Supergen Wind Hub

Lead Research Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Abstract

The EU has a binding target of 20% of energy to come from renewables by 2020, with an associated CO2 emissions reduction target of 20% (relative to 1990) and a 20% reduction on energy usage by the same date. This is the so-called 20/20/20 target. The UK's target is for 15% of energy to be sourced from renewables by this date. For this target to be met, over 30% of electricity will need to be generated from renewables and it is anticipated that 31GW of this will come from wind power with 13GW onshore and 18GW offshore by 2020 to 40GW of offshore wind power capacity could be installed by 2030. At present 6GW of wind power have been installed onshore and 3GW offshore. Because of environmental concerns, the development of onshore wind power in the UK is being constrained making the cost-effective and reliable offshore development ever more important. To increase offshore capacity by at least a factor of five in seven years, whilst minimising the cost of energy, presents very significant design, operational and logistical challenges. Within the above context and in the longer term, wind farms and wind turbines will be sited further offshore in deeper water and become bigger.

The proposed Supergen Wind Hub brings together leading wind energy academic research groups in UK to address the medium term challenges of scaling up to multiple wind farms, considering how to better build, operate and maintain multi-GW arrays of wind turbines whilst providing a reliable source of electricity whose characteristics can be effectively integrated into a modern power system such as that in the UK. The wind resource over both short and long terms, the interaction of wakes within a wind farm and the turbine loads and their impact on reliability will all need to be better understood. The layout of the farms, including foundations, impact on radar and power systems and shore-connection issues, will need to be optimised. The most effective and efficient operation of wind farms will require them to act as virtual conventional power plants flexibly responding to the current conditions, the wind turbines' state and operational demands and grid-integration requirements. The programme of research for the Supergen Wind Energy Hub will focus on all of the above, both at the level of single farms and of clusters of farms.

Planned Impact

One of the initially most visible aspects of communication will be bi-annual General Assemblies in which the consortium will present its progress to an open audience from the Associate Partners, companies and external specialists. Every second General Assembly will be annual events open to all stakeholders.

European Wind Energy research is dominated by a relatively small number of very large research institutions strongly connected to the wind industry, such as DTU Wind, formerly Riso National Laboratory, ECN, Fraunhofer IWES, CENER. Supergen Wind will continue to grow its connections to these major institutions to consolidate and further strengthen its impact on the European research scene through the following means.

European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE): EAWE is a consortium of the leading European Wind Energy research Universities that has a strong influence on setting the academic research agenda. The EAWE will provide a natural route for Supergen Wind Hub to engage and influence the university based European Wind Energy research agenda.

European Energy Research Alliance Joint Programme Wind (EERA JP Wind): EERA JP Wind is a collaboration of prominent European Wind Energy research Institutions. Its objective is to accelerate industry driven initiatives by looking at the Strategic Research Agenda and implementing the underpinning research required to address the challenges identified by the European Industrial Initiative on Wind Energy in the Wind Energy Roadmap. EERA JP Wind will provide a natural route for Supergen Wind Hub to engage and influence the industry-driven European Wind Energy research agenda.

International Energy Agency (IEA): Staff within the Hub have represented the UK in the IEA and contributed to various completed and on-going Annexes of the Agency related to wind energy Through the proposed Supergen Wind Hub, this strong international presence will be maintained.

The engagement with the UK academic sector will primarily be through the networking activities of the Supergen Wind Hub. However it is recognised that the Centres for Doctoral Training have an increasingly important role. Several of the proposed CDTs listed on the EPSRC website are directly relevant to the scope of Supergen Wind Hub, in particular, the DTC in Wind and Marine Energy Systems led by Leithead (Strathclyde) and the DTC in Marine Structures led by Brennan (Cranfield). Should these be successful, it is intended to collaborate closely with them.

All the partners in the proposed Supergen Wind Hub have strong links to the wind industry. These direct engagements with industry will be augmented by the establishment of an Industry Advisory Board (IAB). The IAB will meet every 6 months and will provide a forum for dissemination of Supergen Wind Hub activities.

Technology Strategy Board funded Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult): The ORE Catapult has been established to accelerate the growth and commercialisation of offshore wind, wave and tidal technologies. ORE Catapult is a natural route for Supergen Wind Hub to engage and with the ORE Catapult and through it the offshore wind sector in the UK.

Energy Technologies Institute (ETI): The ETI is a government-industry funded institution to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon energy technologies into the mix. The Supergen Wind Hub will continue contributing and supporting the ETI in the future as necessary.

