IES News Archive

Stories

Professor Stephen Salter wins inaugural Saltire Prize medal - March 2011

Professor Stephen Salter has won the first Saltire Prize medal for his pioneering role in the development of marine energy. The annual medal is presented under the auspices of Scotland's £10m Saltire Prize marine energy challenge. It has been created by the Scottish government to recognise outstanding contributions by individuals and groups to the development of wave or tidal power. Many congratulations to Stephen for another well-deserved accolade. See the BBC News coverage.

Professor Ian Bryden elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh - February 2011

Congratulations to Professor Ian Bryden on his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This is an extremely well-deserved award, recognising contributions to both science and engineering and to leadership of major scientific and engineering activities.

Gareth Harrison appointed to Bert Whittington Chair - January 2011

On the 1st January 2011, Professor Gareth Harrison was appointed as Bert Whittington Chair of Electrical Power Engineering. Gareth has been Deputy Head of IES since January 2009 and will assume leadership of the Institute's power systems research activity. Gareth has been a member of staff since 2000 as a Research Fellow, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. He also completed undergraduate and PhD degrees in Engineering at Edinburgh, the latter supervised by the late Professor Bert Whittington.

Ian Bryden Heads Up IES - August 2010

From 1st August 2010, Professor Ian Bryden takes over from Professor Robin Wallace as Head of IES. Robin has been head of IES since the formation of the integrated School of Engineering in 2002 and will now concentrate on his senior role as Dean International within the College of Science and Engineering as well as leading the £7 million Supergen Marine Energy consortium.

Ian has been Head of Marine Energy since his appointment to a Chair in Renewable Energy in 2006. Ian said: "My first thought upon taking on responsibility for the Institute for Energy Systems is to thank Robin for all his work in making the IES the significant organisation that it is. His hard work and sheer tenacity are an inspiration for all of us and I dearly hope that I will be able to guide the Institute with as much success".

NGenTec spun out of IES - November 2009

A radical new design of electrical generator that solves an engineering quandary and promises to be cheaper, lighter and more reliable than anything currently available has been unveiled by staff at the Institute of Energy Systems at the University of Edinburgh. The work by Markus Mueller and Alasdair McDonald has solved one of the fundamental engineering problems faced by builders of offshore wind turbines. A new company, NGenTec, was formed to exploit the new design. It is chaired by Derek Shepherd, a former managing director of Aggreko International, a Glasgow-based supplier of standby generators.

The blades of conventional wind turbines are connected to a generator via a gearbox. In harsh conditions at sea, this is prone to breakdown, leading to costly repairs which themselves are at the mercy of the weather. The alternative is to dispense with the gearbox and connect the blades directly to a generator via an axle. The design uses a novel arrangement of the magnets inside the generator and the copper coils that produce electricity as they pass the magnets has succeeded in cutting the weight of direct-drive generators by up to half and made assembly much easier. A prototype installed on a wind turbine has proved that the design works.

See article in The Times (November 23rd, 2009).

£8m ETI Marine Project announced - October 2009

IES are part of the new £8 million PerAWaT project funded by the Energy Technologies Institute to produce tools that estimate energy yield of major marine energy arrays.

Performance Assessment of Wave and Tidal Array Systems (PerAWaT), a project led by Garrad Hassan, and including EDF Energy, EON, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Manchester will develop a series of models to predict the performance of wave and tidal stream generator arrays. The project involves Professor Ian Bryden and Professor David Ingram.

See ETI press release.

Staff promotions announced - June 2009

David Ingram has been promoted to Professor in the recent promotion round and will take up his new position from August 2009.

IES Staff Promoted - July 2008

Dr Gareth Harrison has been promoted to Senior Lecturer in the recent promotion round and will take up his new position from August 2008.

Real Time Waves - March 2008

EPSRC has awarded IES staff Dr Tom Bruce, Prof Ian Bryden and Brian Sellar £238,000 to investigate the feasibility of using a novel distributed array of floating sensors to provide water surface elevation in real time. The 18-month 'Real Time Wave Field Mapping for the Offshore Renewable Energy Industry' will involve a range of project partners including Heriot-Watt University, Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre, Cork, Maritime Institute of Ireland, Measurand Inc, Queen's University of Belfast and Wavebob Ltd.

• The Real Time Waves project website

MSc eligible for Panasonic Trust Fellowships 2008 - January 2008

The Royal Academy of Engineering have announced that IES' MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems is now an eligible course for the prestigious Panasonic Trust Fellowship.
[More...]

Matching Renewables with Demand study published by Scottish Executive February 2006

The Scottish Executive has published the results of IES's extensive study into Matching Renewables with Demand.

• Direct link to the full report and appendices
• Scottish Executive Press Release
• Coverage in the Edinburgh Evening News

IES Staff Promoted April 2006

Two IES staff members have been promoted in the recent promotion round and will take up their new positions from October 2006. Robin Wallace has been awarded a Personal Chair while Markus Mueller will become Senior Lecturer.

