Marine South East wins £50k funding for energy resource project
Marine South East has recently won a bid to run a Knowledge Network exploring the exploitation and use of marine energy resources (MEREX).
The inclusion of maritime emissions within proposals to the Copenhagen climate conference will have a dramatic impact on the design and operation of ships and ports. The commercial incentive to reduce diesel and bunker fuel use will drive major changes in the world fleet over the next generation. In particular, non-fossil based fuels will become very attractive.
In parallel, increasing costs of waste processing and disposal (e.g. further increases in landfill tax) will increase the incentive to generate waste-derived fuels for ships. Ports have large waste streams, and there is an opportunity to use these as resources for generating power and/or alternative fuels for use by the port. A significant upturn in interest in novel waste treatments (e.g. autoclaving and gasification/pyrolysis) has been observed.
The SE region contains a wide range of companies having an interest in these potential market applications (either as users or solution developers), and also a variety of knowledge-base organisations in disciplines such as renewable energy research, waste processing, design of ships and propulsion systems etc.
The MEREX network will focus on four types of activity offering key advantages to SE businesses and knowledge base partners, activities will include:
- Bringing together evidence of the market opportunities for business, considering a number of scenarios addressing carbon reduction policies, renewable fuel subsidies and commercial pressure for fuel cost saving.
- Workshops involving businesses and science base to promote understanding of available knowledge base & identify capability gaps where advances are needed.
- Explore with businesses and other stakeholders (e.g. Research & Technology partners, financing bodies) selected business models able to support market growth in alternative fuel use, and define key innovation priorities to be addressed in collaborative RTD
- Disseminate plans, progress and achievements of the network, and hold targeted events to expand the participation in the network, especially from parallel initiatives including Knowledge Transfer Networks, (KTNs) and European programmes such as Networks of Excellence.
The project is being run in partnership with Southampton University, Southampton Solent University, the Crown Estate, the Institute for Sustainability, Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, Thames Gateway Partnership, Veolia, B9, Ovendens and Ricardo
If you would like to find out more or would like to get involved email simon@marinesoutheast.co.uk
Send this story to a colleague