Since there is a widely recognised skills gap in Wind Energy, a further pathway to impact will be through the provision of highly trained engineers, expert in wind energy. Most of these will be expected to take up posts in the growing commercial wind sector, and quickly rise to positions of leadership and influence.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The EU has a binding target of 20% of energy to come from renewables by 2020, with an associated CO2 emissions reduction target of 20% (relative to 1990) and a 20% reduction on energy usage by the same date. This is the so-called 20/20/20 target. To meet this target, 13GW of wind power have been installed onshore and 8.5GW offshore by September 2019. Furthermore, under the Sector Deal between the Offshore Wind Industry Council and the UK Government, the targets for offshore wind are 30GW by 2030 and 50GW by 2050. To meet these ambitious future targets, whilst minimising the cost of energy, the trends are towards wind farms and wind turbines being sited further offshore in deeper water and becoming bigger, with associated design, operational and logistical challenges.
Supergen Wind Hub brought together leading wind energy academic research groups in the UK to address the medium term challenges of scaling up to multiple wind farms, considering how to better build, operate and maintain multi-GW arrays of wind turbines whilst providing a reliable source of electricity whose characteristics can be effectively integrated into a modern power system such as that in the UK. Improved understanding of the wind resource over both short and long terms, the interaction of wakes within a wind farm and the turbine loads and their impact on reliability is required. The layout of the farms, including foundations, impact on radar and power systems and shore-connection needs to be optimised. The most effective and efficient operation of wind farms requires them to act as virtual conventional power plants flexibly responding to the current conditions, the wind turbines' state and operational demands and grid-integration requirements. The programme of research undertaken by the Supergen Wind Energy Hub has made progress in meeting all of the above requirements, both at the level of single farms and of clusters of farms.
Exploitation Route The successful outputs from the Supergen Wind Hub programme have been made available through our website and through research repositories such as Researchfish and Pure. Activities developed through the Supergen Wind Hub programme will continue to be progressed through links to the new Supergen ORE Hub with 2 members of the Supergen Wind Consortium being Co-Directors of the latter and with others having representation on the new Hub's advisory boards and research alignment groups.
Our findings will be progressed in a number of ways, a few examples of which are noted below. WP0 Enabling Facilities - The Offshore Wind Energy Geographical Information System (GIS) database developed in Phase 2 was updated, and is now available to be used in other research projects. Many years of SCADA data from an operational wind farm have been obtained, and are available for use once a data confidentiality agreement has been signed - access has already been granted to a leading academic research team, and to an InnovateUK project. WP4.3 Mapping and specification for the best use of UK based test facilities for wind technologies. The work focused on the mapping of test facilities for wind energy research available in the UK at different TRLs. A directory of facilities which will be of general use to the wind energy research and development community in the UK and Europe was created, and is publicly available. WP2.3 Assessment of economic and environmental impacts. A disaggregated IO modelling of offshore wind, separately identifying offshore wind in the economic accounts, and a database, providing a computable general equilibrium model for the UK, have been produced and an illustrative cost-benefit analysis of offshore wind development in the UK has been developed. This will be used to help influence future policy decisions.
Sectors Electronics,Energy,Environment