IES Part of Edinburgh Research Partnership July 2005

The University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have launched an exciting research venture in engineering and mathematics. Supported by an investment of £22M including £11.77M from the OST and SHEFC, the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University have created the Edinburgh Research Partnership (ERP) in Engineering and Mathematics. The ERP will encompass five jointly owned research institutes and an associated joint postgraduate school. The Joint Research Institutes will be in:

• Energy
• Signal and Image Processing
• Mathematical Sciences
• Subsurface Science and Engineering
• Integrated Systems

• www.erp.ac.uk

Marine Energy Network Launched April 2005

On the 14th April 2005 the UKERC Marine Energy Network was launched at the University of Edinburgh. Over 20 delegates attended representing the academic community, device developers and consultants involved in marine renewables. The main objectives of the Network are:

• To prioritise research activity to overcome the gaps in knowledge in Marine Renewable Energy.
• To influence research funding strategies in Energy Research.
• To encourage closer collaboration between academic research groups and technology developers.
• To seek funding for collaborative projects from the Research Councils, EU, DTI Carbon Trust.
• To establish new partnerships outside of the existing Marine Energy Community, that are vital to the development of marine energy technology.
• To identify a Research Road-Map or Research Atlas for the Marine Renewable Energy Community up to 2020.

IES to host UK Energy Research Centre December 2004

Through Dr Robin Wallace IES will co-host the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Dr Wallace is Co-Director and will be responsible for the Future Sources of Energy theme, one of three vertical themes that will be pursued by the UKERC. Further details can be found on the UKERC website.

UK Centre for Marine Renewable Energy Launched September 2004

The Institute for Energy Systems has joined forces with three other organisations to drive forward the development of wave and tidal energy. Its partners in the new UK Centre for Marine Renewable Energy initiative are the Robert Gordon University, the New and Renewable Energy Centre in Northumberland and the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) in Orkney. The Government-backed partnership aims to provide a coherent approach to new projects and ensure a sustained and properly equipped research, development, test and certification base to help an emerging sector. See DTI Press Release.

UK Energy Research Centre: Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studentship Competition

The UK Energy Research Centre intends to offer up to ten postgraduate research studentships to be taken up in October 2005. These can be held at any British university and will provide three years support for work leading to the award of a PhD or equivalent qualification. The proposed research must address an energy-related issue and be interdisciplinary in character. There will be a two-stage selection process and outline applications from prospective students are invited initially. These must have the support of a host institution.

Reflecting their prestigious nature, the studentships will attract a stipend set at a premium level. More information and details of how to apply can be obtained from the UK Energy Research Centre website at www.ukerc.ac.uk under the news section.

Stanley Gray Fellowship Award

IES Postgraduate Sarah Graham has been awarded a Stanley Gray Fellowship by the Institute for Marine Engineering Science & Technology (IMarEST) to support her final year studies in marine energy integration.

IES Launches MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems

September 2004 will see the first intake of postgraduate students onto the new Master of Science (MSc) in Sustainable Energy Systems. Globally, there is a major push for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency to meet Kyoto targets. The MSc is designed to meet the growing need for technical & policy-literate staff in the energy field. Teaching on the course will be underpinned from the strong research competency of IES staff in the field of sustainable energy systems. Further information can be found on the MSc Website.

IES Students Win Prizes at International Conferences

IES students have recently won prizes for papers presented at international conferences. Sarah Graham won best paper at the 2003 Universities Power Engineering Conference in Greece for her paper on the use of Geographical Information Systems for route optimisation and network integration of marine energy. Meanwhile Craig Low won best paper at the 5th European Wave Energy Conference held in Cork, Ireland for a piece dealing with the development of the flow table for tidal stream research. [more...]

Press Coverage

Research Awards

SUPERGEN - Asset management and performance of energy systems (AMPerES) January 2006

February 2006 sees the launch of a £2.8 million project funded by EPSRC and a range of industrial partners. The project is a collaboration between the Universities of Manchester, Southampton, Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Liverpool and Queens Belfast. The consortium will be looking into solutions to the problems of maintaining and improving the performance of the UK's energy networks as face challenges from asset aging, increasing development of renewable energy and reliance on gas. Edinburgh's contribution will be in areas of optimal asset planning, on-line security assessment and security analyses of gas and electyricity network interaction.

Further details: Janusz.Bialek@ed.ac.uk or Gareth.Harrison@ed.ac.uk

SUPERGEN - Marine Energy June 2003

Recently IES won the leadership of the £2.25 million EPSRC-funded Supergen Marine Energy Research Consortium to conduct research into marine energy conversion and delivery, initially for four years. The work is collaborative with The Robert Gordon University, Heriot Watt University and Lancaster University. Twenty national and international marine energy and electricity supply companies have agreed to collaborate in the work. The Consortium's website is currently at www.supergen-marine.org.uk.

Further details: Robin.Wallace@ed.ac.uk

SUPERGEN - Future Network Technologies June 2003

IES has been named as part of the Future Network Technologies Consortium that is searching for solutions to the problems posed by high reliance on renewable energy sources. These include engineering problems, the development of economic ideas, social compatability and future scenario building. The consortium offers a unique opportunity in power systems research, with its inter-disciplinary nature involving experts in economics, engineering and environmental fields. The consortium consists of IES togther with Imperial College, Strathclyde University, De Montfort, UMIST, Hull, Bath and Cambridge Universities. The Consortium's website is at http://www.supergen-networks.org.uk/.

Further details: Janusz.Bialek@ed.ac.uk