Professor Deborah Greaves OBE FREng, Professor in Ocean Engineering and Director of the Supergen ORE Hub.
My work has been focused on championing the potential of ocean energy for a future that once seemed distant; that future is fast approaching, and our priorities are becoming increasingly urgent. 2025 and each remaining year in this decade will be crucial in setting ourselves on the best trajectory towards a just energy transition and mitigating climate breakdown. The Supergen ORE Hub is committed to providing leadership for academic research in offshore renewable energy. As we plan the year ahead, we renew our focus on advancing innovative, game-changing research that addresses the core challenges facing the offshore renewable energy sector and unlocking accelerated development.
The transition to Net Zero requires leveraging targeted research, and innovative thinking to enhance efficiency and reduce risks across the offshore renewable energy sector. The sector is already stretched and yet needs to expand rapidly. This challenge demands input from a diverse array of experts, each with a breadth of knowledge, skills, and perspectives.
Building a Cohort of Future Leaders
The success of the sector lies in its people. The collaboration and innovation of offshore renewable professionals have been critical in establishing the sector’s success to date. We need a growing workforce of enthusiastic, driven people with a range of specialist skills to realise the sector’s potential within the pressing timeframe. Professionals who are not only experts in their fields but are connected with practices and insight from other sectors, braced with the breadth of knowledge necessary to tackle the complexity of the offshore renewable energy sector.
In my role as a researcher and educator, I have always been committed to breaking down the barriers between sectors. Offshore renewable energy is an inherently interdisciplinary field, where progress requires the fusion of diverse expertise: from engineering and environmental science to economics and policy, and beyond. And it’s with this collaborative spirit in mind that we devise all of our Supergen ORE Hub activities and in particular, our series of Masterclasses. The topics in the series enable participants to develop multidisciplinary knowledge and gain insight into areas that they may not have encountered in their work to date. I see the Masterclasses as a valuable opportunity to move beyond the silos that would otherwise hold us back, to gain a deeper understanding of the broader context of the challenges in offshore renewable energy. They also provide a chance to build a strong cohort, which is crucial for finding solutions and advancing individual careers.
Looking Ahead
I urge all offshore renewable energy professionals—whether early career researchers or seasoned industry veterans—to join these expert-led sessions. These 1 or 2-day Masterclasses address the sector’s most pressing issues, offering an opportunity to refine and expand essential skills and gain a well-rounded understanding of the latest research in offshore renewable energy. They offer insights from across the offshore renewable energy sector that support a knowledgeable, forward-thinking community.
I look forward to welcoming you to our upcoming Masterclass sessions and working alongside you to shape the future of this exciting and rapidly evolving industry.
Join us and don’t miss insights from different disciplines – see the details of each Masterclass.
Masterclass Topics
Advanced Experimental Fluid Mechanics for Offshore Renewable Energy
A unique opportunity to explore the world-class COAST Laboratory, gaining hands-on experience and expert insights into experimental techniques, scaling, and design for testing offshore renewable energy systems. Read more.
Economic and Policy Analysis for Offshore Renewables.
Gain a comprehensive understanding of the economic and policy drivers shaping the offshore renewable energy sector. Read more.
Environmental Contours & Extreme Value Analysis.
Master the tools and techniques of extreme value analysis in a range of applications in offshore renewable energy. Read more.
Flow Modelling for Offshore Wind Turbine Loading & Farm Yield
Advanced techniques for modelling offshore wind turbine flow conditions, focusing on fluid mechanics-based models and providing hands-on experience with cutting-edge tools for analysing wind turbine interactions, wakes, and unperturbed flow conditions. Read more.
Offshore Geotechnics.
Explore geotechnical engineering applied to offshore renewable energy problems through interactive demonstrations and the observation of a live-scale model experiment on a geotechnical centrifuge. Read more.
Offshore Structural Integrity.
Dive into the design philosophies and methodologies critical for ensuring the structural integrity of offshore renewable energy installations, covering materials and design considerations. Read more.
Optimising Offshore Renewable Energy Array Design and Locations for Safety, Fisheries Colocation and Environmental Aspects.
Learn to navigate the complexities of offshore wind farm design via interactive visualisation tools in the cutting-edge Marine Simulator using real world case studies, such as manoeuvring vessels around wind farms, mooring line inspections and fishing operations within wind farm constraints. Read more.
Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop Experiments for Grid Integration of Offshore Renewable Energy Systems
Interactive experience with real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing, equipping participants with valuable insights into designing, modelling, and executing real-time simulations for grid integration of renewable energy. Read more.
Sensing for Offshore Renewable Energy Structures
Hands-on experience with cutting-edge fibre optic sensing systems and advanced signal processing techniques for monitoring offshore renewable energy systems, including turbine blades and cables. Read more.
Virtual Prototyping of Offshore Renewable Energy Technologies.
Using the state of the art Marine Simulator, explore full-scale virtual prototyping and simulation of offshore renewable energy technologies under the influence of varying climatic and physical conditions. Read more.
See the details of each Masterclass.