URL https://www.supergen-wind.org.uk/
 
Description Over the 5 hear period of its funding, the Supergen Wind Hub had a research budget of £1.2M for the 6 core partners; a flexible funding budget of £1.2M which supported 21 projects with partners from 14 universities; and £3M for 4 Grand Challenge projects. There are wind energy extensive networks at different TRLs for facilitating academic collaboration, knowledge exchange to the industry and providing input to policy. These were exploited through active participation of members of the consortium. In addition, personal links to industry and the wider community were utilised to facilitate impact. Many discoveries were made over the very wide scope of this project. Some highlight examples of these impacts are the following. Radar issues relating to offshore wind farm: The installation of wind farms within the radar line-of-site of an oil platform can potentially degrade the effectiveness of radar systems deployed to monitor potential collision threats to the platform by nearby shipping. In practice a Radar Early Warning System (REWS) mounted on a particular platform often provides early warning of threats to other platforms in the vicinity. Furthermore, the re-routing of traffic around the wind farm may bring vessels into closer proximity to the O&G platforms, thereby triggering proximity/collision warning alarms. Concerns from stakeholders over such interactions may result in formal objections and severe delays to the development of proposed wind farms. Modelling capability has been developed on Supergen Wind to address important aspects of the interaction between offshore wind farms and REWS operating within close proximity of them. In particular, models were developed to investigate and assess the impact of radar shadowing and target masking (due to turbine returns) on the REWS's ability to detect targets travelling through the wind farm. Also, the re-routing of traffic around the wind farms was modelled and a statistical approach developed to assess the potential effect on the proximity/collision warning alarms. Measurement data from the 7MW Levenmouth turbine were used to verify and expand Supergen radar modelling capabilities to simulate multistatic turbine scattering, and to model a wind farm environment as a whole. The design of a core element of a multi-frequency FMCW radar system, which is responsible for generating ultra-wide band waveforms (up to 1.4 GHz) necessary for resolving small targets against large measurement scenes, including wind turbines, was completed. Further research is ongoing in collaboration with industry on real world radar related issues. The radar research undertaken within the programme has already been utilised in collaboration with industry to assess and resolve radar concerns relating to new wind farm developments, including wind farms near the Port of Liverpool, the Morecambe bay region and Hornsea Project. The outcomes enable the reduction of delays to the development of proposed wind farms due to concerns from stakeholders regarding the interaction between wind farms and Radar Early Warning. Wind energy: economic, social and environmental analysis: This work identifies employment in low-carbon and renewable energy activities; incorporate CO2 emissions into macroeconomic models through primary energy use; considers energy and climate change challenges and policies; and identifies economic and environmental impacts of UK offshore wind developments. Wind energy: economic, social and environmental analysis: Estimation of the aggregate and sectoral system-wide impacts on output and employment and model-based estimation of the impact on carbon emissions have been undertaken. A UK input-output (IO) table was constructed that incorporates detailed technological information on links between all electricity generation technologies - including operational offshore wind activities - with the rest of the economy. This was used to explore the existing contribution of offshore wind to the UK economy as well as to explore the employment and value-added impacts of future developments in the capacity of the sector, including the latest BEIS projections. The economic and environmental impacts of UK offshore wind development has been assessed: focusing on the impact of changing local content; considering characteristics of energy employment in a system-wide context and definitions around the "green jobs" in the context of the UK; developing an electricity satellite account; assessing employment in low-carbon and renewable energy activities; and identifying the regional economic impacts of offshore wind developments. Economic accounts have been developed to provide a database that allows a focus on updating and extending a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for the UK, which incorporates a fully-specified supply side, as well as all the income flows associated with offshore developments. This enables the the potential "crowding out" of other activity by wind farm development to be accommodated. It also allows exploration of the likely impact of innovation, for example, through the incorporation of (endogenous) learning effects. The impacts of alternative policy packages were explored, including a focus on the distinction between announced and unanticipated changes in policy. Simulations of alternative scenarios are presented using our offshore-wind-augmented CGE models. The effect of Brexit on UKERC and BEIS roadmaps for deployment, UK content, and exports has been analysed; as offshore wind is deployed in UK waters, the effect of Brexit affects on UK content in the supply chain, and UK exports from the offshore wind supply chain has been considered. The outputs from the model-based estimates of the impact on carbon emissions summarise the