Offshore Advanced Renewable Energy Technologies, Learning Curves and Roadmaps | Srinivasan Santhakumar

Field | Discipline

• Energy & Fuels
• Environmental Sciences
• Marine Engineering

Expertise

• Technology learning of advanced offshore renewable energy technologies.

Summary

This Ph.D. project is a part of the Marie Curie Training Network called ENSYSTRA – Energy System in Transition (https://ensystra.eu/), and the project will be carried out with strong support from ENSYSTRA network. This network and the combination of its expertise, tools and data will provide a diverse and rich learning environment for a pool of Ph.D. researchers, who will be trained in a programme with ample possibilities to collaborate between the different projects and partners involved.

The main objective of this project is to investigate how key off-shore RET’s (wind, wave, macro-algae, OTEC) and low carbon options (CCS/EOR/EGR) and infrastructure (including key flexibility and energy storage options) can develop over time in terms of improvement, scale-up, and implementation.

Modelling methods and tools play a key role in understanding the potential of the technologies in the energy system and finding low-cost pathways for the energy transition. Many different energy transition models (ETMs) already exist. Prominent ones include models which search for total system optimum (such as TIMES/MARKAL for entire energy systems and a range of tools for power system modelling), Agent-Based models, as well economic modelling approaches (including partial and general equilibrium models). In turn, the outcomes of such models are heavily determined by the (potential) performance data of the energy technologies included in the underlying databases. The economic potential of such technologies depends in turn strongly on cost reductions achieved over time due to technological learning; a phenomenon that is critically important for energy technologies. Therefore, understanding the learning potential of key off-shore energy technologies and how this potential can be harnessed over time is of key importance for the energy transition in the North Sea Region.

Project partners: Offshore Renewable Energies Catapult (Scotland), the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, Shell (Netherlands), and to Aalborg University (Denmark).

Supervision by

• Promotor Prof. dr. A.P.C. (André) Faaij | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.
• Co-promotor Dr. J.C. (Hans) Meerman | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.

More information and contact details can be found on the personal profile of Srinivasan Santhakumar