News

Catz Fellow Key Partner in ORE Outlook 2040

A new report from the UK’s leading offshore renewable energy (ORE) experts, including Professor Byron Byrne, Fellow and Finance Bursar of St Catherine’s, calls for urgent action to help the UK meet its Net Zero targets.

ORE Outlook 2040 from the Supergen ORE Hub, which is led from Plymouth by a consortium of ten universities, says the development of energy generation from the sea must be accelerated significantly over the next 16 years.

Profs Byron Byrne, St Catherine’s College, and Richard Willden, St Edmund Hall, Co-Investigators of the Supergen ORE Impact Hub at Oxford University, commented that “this important piece of work outlines the scale of the challenge for the UK and society more generally in tackling climate change and moving towards a net zero future.”

Hub Director, The University of Plymouth’s Professor Deborah Greaves OBE says:

“The UK has abundant offshore wind, wave and tidal energy resources and leads globally in ORE technology, but faster, more focused action is required to ensure we meet Net Zero 2050 targets. Research and innovation is critical—accelerating the optimisation of existing technologies, reducing design uncertainty, and discovering new ways to plan and construct these devices.

“Business as usual is not enough; radical changes are required to ensure we have the innovation needed to upscale the offshore renewable energy sector and to develop the skilled workforce required to meet the needs of the future renewable energy sector.”

Aimed at researchers, industry, policymakers, and the public, the report summarises current climate change impacts and the UK’s progress to date on reducing carbon emissions.

It shows the ORE deployment pathways needed to reach Net Zero via a just, sustainable and secure energy transition by 2050 using the year 2040 as a key milestone.

The Supergen ORE Hub is led by the University of Plymouth and includes Co-Directors from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Exeter, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Southampton, Strathclyde, and Warwick.

It was created by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to deliver strategic and coordinated research on Sustainable Power Generation and supply.

The full report can be read here. The College congratulates Professor Byrne on his involvement in such an important project.