impact of the various modelled scenarios above for changes in carbon emissions. The importance of revenues accruing to owners and the Crown Estate, indicating the importance of their dispersion and use, is illustrated and an illustrative cost-benefit analysis of offshore wind development in the UK is developed. During the project, Fraser of Allander Institute provided a commissioned report to Mainstream Renewable Power Limited to evaluate the economic impact on the Scottish economy of the proposed Neart Na Gaoithe offshore windfarm project. We also provided a confidential report on economic modelling and analysis of the wider impacts of offshore wind to the Crown Estate Scotland was, also, provided. UK Wind Farm Operational Performance Analysis: In the development of wind energy generation in the UK, the challenges faced by the wind industry include reliability, performance and condition monitoring, particularly in the offshore environment. Capacity factor data from UK offshore wind farms has been analysed, providing an insight into the current performance of large Round 2 offshore wind farms compared to the earlier Round 1 farms and to onshore farms. The data used in this study covers more than 10000 turbine years of operation. The results were compared against findings from a smaller dataset of less than 6000 filtered turbine years. A review of work on proposed standards for reporting of reliability data from wind farms was undertaken. It included the results from the EU FP7 Reliawind Project on the definition of a common wind turbine taxonomy and a universal database structure for storing downtime events from multiple manufacturers' turbines. It, also, reviewed the ongoing SPARTA (System Performance, Availability and Reliability Trend Analysis) project on the creation of a UK offshore wind database for sharing anonymised offshore wind farm performance and maintenance data. SPARTA is a collaborative project between ORE Catapult, The Crown Estate and offshore wind farm owner/operators performance data platform. A breakdown of the cost of energy generation from wind farms has been reported which highlights the importance of reducing operation and maintenance costs from current levels. The challenges that must be overcome and the research that is currently underway to help achieve this have been reviewed. Improved data handling and analysis techniques, integration of condition monitoring and SCADA systems and improved cost/benefit analysis from adopting condition based maintenance strategies are all identified as being important steps towards achieving this goal. The need for development of standard methodologies for reliability data collection and analysis through close collaboration between manufacturers, operators and research organisations was demonstrated. Further work produced an extensive directory with detailed information on the UK facilities for validation testing of new developments across the full range of Technology Readiness Levels. For the first time in the wind industry, owner/operator participants have been provided with benchmarked data, helping to identify operational improvements and cost reduction opportunities at both company and sector-wide levels. The need for more open sharing of operating data across the wind industry and research community to accelerate the development process has been highlighted. The directory provides a common source of information for energy researchers and industry, academia and government innovators interested in reducing technology development risk. Reduction of turbine rotor loads: Reducing the loads on turbine blades and rotor can address a variety of problems seen on turbines that lead to increased failure rates and reduction in turbine life. Over the 13 years of Supergen Wind, a novel approach to reducing these loads, individual blade control (IBC), has been developed that can be tuned to reduce a particular load or a combination of loads in a highly transparent manner without any adverse impact on other turbine components. The concept has evolved from underpinning theory, researched on Supergen Wind, to detailed design, undertaken on a industrially sponsored PhD, to field-testing on a DECC funded project, on which performance was independently verified, to commercialisation through SgurrControl. An output is a novel approach to control design of complex dynamic systems whereby the dynamics of the sub-system requiring regulation is decoupled from the rest of system through the addition of fictitious forces to the measured inputs to the controller. These fictitious forces are simply the product of known inertia values and measured accelerations and are thus readily available. This novel approach to control design was specifically developed in order to realise the IBC concept for reduction of loads on large wind turbines. More recently the methodology has been extended on the EU FP7 IRPWind Project so that it could be applied to floating wind turbines which are prone to very large load excursions arising from coupling between the turbine dynamics and the floating platform dynamics. A European patent for IBC has been awarded. In addition, to its application to large wind turbines, IBC has been installed on tidal stream wind turbines, specifically, the ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest 1.5MW turbines in the Meygen project. David Robb, Managing Director of Sgurr Control, said, "Individual blade control is a very exciting approach to reducing loads on wind turbines. It can address a variety of problems seen on turbines that can lead to increased failure rates and reduction in turbine life. As it is straightforward to retrofit, we see the potential to grow that market over the next few years."
First Year Of Impact 2014
Sector Energy
Impact Types Economic

