Salford’s The Lowry hosts talks on cheaper offshore energy

Picture credit: Viktor Kayed

Industrial stakeholders and professors of engineering, robotics and energy have gathered at the Lowry to discuss how the future of offshore renewable energy might look like.

Home Offshore, a UoM project aimed at making offshore wind farm servicing more secure, showcased their latest work in the offshore energy sector.

Dr Mike Barnes, principal investigator in Home Offshore, demonstrated alongside colleagues how technology might be employed in the future.

On now – Professor Mike Barnes, University of Manchester presenting on HOME Offshore project! #HVDC @UoMSciEng @OfficialUoM pic.twitter.com/KWCRxcZdNe

— The National HVDC Centre (@HVDC_CENTRE_GB) June 27, 2019

During the workshop guests had the chance to use virtual reality and mini drones.

In doing so, visitors experienced thoroughly the role of robots in the industry.

Offshore wind energy is one of the most-used green energies worldwide.

The UK currently holds the biggest offshore wind market.

Recently offshore wind market prices have drastically dropped and future investments have poured in.

According to Dr Barnes, offshore energy is soon going to become a market rival of fossil fuel due to price shocks.

“Offshore energy is going to be widely used for powering the UK. Prices have come down a lot. It’s one of the cheapest sources of energy going.”

“What we’re trying to do is develop the technology so it’s a safe, reliable, cost effective means of powering the country.”

In addition to the closed-space demonstrations, Home Offshore alongside sister projects RAIN and MIMREE showed how autonomous systems might behave in real-life environment.

The audience witnessed how a drone and a submersible worked as a team to try and fix two mini turbines floating on water.

Outreach manager Helen Bayram from RAIN shared some more insights on the demonstration.

The UK is the global leader in offshore wind energy production with 33 offshore wind farms installed in total.

Other projects worth billions are also under development to support offshore energy in becoming mainstream.