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

Dr James Blake

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • James is interested in the fundamental way that fluid and structures interact and the practical consequences on the design and operation of marine vehicles:
  • Sustainable structural materials for composite boat design and production;
  • Experimental & theoretical analysis of composite material performance;
Connect with James

Professor James Jordan

Professor

Research interests

  • The British Broadcasting Corporation
  • Holocaust studies
  • Post-war media in Britain

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with James

Dr Jan Janouskovec PhD

Lecturer in Ecology

Research interests

  • Protist diversity and ecology
  • Evolution of eukaryotic cells
  • Metabolism in plastids & mitochondria

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jan

Professor Jane Falkingham

VP Engagement and International
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Dr Jane Lavery

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Mexican Day of the Dead, Covid-19 and diaspora.
  • Latin(a) multimedia women writers and artists (i.e writers and artists whose works straddle multiple disciplines (literature, art performance, photography, video, art installation, cyberspace).
  • Latin(a) American Women writers and artists

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jane

Professor Janice Barton

Professor of Experimental Mechanics
Connect with Janice

Professor Jasmin Godbold

Professor

Research interests

  • Changes in seafloor biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
  • Effect of human activities and environmental change on species-environment interactions 
  • Trait-expression in benthic invertebrates

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jasmin

Professor Jason Sadler

Professorial Fellow-Enterprise

Research interests

  • Spatial data infrastructure (SDI)
  • Web science
  • Environmental web applications and semantics
Connect with Jason

Dr Jeff Thompson

Lecturer

Research interests

  • Evolution of animal body plans
  • Macroevolution
  • Molecular Palaeobiology

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jeff

Professor Jeremy Frey

Professor of Physical Chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jeremy

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

Enquiries

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