 
Description Beesley Lecture by Professor Richard Green, Imperial College London & Institute of Directors
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact Now in their 27th year, The Beesley Lectures have consistently featured outstanding addresses from high-profile thought leaders drawn from academia, government and industry. Continuing in this tradition, this year's speakers will deliver expert insight into the most pressing issues in regulatory economics today. Professor Richard Green from ICL presented a session discussing 'How will storage and decentralisation change the energy market?'.
URL https://www.marketforce.eu.com/events/economics-regulation/beesley-lectures#tabdayday-4
 
Description Cranfield University are the leaders for the Joint Industry Project Offshore Wind Structural Lifecycle Industry Collaboration (SLIC). The collaboration project aims to redefine international standards.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/case-studies/research-case-studies/slic
 
Description EERA Design Tools for Offshore Clusters (DTOC) - Professor Olimpo Anaya-Lara is a leader of the research activity of power systems and grid integration
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact The EERA DTOC project aimed to deliver robust and efficient software for planning of offshore wind farm clusters. The user requirements from industrial partners formed the basis for deciding on model integration and functionality. The many models that were available in the EERA consortium have been developed in previous projects, often through national funding. This was the first time a systematic effort to efficiently integrate the software has been performed. The software has been intensively validated during the project. The validation is based on wind farm production data from several large wind farms. Additionally, new experimental observations from scanning lidar and wind-profiling lidar on a moving platform (ship) as well as high resolution satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images have been applied for validation of wind farm wake models. The developed tool describes a new design tool based on open interfaces. This enables future integration of other software. The spin-off tool from the project is called Wind & Economy. The tool was used during the project by the partners to model several common test cases, so-called scenarios. These ranged from state of the art current practice for large offshore wind farms near the coast, through cluster scale wind farm planning very far offshore and to strategic planning of a far-future scenario around the year 2030. In total, the consortium, the lead partners, the External Advisory Board and the project reviewers see a large potential for the exploitation of the final software product. While smaller national projects may extend the integration of single purpose models, future funding in the framework of EU R&D projects may also lead to structural extension to new application fields, like O&M strategies and wind farm operations.
URL https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/101241/reporting/en
 
Description EERA Integrated Research Project Wind (IRPWIND) - Professor Olimpo Anaya-Lara is a core member
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL http://www.irpwind.eu/core-research-projects
 
Description EERA JP Wind Steering Committee Membership - Professor William Leithead
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
URL http://www.eera-set.eu/wp-content/uploads/20015_EERA_JP_Wind.pdf
 
Description Electrical Infrastructure Research Hub (EIRH) - Professor Olimpo Anaya-Lara is leader of the 'smart energy systems of the future' theme
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://ore.catapult.org.uk/work-with-us/our-collaborations/electrical-infrastructures-research-hub/
 
