UK universities get grants for underwater offshore wind research

The Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Hub has awarded four UK institutions with grants from its third Flexible Funding call for research projects focused on underwater offshore wind infrastructure.

Southampton University received a share of the awarded £800,000 for a project aimed to identify a method for shared anchor geometry optimization and develop new design guidance.

The SEAMLESS project will identify realistic shared-type loading and use a geotechnical centrifuge to apply these to caisson anchors in dense sand, representative of UK and European seabeds.

It aims to achieve cost reduction in mooring/anchoring in floating wave and offshore wind energy sectors.

Aberdeen University will address the need for the development of novel, more efficient and cost-effective methods for the installation of offshore wind farms.

The project builds on patented pumpable variable buoyancy technology (Deepbuoy), based on noncompressible liquids, deployable at depths up to 3000 meters, incorporated into the Underwater Lifting System (ULS).

Furthermore, Oxford University secured funding for its iDRIVE project, which will focus on developing new tools for predicting the safe installation of monopile foundations.

The project will use Bayesian machine learning fused with conventional wave equation analysis to develop an up-to-date uncertainty-quantified pile installation forecasting model. The tool will be validated using driving data from offshore wind farms.

The Scottish Association of Marine Sciences also received a piece of funding for research on reducing the noise from floating offshore wind turbines.

The project will obtain long-term measurements of underwater noise generated by two operational turbines of different designs across a range of environmental conditions.

Based on the measurements, cumulative noise levels and spatial footprints from turbine arrays, and potential impact ranges for noise-sensitive wildlife under varying environmental conditions will be determined.

Other projects funded by this third Flexible Funding round are related to the tidal and wave sectors. More details can be found in the article below.