New and renewable energy

Profs Bialek, Ran, Taylor and Tavner, Drs Hogg and Mahkamov form a multidisciplinary team taking a holistic approach to challenges presented by energy engineering; in particular the conversion of energy from new and renewable sources and integration into energy networks.

This ﬁts well with current national strategies, following the 2003 and 2007 Energy White Papers and the 2009 Energy Review. Over the past 7 years, the group has expanded from 3 to 33 researchers. The focus is in 4 areas:

Large-scale wind turbine technology, particularly for offshore including the application of indirect and direct-drive technology, condition monitoring and reliability.
Smart grids and embedded generation at the distribution level, including micro-combined heat and power, solar heating and micro-wind,
The integration and control of new and renewable energy sources into distribution networks including innovative generator topologies and power electronics for embedded generation.
Electricity networks to accommodate the rise of embedded generation in the system and in the markets, and deal with the challenges of diversified generation and demand side management.

Since formation in 2003, the team has won 5 DTI awards, 8 EPSRC research grants and an EU FP7 award, including participating in Supergen Wind, Supergen Flexnet, Supergen Marine and Supergen Amperes, the RELIAWIND Consortium, The EPSRC Strategic alliance project AURA-NMS and the Sino-British Future Renewable Energy Network Systems (FRENS) Consortium. The team is also a member of the European Academy of Wind Energy and a Low Carbon Networks funded project investigating electrical energy storage systems.

Over the past 5 years collaborative research has been undertaken with a number of industrial companies including Scottish Power, CE ElectricUK, Central Networks, AREVA, EdF Energy, ABB, PB Power, SenergyEconnect, Infoterra-Imass, Cummins Generator Technologies, Cummins Turbo Technologies, Whispertech, Eon UK Ltd, Garrad Hassan, National Renewable Energy Centre (NAREC) and SEWind.

The group is assisting in the development of the Durham University Solar Car (DUSC) and has a research focus aimed at improving the performance and reducing the carbon footprint of conventional steam and gas turbine power plant.