The promise of renewable energy is huge, from reaching emissions targets to contributing to blue growth. Along with this promise comes the pressing need to understand how energy harnessed from wind, waves and tides will affect these resources, their habitats, and the wildlife within. Inspired by our proximity to many of Scotland’s outstanding wind, wave and tidal energy resources, notably the Pentland Firth – the foremost tidal stream resource in the UK – and the recently announced UK plans for large-scale offshore wind, the team of REE researchers works to better understand how extraction of energy from the environment will impact these environments. Sustainable use of these resources will play a key role in achieving the Scottish Government’s ambitious renewable energy and carbon emission targets. Our philosophy of “research where the resource is” means ERI is ideally situated, yet our research has international reach and impact.

We capitalise on our multi-disciplinary expertise, notably those of engineering and ecology, to address environmental uncertainties and issues underpinning development of the renewable energy sector to support low-carbon and net-zero development. This includes actively seeking and developing effective collaborations and partnerships, within regional, national and international settings.

Our team integrates in-situ measurement, environmental survey, experimental, modelling and remote-sensing approaches. These provide new insights that are relevant not only to renewable energy, but also to ecosystem functioning and anthropogenic impacts more generally within the fields of marine biology, behavioural ecology and oceanography.

As well as developing and disseminating environmental knowledge, we also promote understanding of closely coupled social and economic issues, including the relationship with other key sectors, with a focus on rural and island communities in the context of carbon-neutral islands. We are proud to contribute to the prospects of northern Scotland by integration of the social and economic issues that tie in with our theme. This supports establishing sustainable industries that can have a transformational impact on the prospects of our region, its economy, its people and its communities. We continue to incorporate new environmental understanding into integrated sustainability assessments and models at community, local and regional scales.

While renewable energy constitutes a main area of specialisation, we also recognise that our knowledge base and expertise are relevant to sectors such as nuclear energy, oil and gas, and aquaculture. We continue to explore the interdependencies of adjacent sectors, including leading wider energy knowledge exchange activities across UHI.

For more information, please contact the theme leader Dr Benjamin Williamson (profile) benjamin.williamson@uhi.ac.uk

Research Priorities 

  • Renewable energy and the environment – investigating renewable energy ecological and bio-physical interactions to inform pre- and post-consent monitoring, cumulative impact and strategic environmental assessment. This is underpinned by increased understanding of marine vertebrate ecology using techniques such as telemetry/bio-logging, remote sensing and observation to investigate ecosystem effects, understanding of mechanisms, predator-prey interactions and environmental drivers of behaviour and biodiversity.

  • Oceanographic and hydrodynamic understanding – in-situ, remote-sensing and modelling approaches across scales (temporally and spatially) to inform renewable energy resource measurement, knowledge of metocean conditions, flow-structure interactions (e.g., wakes) and ecological drivers. This includes wave-current interactions, and advanced understanding of turbulent flow, with implications for renewable energy device design, placement and operation.

  • Innovative sensors, platforms and measurement techniques – development and application of novel cross-cutting approaches and technologies to gain new environmental insights including drones, hydroacoustics, sensor fusion, computer vision, machine learning and techniques for exploiting large datasets. Innovative engineering solutions underpin our environmental science priorities and assist forthcoming science requirements by enabling cutting-edge environmental research.

  • Energy systems, including energy vectors, storage and smart / micro grids – supporting optimal use of intermittent renewables into grid and off-grid applications, including remote and island communities, and developing countries, for a socially and economically sustainable energy transition, including aspects of social licence and community engagement.