Dogger Bank Showcase
We invite you to join us for a celebratory event showcasing Dogger Bank’s R&D achievements.
About Dogger Bank
Dogger Bank is the world’s largest wind farm located more than 130km off the Northeast coast of England and will be capable of powering up to 6 million homes annually. The Dogger Bank offshore wind farm is a joint venture partnership between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Vårgrønn (20%).
Agenda
15:00 – Welcome: Introduction from Dr Elisa Collado Fregoso
15:05 – Keynote: The complexities of offshore wind project developments, Professor Peter Childs
15:15 – Presentation of case study report: including key highlights, findings and recommendations: Dogger Bank’s R&D journey and how lessons from existing wind farms can inform future designs for the offshore industry, Kaylen Camacho McCluskey and Dr. Aidan Rhodes
15:35 – Panel Discussion: Boundaries of Innovation – Navigating Risks and Opportunities in offshore wind
Chair: Prof. Peter Childs, Imperial College London
- Dr. Mirabelle Muuls, Co-director of the School of Sustainability, Imperial College London
- Prof James Gilbert (Director Aura CDT, University of Hull): Importance of collaboration and future skills for the offshore wind sector
- Alan Borland (SSE): Benefits of shared learnings and road ahead – how can we share learnings from existing wind farms?
- Lila Vazquez Villamor (Equinor): The case for HVDC and the opportunities/challenges of scaling up to achieve ‘bigger and better’ solutions
- Grant McKay (Hitachi): Does ‘bigger’ mean going further?
16:20 – Q&A, Chair – Dr. Aidan Rhodes, Imperial College London
16:35 – Closing comments, Dr Elisa Collado Fregoso
16:40 – Networking with tea and coffee
17:00 – Close
Speakers
Kaylen Camacho McCluskey is a Research Assistant at the Energy Futures Lab. She recently graduated from a Master’s in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, where her dissertation explored health as a policy driver for energy efficient renovations in owner-occupied households. She also holds a BA in English Literature, with a specialisation in ecocriticism, from the University of Warwick.
Dr Aidan Rhodes is a Research Fellow based at Imperial College London. He is currently Energy Policy Briefing Papers Fellow at the Energy Futures Lab, working on preparing a range of accessible briefing papers on topics of relevance to energy sector policymakers and stakeholders. Previously, he was part of the Energy Strategy Fellowship team for the UK Research Councils, which was tasked with creating a prospectus of future skills, research and training needs for the UK energy sector, as well as carrying out a large-scale research project on comparing the effectiveness of national energy innovation systems across the world. Aidan has also been Knowledge Exchange Associate at the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), where he carried out a wide range of activities aimed at connecting and facilitating UK and international energy research efforts.
Panelists
Alan Borland is a Project Director at SSE Renewables with 15 years’ experience in delivering Wind Farm Construction Projects, with the last 6 years being responsible for the technical execution of the Dogger Bank project as Senior Project Manager and most recently, Turbine Project Director and has been involved in various phases of the project lifecycle including project development, contract negotiation and fabrication & construction management. Previously, he spent a number of years in various technical roles within the nuclear industry. He is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, holds a MEng in Product Design Engineering, MSc in Engineering Project Management and BA in Business Management.
Lila Vazquez Villamor is a Chartered Engineer with six years of experience in the renewable energy industry, primarily in offshore wind development. She currently leads the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission team at the Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm with Equinor. At Dogger Bank, she has also held roles in Construction and Commissioning for the HVDC Systems at the Offshore Platforms, as well as being part of the HVDC Engineering team. Before joining Equinor, she spent three years with SSE Renewables, working across a range of areas including business development, grid connections, technology, and innovation.
Grant McKay is Regional Sales Manager for the Hitachi Energy HVDC business in Northern Europe. In this role Grant leads a team supporting clients and partners in the development of HVDC projects and applications across the region, including large scale offshore wind transmission connections, onshore HVDC network reinforcements and interconnectors. An electrical engineering graduate and Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Grant has over 30 years of experience in the power industry. Since joining Hitachi Energy in 2005, he has worked closely with stakeholders across the transmission, distribution and renewable energy sectors to promote and develop the use of efficient and effective electrical technology solutions.
Dr Mirabelle Muûls is an Associate Professor in Economics at the Imperial College Business School, a Director of the School of Sustainability and the co-Director of the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions. She was a lecturer at the Grantham Institute and the academic director of the MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance. She is also a Research Associate in the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, a Research Fellow at the National Bank of Belgium, and in the International Trade and Regional Economics programme of CEPR. Her current research focuses on the economics of climate change, seeking in particular to understand the impact of climate change policies and climate change on firms’ emissions, energy efficiency, innovation, competitiveness and performance. She is also analysing households’ energy demand, their behavioural response to different incentives and their flexibility, through the analysis of smart meter data and randomised control trials. Her research interests also cover international trade and globalisation. Mirabelle studied economics at the FUSL and UCLouvain in Belgium, and holds an MSc in Politics of the World Economy and a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Professor James Gilbert is a professor of engineering at the University of Hull. In 30 years of research, he has tackled a wide range of challenges with a common theme of measuring, modelling and controlling engineering systems. These include robotics and manufacturing systems, medical rehabilitation and energy harvesting systems ranging from microwatts generated from human movement to megawatts from offshore wind turbines. Recent work focused on speech restoration using articulator movement measurements for people who have had a laryngectomy. Current work is primarily focused on sensing and measurement in offshore renewable energy systems, particularly offshore wind. He is the Research, Development and Innovation lead for Aura, a collaboration between Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Ørsted, University of Sheffield, Durham University and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. He is Hull PI on the £7.6M EPSRC Prosperity Partnership ‘A New Partnership in Offshore Wind’ and the £9M EPSRC Supergen ORE Hub. He leads industry interaction for the EPSRC/NERC funded CDT in Offshore Wind and the Environment and is UoH lead for the Operations and Maintenance Centre of Excellence, a £2M collaboration between UoH and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.
About Energy Futures Lab
Energy Futures Lab is one of seven Global Institutes at Imperial College London. The institute was established to address global energy challenges by identifying and leading new opportunities to serve industry, government and society at large through high quality research, evidence and advocacy for positive change. The institute aims to promote energy innovation and advance systemic solutions for a sustainable energy future by bringing together the science, engineering and policy expertise at Imperial and fostering collaboration with a wide variety of external partners.