December 2015 Newsletter

Who We Are

The International Network of Offshore Renewable Energy (INORE) is a network of early stage researchers working on topics related to offshore renewable energy (ORE). INORE was created by early stage researchers, for early stage researchers who work in all aspects related to offshore wind, wave, tidal, and other offshore energies. We bring together researchers from around the world to meet, collaborate, and share knowledge, with the aim of furthering research in offshore renewable energy. So, how has INORE brought people together in 2015?

The 2015 European Symposium

The main events for INORE each year are the annual symposia. The first symposia of this year kicked off in May on the Campania Hills of Vico Equense, Italy. Hotel Soggiorno Salesiano hosted approximately 70 INOREans and keynote speakers over six days. While the key focus of the 10^th European Symposium was marine energy in Southern Europe, as always the symposium was an international affair. The internationality of the symposia is something that INORE helps to ensure by awarding travel grants to a lucky few coming from further afield. This year the grants helped enable participants from Argentina to attend the symposium, for one INOREan making it his first ever time flying!

When we weren’t enjoying the perfect view from the hotel terrace over the Bay of Naples and the awesome Mount Vesuvius, we packed a busy schedule. All INOREans had an opportunity to present their research in a series of poster sessions and a number of them had the chance to tell us more about their work during the INOREan talks. Collaborative tasks set by various organisations got everyone working and thinking together to address key problems, present ideas or propose solutions to design challenges. Special aspects of the symposium included various keynote talks, the DTOcean Workshop, a panel discussion on marine energy in the Mediterranean Sea and a screening of the short film ‘Green Generation’. Both the SUN University and Frederico II University in Naples kindly hosted us for a number of talks and activities. After each of these technical visits, we squeezed in some time exploring the region. We were treated to guided tours of Pozzuoli and the Bay of Naples, an afternoon in the gorgeous Vico Equense and of course, some authentic Napolitan pizza. The symposium was a great success, with credit to its organisers, Michele Martini and Marinella Passarella.

The 2015 North American Symposium

The 2nd North American INORE Symposium was held in October at the Friday Harbor Labs in the ‘paradise’ of the San Juan Island, Washington. The University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs campus is tucked back in the woods along the north shore of Friday Harbor. Deer roam freely and sea otters play along the rocky shore of the campus. It truly was an idyllic location for the symposium!
The symposium included three days of planned activities for the 35 attendees. The travel grants again came in handy, subsidising the travel expenses of two participants from Chile and one from Puerto Rico. The schedule included quickfire introductions and the usual poster presentations and INOREan talks. Andrea Copping from PNNL was a great help in organizing a few activities and presented about the non-engineering difficulties of the field of offshore renewable energy. Ryan Nicoll from DSA also gave a workshop on their modelling software ProteusDS, and Kelley Ruel and Carlos Michelen from Sandia National Labs gave a workshop on the modelling software WEC-Sim.  We ended the symposium with a field trip to Lime Kiln Point State Park, where we took in the sun and played Frisbee while watching the porpoises. The symposium organisers, Elizabeth Brasseale and Adam Brown, did a fantastic job!

INORE @ ….

At a number of other industry events, INORE took the opportunity to host workshops and do a little bit of (shameless) self-publicising. In fact, because of our international committee we have been able to represent INORE @ multiple events this year.

In April, around 200 delegates attended the Bilbao Energy Week, Spain. The focus of the INORE @ Bilbao Energy Week workshop was on improving collaboration. A key aspect of the workshop was a presentation by INOREan Adrian De Andres about why the marine energy industry needs collaboration and how INORE can act as an essential engine in driving this collaboration. As an example, one way in which we facilitate collaboration is through offering the OES-BECS Blue Energy Collaborative Scholarships. The scholarships are designed to contribute towards travel expenses and accommodation at the research institutes where the collaborative project will take place (this year’s OES-BECS scholarship applications close 11th December).

In early September, the INORE @ EWTEC workshop gathered about 50 INOREans at the 2015 11th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC) in Nantes, France. The focus of this workshop was on the size of marine renewable energy converters, ‘Does Size Matter in Marine Renewables? Is bigger better?’ This poignant issue and an engaging panel of industry experts evoked an enthusiastic afternoon of discussion on the final day of the conference.

Those who could stay awake or did not have a flight to catch, joined together for a meal in a traditional crêperie that evening, led by Francesc Fabregas (workshop organiser). This, for us, was a perfect way to end a great week in Nantes. As for the answer to the question… there are clear advantages and disadvantages to both smaller, modular type systems and to larger devices. However, one thing that was widely agreed upon was that the leap from lab to ‘full’ scale is often too great and causes costly mistakes. Yet, some developers still seem to take this risk. Is it worth it?

In November, thanks to our inside access at WaveEC (this year’s sponsorship coordinator Boris Teillant is a WaveEC employee), we were able to disseminate information about INORE at the WavEC seminar in Lisbon. The theme of this seminar was, ‘Portugal and France – a driving force on research and innovation for Marine Renewable Energies’. It was fitting, therefore, that INORE got a mention at another event encouraging collaboration.

INORE 2016

Next year will mark ten years of INORE. This, we feel, is something worth celebrating. Once again we plan to take advantage of another big event in the offshore renewable energy calendar by hosting our 10th Anniversary workshop before the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) 2016, which this year is hosted by Renewable UK and Scottish Renewables. This event will take place on the 22^nd February 2016 and will bring INOREans past and present together in Edinburgh, Scotland. While there are still many challenges to address in the offshore renewable energy sector, we hope this event will highlight the achievements that have been made by the industry (and INOREans) over the past decade.

As always we would love to see some new faces at the event, and other events in the coming year, so if you would like to find out how to get involved check out our website and social media outlets!

Thanks….

In summary, we have had another productive and fun year as an organisation. We have continued to grow; we now have over 1600 web members and are registered as an official ‘non-profit organisation’. So, as another year draws to a close and we prepare to celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we would like to take a moment to extend enormous thanks to all those who have made INORE possible; to our symposium sponsors through to our main sponsors, to the many distinguished keynote speakers and panel members who bring their expertise to our events, and to all the enthusiastic INOREans who make INORE INORE.

Your INORE Committee

If you are interested in supporting INORE, please reach out to us at: 

Boris Teillant, INORE – Sponsorships: [email protected]