Description IEA WIND Task 25 phase 4 (2015-17)
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Professor Olimpo Anaya-Lara and Dr David Campos-Gaona participated in the IEA Wind Task 25 Meetings 2015-2018. They are involved in the generation of Final report of IEA WIND Task 25 phase 4 (2015-17) and are writing a Joint Paper of Control of Wind Power Plant for Ancillary Services Provision.
URL https://community.ieawind.org/task25/home
 
Description Leithead is the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) Wind Theme Coordinator
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
URL https://www.etp-scotland.ac.uk/AbouttheETP/Organisation/ETPThemeGroups.aspx
 
Description Member of the Wind Integration Sub-Programme of the EERA Joint Programe Wind (JP Wind) - Professor Olimpo Anaya-Lara
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://www.eerajpwind.eu/subprogrammes/
 
Description Offshore Wind Innovation Hub (OWIH) - Professor William Leithead was invited to be a member of the Advisory Group for this new venture
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://ore.catapult.org.uk/our-services/owih/
 
Description Private report for Crown Estate Scotland (CES)
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Professor Peter McGregor (Strathclyde) has contributed a private report for Crown Estate Scotland (CES) on the links between offshore activity and economic impacts for the UK.
 
Description Professor Mike Barnes, Manchester University is a member of the Cigre Study Group B4-57. CIGRE has 3500 experts from around the world working actively together in structured work programmes coordinated by the CIGRE 16 Study Committees
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
URL http://b4.cigre.org/
 
Description Professor Richard Green, Imperial College London (SUPERGEN Wind collaborative partner) submitted findings on wind farm degradation as evidnece to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee and to the Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description Professor William Leithead (PI of SUPERGEN Wind Hub) is Wind Energy Coordinator for ETP (Energy Technology Partnership)
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
URL http://www.etp-scotland.ac.uk/ETPforAcademics.aspx
 
Description Professor William Leithead is a member of the Scottish Government Offshore Wind Industry Critical Path Working Group
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/Energy-sources/19185/offshorewind
 
Description Professor William Leithead is deputy chair of the ORECatapult Research Advisory Board; Professor Feargal Brennan and Professor Simon Watson are members of the Board
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://ore.catapult.org.uk/who-we-work-with/research-academia/research-advisory-group/
 
Description STFC (SUPERGEN Wind partner) is a core partner of the UKERC with particular responsibility for the UKERC Energy Data Centre and Research Atlas.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
URL http://ukerc.rl.ac.uk/
 
Description Aurelio Medina-Rios, Conacyt-British Council Institutional Links (Newton Fund)
Amount £79,150 (GBP)
Organisation Newton Fund 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2016 
End 04/2017
 
Description EC H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017
Amount € 546,000 (EUR)
Funding ID 765579 
Organisation H2O Venture Partners 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 10/2017 
End 10/2021
 
Description EPSRC Feasibility Studies in Energy Research 2017
Amount £116,775 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/R001472/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2017 
End 10/2018
 
Description EPSRC Programme Grant
Amount £3,050,000 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/P009743/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2017 
End 04/2020
 
Description EPSRC Prosperity Partnership Call
Amount £7,640,000 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/R004900/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2017 
End 11/2022
 
Description EPSRC UK/China ORE call
Amount £809,108 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/R007756/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2017 
End 06/2020
 
Description EPSRC UK/China ORE call
Amount £766,237 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/R007497/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2017 
End 07/2020
 
Description EU H2020 Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowships SAFS
Amount £173,000 (GBP)
Funding ID 753156 
Organisation European Commission H2020 
Sector Public
Country Belgium
Start 08/2017 
End 08/2028
 
Description European Regional Development Fund Special European Union Project Board
Amount £1,079,093 (GBP)
Organisation European Commission 
Department European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Sector Public
Country Belgium
Start 03/2017 
End 12/2021
 
Description Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Grant
Amount € 314,537 (EUR)
Organisation European Commission 
Department Horizon 2020
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 12/2017 
End 12/2020
 
Description PECRE17 - ETP Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Exchanges Award
Amount £3,000 (GBP)
Organisation Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2017 
End 01/2018
 
Description Wind Blade Research Hub with ORE Catapult (OREC)
Amount £2,100,000 (GBP)
Organisation ORE Catapult 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2017 
End 06/2022
 
Title UK Input-Output table disaggregated by electricity production sectors 
Description The original electricity sector in the Input-Output (IO) table for the UK is disaggregated into two components, non-generation and generation (which we separate further into different technologies). The IO table also splits out different types of labour, and the transactions of UK households (by income quintile). 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
 
Title Wind-Tunnel Simulation of Approximately Horizontally Homogeneous Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layers 
Description 2 component Laser Doppler Anemometry measurements made in the Environmental flow Wind Tunnel at Surrey University, correlated with a cold wire to determine the longitudinal and vertical heat flux in a stable boundary layer with an overlying inversion. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Wind-Tunnel_Simulation_of_Approximately_Horizontally_Homogeneo...
 
