Major energy company sponsors Cranfield postgrads

Over the last few years Britain has seen a drive towards ‘cleaner’ renewable energies. This is for many reasons - the growing threat of global warming, increasing costs of energy, Britain’s reliance on foreign fuels, and its limited reserves of fossil fuels - are all contributing factors. There is a strong movement towards energies that are generated locally and have significantly smaller adverse impacts on the environment - and although the concept of tidal energy has been around for some time, the technology is still not widely used, and offers significant future potential.

Seeing this potential, major energy provider e:on recently sponsored a team of Cranfield University students on the Offshore and Ocean Technology MSc to research tidal energy sites, the results of which has provided a useful model and recommendations for the assessment and development of possible tidal energy sites throughout the UK. 

The tidal energy project was undertaken by the team of postgraduate students as part of the group project element of the Offshore Renewable Energy option of their course. Before tasking the students, e:on had already identified a number of potential sites for tidal energy generation. One of the company’s  top ten locations in terms of the speed of the tide and current was the Mull of Galloway in Scotland, and this is where the team of students had to assess the feasibility of locating a tidal energy farm.

The students had to identify a suitable location, specify the most suitable turbine device, produce an economic plan and plan for future maintenance activity. They were required to consider the economical, technological and environmental constraints, and subsequently produced a full report outlining recommendations for developing a tidal energy farm at this location. 

Amaan Lafayette, Marine Development Manager at e:on said, ‘The Mull of Galloway project presented a real world challenge to the students from Cranfield University. They applied themselves well to the task proving to be both competent and effective across the full range of disciplines needed to assess a potential marine generation project. e:on is keen to work with Cranfield again on future projects and wishes each of the students every success in their professional careers.’

Details on the MSc Offshore and Ocean Technology course and its specialist options are available at www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/offshore for information on other postgraduate courses at Cranfield University click here.

Content added 28th September 2009.

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