The pace of deployment of offshore wind (OW) energy is rapidly accelerating to power the transition to net zero. The UK government aims to increase from the current 14GW of offshore wind to at least 50GW by 2030, requiring c£17bn investment per year, then 120-170GW by 2050, to provide clean energy resilience. Despite the remarkable success of OW over the past decade, making it a central component of the UK energy mix, future growth brings new challenges. Deployment must now expand beyond the relatively benign, shallow waters of the southern North Sea to sites further from shore, a fundamentally different engineering, operating and natural environment. In such areas the two-way effects of new OW engineering on the marine biosphere and concomitant impact on other sea users are poorly understood.
Beyond technical challenges, a major barrier to rapid deployment is consenting time. The Government aim to reduce typical consent time from 4 years to 1 year by 2030 is only achievable if new approaches to data collection, aggregation and modelling are validated and adopted. The volume and speed of deployment must increase 6-fold, while remaining commercially competitive, requiring industrialisation of manufacturing and installation while ensuring that materials (such as rare earth metals, copper, composites) and other resources (including energy) are used sustainably. The OW workforce will reach >100,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2030, with >8,000 projected at HE Level 7+. To achieve and sustain this, the workforce must be drawn from a diverse talent pool and be built on equitable, inclusive cultures where safety and wellbeing are central. The sector OW Industry Council (OWIC) recognises that increasing growth, and UK supply chain content, requires a highly skilled and resilient workforce and highlights the key role of CDT programmes in providing this.
The previous EPSRC-NERC Aura CDT in Offshore Wind Energy and the Environment (Aura CDT I) successfully demonstrated the value of OW research and training at the interface of engineering and environmental sciences. Sustainable sector growth now requires further research that integrates emergent social, societal and economic challenges of OW energy. Thus, the proposed UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience (Aura CDT II), provides integrated solutions across the EPSRC/NERC/ESRC remit. These transdisciplinary sector needs are co-identified by key sector stakeholders, including Aura CDT project partners OWIC, ORE Catapult, The Crown Estate, Renewable UK and DEFRA. Direct industry engagement has co-created five Aura CDT II challenge-based themes to: push the frontiers of offshore wind technology; accelerate consent and support environmental sustainability; achieve a sustainable wind farm life cycle; build and support a sustainable workforce; and develop a resilient net-zero energy system. The importance of these themes to the sector is demonstrated by the cash and in-kind support of >40 project partners, allowing us to support >75 CDT students.
The CDT connects the University of Hull with partner Universities Sheffield, Durham and Loughborough. PL Dorrell (Director of Aura CDT I) is supported by nine CLs from the partner universities and a pool of >100 diverse supervisors bringing world leading expertise in the areas of engineering, environment and social sciences required to support the training and research elements. Both full and part time students will receive postgraduate training delivered collaboratively through an intensive 6-month multidisciplinary programme at Hull and subsequent courses, with all partners, addressing topics including leadership, public engagement, responsible innovation and EDIW. Small clusters of doctoral students will link expertise from across the four universities and industry partners to provide holistic insights into sector challenges while building cross-cohort collaboration and multiplying impacts.
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