Title Wind-Tunnel Simulation of Approximately Horizontally Homogeneous Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layers 
Description 2 component Laser Doppler Anemometry measurements made in the Environmental flow Wind Tunnel at Surrey University, correlated with a cold wire to determine the longitudinal and vertical heat flux in a stable boundary layer with an overlying inversion. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Wind-Tunnel_Simulation_of_Approximately_Horizontally_Homogeneo...
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Associate Member - Imperial College London 
Organisation Imperial College London
Department Department of Bioengineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution SUPERGEN Wind awarded funds to Imperial College London (Professor Richard Greene) as part of the Grand Challenges funding program.
Collaborator Contribution The research project entitled 'Maximising the Carbon Impact of Wind Power' has links to the research program undertaken by partners of the Hub'
Impact This research project has resulted in conference presentations and publications to date.
Start Year 2015
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Associate Member - University of Bristol 
Organisation University of Bristol
Department School of Physics
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution SUPERGEN Wind awarded funds to the University of Bristol (Professor Paul Weaver) as part of the Grand Challenges funding award.
Collaborator Contribution Partners are involved in the Grand Challenges research project entitled 'Servo-aeroelastic tailoring of wind turbines using new active-to-passive control systems'
Impact The project has resulted in conference presentations and publications to date.
Start Year 2015
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Associate Member - University of Dundee 
Organisation University of Dundee
Department Division of Mathematics
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution SUPERGEN Wind awarded funds to the University of Dundee (Dr Michael Brown) as part of the Grand Challenges funding scheme.
Collaborator Contribution Partners are involved in the research project entitled 'Screw piles for wind energy foundation systems'
Impact The project has resulted in conference presentations and publications to date.
Start Year 2015
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Associate Member - University of Oxford 
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC)
Department MRC Human Immunology Unit
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution SUPERGEN Wind awarded funds to the University of Oxford (Professor Byron Byrne and Professor Guy Houlsby) as part of the Flexible Funding Round 1 award scheme.
Collaborator Contribution Partners are involved in the research project entitled 'Integrated structural and foundation health monitoring for offshore wind turbines'
Impact N/A
Start Year 2016
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Associate Member - University of Surrey 
Organisation University of Surrey
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution SUPERGEN Wind awarded funds to the University of Surrey (Dr Phil Hancock) as part of the Grand Challenges funding scheme
Collaborator Contribution Partners are involved in the Grand Challenges research project entitled: MAXFARM (MAXimizing wind Farm Aerodynamic Resource via advanced Modelling)
Impact This collaboration has resulted in conference presentations and publications.
Start Year 2015
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Cranfield University 
Organisation Cranfield University
Department Cranfield Forensic Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Cranfield University are a partner in the SUPERGEN Wind Hub
Collaborator Contribution nternationally leading research into wind turbine support structures has been conducted for a number of years and significant contributions to driving down the levelised cost of energy from offshore wind have been made.
Impact Outputs are listed under the appropriate category
Start Year 2014
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Inudstry Partner: OREC (Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult) 
Organisation Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Professor William Leithead (Strathclyde) is deputy chair of the OREC Research Advisory Group. A number of joint initiatives are underway to strengthen the collaboration between industry and the SUPERGEN Wind research community.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Feargal Brennan (Cranfield) and Professor Simon Watson (Loughborough) are both members of the OREC Research Advisory Group. A number of joint initiatives are underway to strengthen the collaboration between industry and the partners of SUPERGEN Wind Hub.
Impact The current Flexible Funding award (Round 2) for the consortium funding relates to projects related to the OREC Levenmouth 7MW wind turbine.
Start Year 2014
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Loughborough University 
Organisation Loughborough University
Department School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Loughborough University are a founding member of the SUPERGEN Wind Hub
Collaborator Contribution A major contribution has been made in the area of wind resource, onshore and offshore, research. The first comprehensive study of UK long term wind variability has been made for both on the national and regional scale. Also, for the first time, mesoscale modelling of the wind resource for the offshore environment has been undertaken and validated at three offshore masts. Offshore thermal stratification has been shown to be important in the prediction of offshore resource and wake losses. Making use of CFD for resource assessment, modelling of forest canopies for predicting wind speed and turbulence conditions near prospective wind farms has been improved. Better modelling and understanding of large array wind farm wake losses has been achieved including the first major study of turbulence intensity in a large offshore wind farm and the ability of semi-empirical models (such as the Frandsen model) to predict this. Another major contribution has been made in the area of wind turbine fault detection research. One of the first demonstrations, that mechanical drive-train faults can be detected in generator power signals, negating the need for additional vibration sensors, had been achieved. Contributions have, also, been made to the use of SCADA data for wind turbine fault detection, using both physically based damage models and parametric models, to predict expected levels of damage, where results have been validated against large fleets of turbines.
Impact Outputs are listed under the appropriate category
Start Year 2014
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) 
Organisation Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Department Particle Physics Department
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution STFC are a founding member of the SUPERGEN Wind Hub
Collaborator Contribution The major contributions have been the creation of a GIS model with which to assess the economic potential of offshore wind, the acquisition from a small wind farm of SCADA data for use by UK academic researchers, and the agreement of the UKERC Energy Data Centre to curate and distribute data relevant to wind energy researchers, including the GIS and SCADA data. In addition, a parametric aero-elastic blade model with greater detail than existing models has been developed.
Impact Outputs are listed under the appropriate category
Start Year 2014
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind Hub: University of Manchester 
Organisation University of Manchester
Department School of Biological Sciences
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The University of Manchester are a founding member of the SUPERGEN Wind Hub
Collaborator Contribution he impact of offshore wind farms on safety critical radar mounted on oil platform mounted is of major concern to key stakeholders. State-of-the-art models of the interaction of wind farms and radar have been developed and extended to include complex multi-platform marine radar cases. A recent publication was the best propagation paper at the 2016 EUCAP, the leading European conference in antennas and propagation. HVDC connections have been investigated and weaknesses been identified with existing modelling techniques for converters and cables. New models have been developed for use with transient software packages. A set of reliability studies have been undertaken for HVDC to overcome a shortage of information in this area. New concepts for HVDC control and DC protection have been developed. In parallel multi-physics models for wind turbines have been developed, allowing the reduction of thermal stresses for the converter. Within the context of condition monitoring, methods for more reliable diagnostics of wind turbine drive-train faults have been developed through fusion of vibration, acoustic and electrical signal. This can re-duce the large number of false alarms and improve turbine utilisation through condition-based mainte-nance strategies and ultimately turbine control. A new real-time frequency tracking algorithm has been developed. Versatile and cost-effective fibre-optic based accelerometers have also been developed for drive train fault detection. To improve durability of wind turbine blades, new finite element models have been developed to better understand and design composite joints with the textile geometry details and damage, due to static and fatigue loading, captured through X-ray imaging. During the fabrication process, residual stresses can develop in fibre reinforced plastics that in combination with mechanical loading could lead to premature eventual failure. The fabrication process, including for smart fibres, have been investigated.
Impact Outputs are listed under the appropriate category
Start Year 2014
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind: Durham University 
Organisation Durham University
Department Department of Theology and Religion
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Durham University are a founding partner of the EPSRC Supergen Wind Hub and make ongoing contributions to the research outputs.
Collaborator Contribution The principal contribution is to reducing the cost of wind energy through the development of improved asset management technologies and monitoring/modelling methodologies. An innovative new sideband-based condition monitoring technique has been developed that allows emergent faults to be detected against the background condition monitoring signal noise at a much earlier stage than is possible with existing established industry methods. Data mining techniques have been applied to wind turbine SCADA data and used to successfully detect emerge faults at an earlier stage of their development than was previously possible. Statistical wind farm models have been developed that allow the impact of different O&M strategies on the cost of energy generated over the life of the farm to be investigated. All of the new methods, that have been developed, are validated against site and test-rig data, including experimental data for simulated mechanical and electrical wind turbine drive train system faults. In addition, a new dual-axis testing methodology for fatigue testing of large horizontal axis wind turbine blades, which improves accuracy and reduces test costs has been developed.
Impact Outputs are listed under the appropriate category.
Start Year 2014
 
