The Ocean Energy Special Interest Group (SIG) serves as a hub at the University of Southampton for matters related to the role of seas and oceans in decarbonizing the economy. It also helps achieve net-zero goals worldwide.

Research areas

Our topics of interest are centred around technological, environmental, societal, financial, and policy challenges related to:

• harvesting of renewable energies (eg offshore wind, wave, freestream tidal energy, tidal barrages and floating solar systems)
• storage and transformation of offshore energy (eg energy islands, H2 creation)
• sustainable decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructures

Oceans are pivotal in the world strategy to meet the net-zero objectives, by providing abundant and clean sources of renewable energy. However, the full exploitation of this energy resource faces many challenges of diverse nature. These include the harsh offshore environment, sharing the ocean with many stakeholders, and evolving policy and regulations. Most importantly, it is essential to avoid mistakes of the past and wild industrialisation of our seas and oceans.

Vision and aims

Our vision is to bring together people and skills from across the university and many fields of research to develop transdisciplinary approaches for sustainable ocean energy exploitation. We do this through:

• fostering research collaboration between faculties and fields of research
• fostering collaboration with non-academic stakeholders and serving as a contact point for ocean energy matters
• raising awareness of ocean energy challenges and showcasing how the University of Southampton is working to address these challenges through research, knowledge exchange and other means

Activities

Our events and opportunities are designed in line with the goals we aim to achieve. They include a combination of internal and external activities, such as:

• themed workshops or lectures bringing together academic and non-academic partners
• sandpit activities to lay the foundations of interdisciplinary grant application or paper writing
• invited lectures on case studies from industry
• development of educational material or media briefings

To find out more about the Ocean Energy Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champions Dr Luke Myers, Dr Amber Jones, and Dr Wassim Dbouk.

Join the SMMI Community to sign up to this group, and any others of interest to you.