Research group

Ocean Energy

Offshore wind turbines producing renewable and green energy

We bring together experts addressing energy challenges from the perspectives of technology, the environment, society, finance, and policy. Our aim is to unlock the potential of ocean renewable energy.

About

The Ocean Energy Special Interest Group (SIG) serves as a hub at the University of Southampton for matters related to the role of seas and oceans in decarbonizing the economy. It also helps achieve net-zero goals worldwide.

Research areas

Our topics of interest are centred around technological, environmental, societal, financial, and policy challenges related to:

  • harvesting of renewable energies (eg offshore wind, wave, freestream tidal energy, tidal barrages and floating solar systems)
  • storage and transformation of offshore energy (eg energy islands, H2 creation)
  • sustainable decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructures

Oceans are pivotal in the world strategy to meet the net-zero objectives, by providing abundant and clean sources of renewable energy. However, the full exploitation of this energy resource faces many challenges of diverse nature. These include the harsh offshore environment, sharing the ocean with many stakeholders, and evolving policy and regulations. Most importantly, it is essential to avoid mistakes of the past and wild industrialisation of our seas and oceans.

Vision and aims

Our vision is to bring together people and skills from across the university and many fields of research to develop transdisciplinary approaches for sustainable ocean energy exploitation. We do this through:

  • fostering research collaboration between faculties and fields of research
  • fostering collaboration with non-academic stakeholders and serving as a contact point for ocean energy matters
  • raising awareness of ocean energy challenges and showcasing how the University of Southampton is working to address these challenges through research, knowledge exchange and other means

Activities

Our events and opportunities are designed in line with the goals we aim to achieve. They include a combination of internal and external activities, such as:

  • themed workshops or lectures bringing together academic and non-academic partners
  • sandpit activities to lay the foundations of interdisciplinary grant application or paper writing
  • invited lectures on case studies from industry
  • development of educational material or media briefings

To find out more about the Ocean Energy Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champions Dr Yao Zhang, Dr Luke Myers and Dr Benjamin Cerfontaine.

Join the SMMI Community to sign up to this group, and any others of interest to you.

Research highlights

Making offshore carbon storage safe

A team of researchers in Southampton played a key role in a European project to determine the viability of safely and securely storing carbon offshore.

Optimising power transfer for renewable energy

Our researchers are running a series of projects to optimise the design of marine high voltage cables, used in offshore windfarms, to maximise power transfer and save money.

People, projects and publications

People

Professor Andrea Russell

Professor of Physical Electrochemistry

Research interests

  • Structure/property relationships in electrocatalysts
  • Development and application of syncrotron based spectroscopic techniques for operando characterisation of electrocatalysts, electrode structures, and electrochemical interfaces
  • Development and application of vibrational spectroscopies (IR and Raman) to study electrochemical interfaces and reactions
Connect with Andrea

Professor Andrew Cruden BEng, MSc, PhD, FIET

Associate Dean Infrastructure

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Andrew Cundy

Chair in Environmental Radiochemistry

Research interests

  • Environmental radioactivity and radiochemistry
  • Environmental geology
  • Contaminated land, wastes and water management

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Andrew Serdy

Prof of the Public Intntl Law of the Sea

Research interests

  • International Fisheries Law (particularly transboundary fish stocks)
  • Continental shelf and other maritime delimitation
  • Technical and institutional aspects of the Law of the Sea

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Andrew Tatem

Personal Chair

Research interests

  • Developing approaches to map population distributions, demographics and dynamics through complementing traditional datasources (census, survey, registries) with new forms of geospatial data from e.g. satellite imagery and mobile devices.
  • Understanding the drivers of small area heterogeneities in population health and development in low and middle income settings.
  • The use of high resolution demographic and mobility data for improving understanding and modelling of pathogen dynamics.
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Dr Andri Christodoulou

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Argumentation within scientific and socio-scientific contexts
  • Dialogic teaching
  • Socio-scientific inquiry-based learning

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Anna Barney

Associate Vice-President (Education)
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Dr Anna Hickman

Lecturer

Research interests

  • The role of marine phytoplankton in biogeochemical cycles
  • Phytoplankton ecology, primary production, photo physiology and bio-optics
  • Understanding the physical controls on biological processes and associated feedbacks
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Emeritus Professor Anne Curry

Research interests

  • The Hundred Years War
  • The reign of Henry V
  • The battle of Agincourt 1415
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Dr Annelies Cazemier

Lecturer in Ancient Greek History

Research interests

  • Ancient Greek world, Hellenistic history, the rise of Rome
  • Greek religion, especially religious sites and their networks
  • Antigonid Macedon and its place in the Hellenistic world
Connect with Annelies

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

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Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.