Description 4th Project Aura RDI workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The Durham team, led by Prof Simon Hogg, attended the 4th Aura RDI workshop held in Durham on Friday 2nd February 2018 as part of the set-up phase of the new 'Project Aura' collaboration involving Siemens, Ørsted and the Universities of Durham, Hull and Sheffield.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://aurawindenergy.com/learn-more
 
Description Bristol University's active participation in the IEA Task 37 on wind turbine optimisations at DTU 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Active participation in the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 37 on Wind Turbine Optimisations at DTU. Task 37 focuses on Systems Modeling Framework and Ontology for Wind Turbines and Plants. The purpose of IEA Wind Task 37 is to coordinate international research activities, towards the analysis of wind power plants as holistic systems. To fully assess how a change, or an uncertainty, in a design parameter affects the myriad of objectives in system performance and cost, a holistic and integrated approach is needed.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://windbench.net/iea37
 
Description ETI Office, Loughborough 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact ETI OSW SAG Meeting, Holywell Way, Loughborough
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017
 
Description EWEA European Wind Energy Association 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Executive Committee Member of EWEA
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017
 
Description European Energy Research Alliance 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Member of the Steering Committee for the European Energy Research Alliance Joint Programme on Wind Energy
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017
 
Description Futurewind Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Futurewind is an annual conference which is run entirely by postgraduate students from the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) for Wind And Marine Energy Systems. The event is free, and attracts over 100 participants, half of whom are from the Wind Energy industry, making it an important engagement and networking activity.The event comprises of a mix of oral presentations by final year PhD students and sponsors. The CDT and SUPERGEN Wind Hub members have a close linkage, and are lead by Hub members. SUPERGEN Wind and the CDT share a common Industrial Advisory Board.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016,2017
URL http://www.strath.ac.uk/windenergy/futurewind2017/
 
Description Leithead membership of the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub (OWIH) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Leithead (Strathclyde) is one of the members of the OWIH. The purpose of the OWIH is to coordinate across the entire innovation landscape for offshore wind in the UK. The OWIH is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and delivered jointly by the ORE Catapult and the Knowledge Transfer Network, and allows the Hub the opportunity to input to road mapping exercises and influence future innovation activities across the energy sector.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018
URL https://offshorewindinnovationhub.com/
 
Description Leithead's role as Wind Energy Theme Coordinator for the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Leithead (Strathclyde), in his role as Wind Energy Theme Coordinator, chaired the discussion session 'Wind Energy; towards meeting 2030 targets' at the ETP Energy Innovation Emporium in May 2017.
The aim of the session was to bring together the three sectors in Wind Energy - academia, industry and policy makers - to discuss opportunities for innovation and collaboration that will support the delivery of outcomes arising from the draft Scottish Government Energy Strategy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017
URL https://www.etp-scotland.ac.uk/NewsandEvents/Events/ETPEmporiumEvent2017.aspx
 
Description Norwegian Research Centre for Offshore Wind Energy 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Member of Scientific Advisory Board of (NORCOWE) Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy, Bergen, Norway
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017
 
Description Presentation at University of Exeter 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation at University of Exeter
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Professor Simon Watson, Loughborough University - engagement with China through the High End Expert Programme 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Professor Simon Watson was invited to visit China twice as a recognised expert in wind power, particularly with regard to O&M, and funding was obtained at the Changsha University of Science and Technology from the Chinese government to facilitate this through the High End Expert Programme.
These China visits have led to a letter of intent which is being signed between Loughborough University, the Hunan Ulitech Automation System Company, XEMC Windpower, Changsha University of Science Technology and Xiangtan University to cooperate in the development of SCADA and PLC technologies for intelligent autonomous wind farm condition monitoring.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Research Advisory Group of the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Member of the Research Advisory Group of the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017
 
Description Role in the Supergen ORE Hub Industrial Advisory Board - Leithead 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The inaugural meeting of the Supergen ORE Hub Industry Advisory Board was held in January 2019, to determine how the Hub engages with the energy sector, and to discuss technology and policy support for the Hub.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Role in the Supergen ORE Hub Research Alignment Group - Brown, Hancock, Leithead, Weaver 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Supergen ORE Hub is creating an ORE Research Landscape that maps the research needs and activity across ORE. This Research Landscape will be a web-based portal maintained and updated by the Supergen ORE Hub for academia, industry, government, and the public:
(i) to collate, disseminate and promote the full range of ORE research underway in the UK
(ii) to host a list of research challenges and opportunities developed with ORE stakeholders
(iii) to allow prioritisation of research resources by the Hub, by the EPSRC and by others.

The Supergen ORE Hub will develop, maintain and update the ORE Research Landscape in consultation through the Research Alignment Group.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://www.supergen-ore.net/
 
Description SUPERGEN Wind General Assembly Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The SUPERGEN Wind General Assembly Conference is scheduled twice per year and attracts over 80 attendees. This free event showcases wind energy research carried out by universities within the EPSRC's SUPERGEN Wind Hub Consortium, and includes presentations by national and international experts in the field of Wind Energy. The Hub encourages researchers, commercial and industrial organisations working in the UK to come along and network with other organisations working in wind energy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015,2016
URL http://www.supergen-wind.org.uk/resources
 
Description Wind Energy Strategy Advisory Group (SAG) of the Energy Technology Institute 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Member of the Wind Energy Strategy Advisory Group (SAG) of the Energy Technology Institute
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017
 
Description futureWind&Marine 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact futureWind&Marine is the Wind and Marine Energy Systems CDT annual conference. Final year students present their research while students in the 1st and 2nd years of their PhD display posters outlining their work.
The CDT has close links with industry and numerous PhD's in the CDT are undertaken in collaboration with companies involved in the wind and marine sectors. futureWind&Marine provides a great platform to engage with the cutting edge research being undertaken in the CDT. It also presents an ideal opportunity to kick start partnerships for future research and innovation. The event also features talks from CDT alumni, now working in the energy industry, detailing how the CDT aided their career.

Supergen Wind has close links with futureWind&Marine, and the CDT is lead by the Director of Supergen Wind - Professor Bill Leithead.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.strath.ac.uk/engineering/electronicelectricalengineering/windmarineenergysystems/futurew...