Economic and environmental assessment of energy systems integration for increased utilisation and reduced curtailment of offshore wind farms

This Research Project is part of the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Resilience and Sustainability’s Energy Economics Cluster.

The CDT is a partnership between Hull, Durham, Loughborough and Sheffield universities, along with over 40 industry partners. We will welcome over 65 funded doctoral researchers between 2024 and 2028. Join us to tackle some of the biggest research challenges, in a supportive environment where you can grow your own career while you help grow the offshore wind industry.

Environmental concerns, growing populations and a constrained fossil-manufactured energy supply present major challenges for society and there is a real need to develop forms of resilient energy systems that are less dependent on finite energy sources. Renewable energy technologies (RES) along with energy efficiency can provide sustainable solutions for effective energy procurement. The implementation of energy technologies can provide multiple benefits to local and national level such as energy security, and green energy supply. It is of paramount importance to meet national and international emission mitigation targets and in order to accomplish this further integration of RES such as offshore wind energy is required.

Due to the intermittent nature of wind energy and system constraints, the UK curtails significant amounts of wind energy, and in the long-term an electricity network based on a high penetration of intermittent renewable sources will require energy components to absorb excess energy during periods of high supply, and (in the case of storage) return it as required (Cárdenas et al., 2021). From January 2021 to April 2023, £1.5 billion has been spent to curtail more than 6.5 TWh of wind power resulting in 2.5 million tonnes of emissions. In 2022, 4% of GB wind generation was wasted due to wind congestion – 3.4TWh – equivalent to the yearly consumption of 1 million British households (Carbon Tracker Initiative, 2023). Further, with gas price volatility at a record high, gas-fired plants were paid nearly £600 million to compensate for curtailed wind power, increasing UK emissions by 1.3 million tonnes (LCP, 2022).

It is then obvious that the exploitation of wind curtailed energy will have multiple benefits including both economic and environmental as well as will assist the establishment of a robust wind energy sector that will create confidence for further investments and expansion.

To this end, the proposed PhD will deal with the exploration and suggestion of extended energy systems that can increase utilisation of energy from wind farms through the exploitation of curtailed wind energy, or to explore scenarios where lack of grid connection capacity might be abated through local or regional energy systems integration. In particular, the project will design and optimise integrated energy systems that include energy storage (Liu et al., 2021), cooling and heating options, H2 or other fuel production (Baldi et al., 2022) and CCUS. Exhaustive process and systems modelling will be utilised to perform thermodynamic assessment and multi-objective optimisations. Techno-economic and lifecycle assessment (TEA and LCA) will be utilised to estimate cost benefits and estimate emission reduction opportunities.

The aim of the project is to produce and appraise high-level designs of resilient energy systems to combat existing costly challenges related to wind energy and develop solutions that will assist in meeting net-zero targets. At the end of the project, a robust database of energy models accompanied with easy-to-interpret key performance indicators (KPIs) will be available that will provide meaningful and efficient technical information on ways to utilise curtail energy and will inform policy/decision makers and other stakeholders about economic and environmental benefits on local and national scale.

Training and Skills

The student will be encouraged to develop their skills in process modelling & process economics and lifecycle assessment through taught modules at the University of Hull as well as more informal training in software e.g. MATLAB/Simulink, Aspen Plus. Students will attend OpenLCA software delivered by GreenDelta. Aside from an academic career, the project could lead to a career as a sustainability/low carbon/net zero specialist/analyst, or LCA practitioner in either a consultancy or in-house role in a variety of industries (energy, chemical, food, agriculture, waste, water etc.) as well as civil service/government roles such as policy development or planning.

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme for the new student intake, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

Entry requirements

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, with an interest in process modelling and optimisation, we would like to hear from you.

If your first language is not English, or you require a Student Visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill. Please contact auracdt@hull.ac.uk for further guidance or questions.

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