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 Nic Bury

Associate Professor in Natural Sciences

Research interests

  • Nic Bury's research integrates molecular, physiological and toxicological techniques with computational methods to understand and predict how aquatic organisms respond to, and are affected by, natural and man-induced stressors.
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Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Nic

Dr Nicholas Harmon

Associate Professor
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Dr Nicholas Townsend

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Experimental Hydrodynamics
  • Marine Renewable Energy
  • Maritime Robotics and Autonomous systems

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Nicholas

Professor Nicky Marsh

PROFESSOR

Research interests

  • Intersections between culture and economics
  • Cultural representations of risk, money, finance, markets
  • Gender, feminism and the economy 
Connect with Nicky

Dr Nikolaos Skliris

Lecturer B

Research interests

  • Water cycle change inferred from ocean salinity
  • Mediterranean Sea climate variability & change   (Overturning Circulation, Sea Level, Water Cycle, …)
  • Impacts of ocean physics on marine ecosystems 

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Nikolaos

Professor Nisreen A Alwan MBE, MBChB, MRCP, FFPH, MPH, MSc, PhD, FHEA, PGCAP

Professor of Public Health

Research interests

  • Public Health
  • Lifecourse Epidemiology
  • Long Covid

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Nisreen A

Dr Pamela Varley BSocSc, MSc, PhD

Head of Strategic Research Initiatives
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Dr Patrick Beullens

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Ocean shipping - decisions under risk, environmental performance
  • Retail supply chains - perishable products, food waste management
  • Logistics and reverse logistics

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Patrick

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.