Case Studies

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The Bryden Centre

The Bryden Centre was a €9.4 million cross-border, renewable energy research centre funded by the EU under the Interreg VA programme. Led from Queen’s University Belfast, the Bryden Centre covered the Northern Ireland, Western Scotland and the Irish border regions. Bryden Centre research was aimed at harnessing the potential for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland to become leaders in marine renewable energy.

PREDICT

PREDICT addressed knowledge gaps in offshore wind environmental characterisation, by improving the understanding of fish migration patterns and providing a vision for next-generation monitoring techniques.

Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) Phase 1

UHI was a key partner in the SATE project, based in Kirkwall, Orkney. UHI directly inputed into the testing of hydrogen and other low carbon fuels. The Aeronautics and Aircraft Engineering departments also supported the design, certification, and flight-testing of the alternatively fuelled aircraft. UHI-ERI was involved in the socio-economic impacts study, to better understand the implications of green aviation developments.

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ROBINSON

ROBINSON aimed to develop an integrated energy system to help decarbonise industrialised islands. The project developed and deployed an integrated, smart and cost-efficient energy system that optimised the use of local renewable energy sources.

Windswept KTP

Windswept was part of a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project aimed at adopting sustainable energy and waste management technologies for the microbrewery sector. This project ran in partnership with The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) through partners – UHI Moray, Environmental Research Institute (ERI), Institute of Northern Studies (INS) and the North of Scotland KTP Centre. It was funded by Innovate UK.

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Onshore wind turbines.

UHI Energy Legacy Case Studies

  • Blue Growth Farm: Aimed to develop and validate an automated, modular and environmentally friendly multi-functional offshore platform to further aid the expansion of marine aquaculture and the overall development of the Blue Growth Economy.

  • Abbey Ecosse IBioIC: Was a feasibility study involving flexible energy systems (anaerobic digestion of distillery co-products) investigating environmental metrics. The anaerobic digestion plant will be built at Forss Business Park in Northern Scotland. This involved collaborations between Abbey Ecosse, UHI and University of Hull. 

  • INNO - MPP: Investigated the idea of a Multi-Purpose Platform (MPP), integrating (for example) renewable energy devices and aquaculture facilities, to find synergies to share in costs surrounding manufacturing, installation, operation and decommissioning. This could help save money, reduce the overall impact, and maximise socio-economic benefits.

  • V-SCORES: Aimed to develop a comprehensive validation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) techniques for surface current spatial mapping, demonstrated at tidal stream sites.

  • HUGE - Hydrogen Utilization & Green Energy: Aimed to provide communities in the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) area energy and self-sufficiency, especially infrastructure providers, through hydrogen utilisation from excess green energy production.

  • FORTUNE: Obtained, for the first time, systematic, long-term measurements of underwater noise generated by two operational floating offshore wind (FOW) turbines of different designs across a range of environmental conditions.