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 and Dr Luke Myers.

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 Dina Lupin BA, LLB, LLM, PhD

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Environmental and human rights law
  • Silencing
  • Epistemic injustice

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Dina

Professor Dominic Hudson

Shell Professor in Ship Efficiency

Research interests

  • All aspects of hydrodynamics, 
  • particularly as related to ship design,
  • operation for energy efficiency. 

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Dominic

Dr Dominic Taunton

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • My research interests lie in improving the design and operation of ships and other maritime artefacts, in particular high speed craft such as semi-displacement catamarans and hard chine planning craft, through the development of accurate but efficient tools for predicting and evaluating their performance.
  • Experimental Hydrodynamics | This research focuses on the efficient use of experiments at both model and full-scale to measure the hydrodynamic performance of various ship types and maritime artefacts from wave energy devices to aircraft ditching on water. Recent research has looked at methods for quiescent period prediction for safe launch and recovery
  • Human Element | This research developed from a project to integrate human performance into the design of high speed planning craft. This integration of the human element into the design process has resulted in collaborations with human element experts in order to improve ship design and operation. This approach has led to the development of human like autonomy behaviours to improve the seakeeping and fuel consumption of autonomous surface vehicles.
Connect with Dominic

Professor Donna Davies

Research interests

  • Mechanisms of lung diseases
  • Viral-induced exacerbations of lung disease
  • Asthma

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Donna

Professor Eileen Yu

Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research interests

  • Electrochemical, bioelectrochemical systems for Energy and Environmental applications
  • Biosensor and Bioelectronics for Biomedical Applications
  • Materials for Electro and Bioelectrochemical systems

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Eileen

Dr Eli Lazarus

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • coastal and fluvial dynamics
  • geomorphology
  • human-environmental coupled systems

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Eli

Professor Emily Reid

Professor of Intl Economic Law & Sus Dev

Research interests

  • International Economic Law
  • Trade and Sustainability

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Emily

Professor Emma Roe

Professor of More-Than-Human Geographies

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Emma

Professor Emma Tompkins

Prof of Geog, Environment & Development

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Emma

Professor Enrico Gerding

Professor

Research interests

  • artificial intelligence
  • autonomous agents and multi-agent systems
  • algorithmics game theory

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Enrico

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.