Exeter Engineering student wins top prize for wave energy research

Anthony Gray, who is due to complete his EngD in Engineering with the Industrial Doctorate Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE) in which Exeter is a key partner, impressed the judges at the International Conference on Ocean Energy in Edinburgh with his poster on the operations and maintenance (O&M) of wave energy devices.

IDCORE is a partnership of the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Exeter, the Scottish Association for Marine Science and the research and engineering consultancy HR Wallingford. It trains world-class industrially focused research engineers who will, with the help of sponsoring companies, accelerate the deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal-current technologies in order to meet the UK's ambitious offshore renewable energy targets.

Anthony’s research project addresses the issue of uncertainty surrounding lifetime costs of wave energy arrays using an O&M simulation tool and a case study at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney in Scotland. He spent the first 18 months of the project based at Pelamis Wave Power, a world leader in wave energy technology, modelling the operations and maintenance strategy of wave energy arrays. His research encompasses a wide range of activities such as component reliability studies and weather window analysis.

Anthony said: “I am delighted to win this prize. I was searching for potential PhDs when I came across the IDCORE programme. What immediately caught my attention was that the Engineering doctorate allows you to carry out significant research in the industry, whilst gaining vital experience of working in an office environment, thus increasing your employability. The way that an EngD aims to help you become an engineering professional with a wide set of skills was also a major attraction for me.”

Lars Johanning, Professor of Ocean Technology, who is based in Renewable Energy at the University’s Penryn campus, and who is supervising Anthony’s EngD, said: “Anthony’s is a very important project that will have direct impact on the way wave technology is developed in future. It is gratifying to see such valuable work coming out of IDCORE, in which the University of Exeter is proud to play an integral part.”