New floating energy platforms provide an alternative to fossil fuels

(5 June 2020)

Durham Energy Institute (DEI) researchers are helping to revolutionise renewable energy generation and storage in a project that aims to offer environmentally friendly power generation to coastal communities that don’t have access to reliable grid electricity.

As part of a UK based consortium led by Frontier Technical, two Durham anthropologists will carry out research in coastal communities in Bangladesh and India to understand how floating renewable energy platforms should be designed to give coastal communities to access stored and transferable clean energy.

Helping coastal communities

The controllable floating platforms are designed to carry a wind turbine with capacity up to two Megawatts, as well as on-board energy storage and transfer capabilities. They will be able to be transported in standard shipping containers and assembled underwater, without the need for large port infrastructure or heavy floating crane vessels.

This phase of the project will see our researchers identify relevant sites for the floating platforms in areas with limited access to electricity grids.

The project has huge export potential to countries where remote off-grid coastal communities will benefit from offshore renewable energy generation that can be operated and maintained locally.

Find out more

• Our anthropologists are part of Durham Energy Institute (DEI), which supports and produces cutting-edge energy research across our departments in Science, Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities.
• Find out more about undergraduate and postgraduate study in our Department of Anthropology.
• The on-site research will be carried in partnership with India-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and ULAB in Bangladesh.
• The MARLIN STAR project is funded by the Energy Catalyst Programme.