insights that enable optimum installation and maintenance decisions to increase production and reduce costs. He is currently partnering with ORE Catapult on a project to develop and test his novel concept for a handheld device for simplifying inspection of wind turbine bolts. Visit the echobolt.co.uk or follow @EchoBolt on LinkedIn.

Chris Cieslak founded BladeBUG in 2014 with a mission to design an advanced robotic solution that could transform blade inspection and maintenance at offshore wind farms, reducing risk and maximising asset lifetimes. Under a grant from Innovate UK, Chris and his team are developing and trialling BladeBUG, a lightweight hexapod robot that can walk directly on wind turbine blades. The robot uses modular tools to scan and conduct preventative maintenance, without exposing human technicians to the harsh offshore conditions. BladeBUG is now on track for commercial production in early 2021. Visit bladebug.co.uk or follow @Bladebuglimited on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Saul Matthews is Commercial Director at Glasgow-based technology developer Synaptec, which offers renewable energy providers a unique technology for measuring voltage, current, temperature, and vibration over vast distances, at many locations, without any supporting infrastructure. Before joining Synaptec as Commercial Director, Saul led growth for start-up and established brands in the IT, mobile, unified communications and most recently semi-conductor industries in every major global market.

Heather McLarty joined the ORE Catapult in December 2018 as a Project Manager in the Research and Disruptive Innovation team. In her role, she delivers cutting edge technology projects in partnership with a range of technology developers. Before joining ORE Catapult, Heather was a Graduate Engineer at Scottish and Southern Energy Networks.

In the latest Re-Energise podcast episode, we’re discussing the transformation of the offshore energy sector – from decades of oil & gas production to the adoption of offshore renewable energy. This energy transition has never been more important, as the UK works towards its ambitious net-zero targets by 2050. To do so is not to say that offshore renewable energy will replace oil & gas production immediately – it is a growing partnership between the two industries, with particular importance placed on the role of floating offshore wind in decarbonising the oil & gas industry.

In this episode, we're joined by:

Miriam Noonan, Senior Financial Analyst, ORE Catapult

Hugh Riddell, Regional Partnership Manager, ORE Catapult

Ralph Torr, Programme Manager, ORE Catapult

Ian Milne, Sales Manager - Renewables, Balmoral

In this episode, ORE Catapult's Claire Canning discusses support for innovative technology development for the offshore renewables energy sector.

As the offshore wind industry continues to grow at a record pace, ORE Catapult has recognised the need to improve the route-to-market for start-ups and SMEs in the sector. As a result, we have a variety of programmes available for small enterprises including: Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP - owgp.org.uk), National Launch Academy (https://ore.catapult.org.uk/research-innovation/strategic-programmes/launch-academy) and Fit4Offshore Renewables (https://ore.catapult.org.uk/operation-performance/strategic-programmes/f4or)

ABOUT THE PANEL

Claire Canning is the Programme Manager for the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership. Her key responsibilities involve developing and delivering programmes that will enable UK offshore wind supply chain companies to grow and become more competitive.

[email protected]

Andrew MacDonald is the Senior Innovation Manager at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult). With experience in both technology and commercial roles, Andy excels at identifying innovation opportunities and routes to commercialisation. He leads the development of joint industry projects that bring operators together to address sector-wide issues that need a coordinated approach.

Ralph is a Programme Manager at ORE Catapult and is responsible for the delivery of large, multi-project technology and supply chain development programmes, including Fit4Offshore Renewables. Ralph first joined ORE Catapult in 2014 where he worked in the business integration team during the merger with the NAREC organisation before going on to lead ORE Catapult’s Engineering Team.

Andrew Tipping joined the Catapult in May 2012. Within the Research and Innovation team Andrew’s role is focussed on developing the strategy and managing the delivery of the Catapult’s Technology Commercialisation programme, including the National Launch Academy.